Will styles transfer from AOO to Word seamlessly?

[thesoufflegirl]

Thank you in advance for your patience with a novice.

I am doing a large editing job and this phase involves using styles to "tag" text with a description that will be used when a typographer transfers the project from Word to InDesign. The styles themselves aren't very exciting (example: size 11, justified), but the NAME of the style is very important, as it contains info that cannot be communicated to the typographer in any other way (example: H4 Emphasis Leading 13.2 Tracking 100).

If I am creating style names such as these in AOO and my boss is working in Word, will he be able to see my style names when he opens the document? (I am saving it as a .docx.)

Sorry if this question is very obvious, but I need to put in 10 hours or so before I can test it, and, if I have to go buy Word, I want to do it now and not in 10 hours!

[John_Ha]

Welcome to the forum.

Most of what you do in Writer will transfer OK to and from Word and thousands of people do so ...

... but it is unlikely that everything will work, and the more complex the thing you are doing, the more likely you will run into problems. Ordinary text and headings and images and tables and things like that are fine - it is details like colours, bullet shapes, recording/accepting changes, macros etc that are likely to cause problems. The problem is that the MS Word .doc file cannot store some of the things Writer does - that is why you get an error message when you save as a .doc file. Make certain you have identical fonts installed on both PCs.

If you do not get this error message, switch it back on with Tools > Options > LoadSave > General ...

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Note that Writer can read a .docx file but Writer cannot save as a .docx file.

You should always do all your work, and save all your work, as .odt files. Just create a copy as a .doc file if you are forced to do so.

All versions of Word after 2007 can read and write .odt files - why not use .odt files to transfer your work with your boss?

Writer does not recognise MS Word Textboxes, or their contents, so if they are used in MS Word, Writer will not recognise them. LibreOffice can both read and write MS Word .docx files and does use MS Word Textboxes - you may find it gives better, but still not guaranteed to be 100%, compatibility.

Your best bet is to try it with a simple test example and see if it is OK.

If you must have 100% guaranteed compatibility you have only one option - buy the identical version of MS Word that your boss uses.

[thesoufflegirl]

That was REALLY helpful - thanks!

I will save as .odt and encourage him to open it in that way.

[Mary1308]

I'm sorry, but how I can open .odt?

[RoryOF]

If you just wish to open an .odt file for editing, double click on it. If there is an application on your computer which knows that it should edit the file, it will open it. Otherwise Use OpenOffice or Word 20007(or later) and /File /Open and navigate to the directory containing the file, select it, and press Open.

If you wish to get into the internals of the ,odt file make a copy of the file at system level (just in case anything goes wrong), then rename that to type zip and use an archive manager to open it - a double click on the .zip file may do this automatically.

If you are in doubt about thus, don't do it!

[John_Ha]

I'm sorry, but how I can open .odt?

If you have set up Writer as the default application for .odt files, then double click the file. (Start > Control Panel > Default Programs...)

If you have not set it up, or something has changed it, then File > Open..., and navigate to the file always works.