[Solved] Prevent warning when opening corrupted document

[stebobibo]

These are the popups I'm refering to:

open office batch rename corrupt prompt.jpg (32.49 KiB) Viewed 1131 times

open office batch rename corrupt prompt2.jpg (12.63 KiB) Viewed 1131 times

They will both show up in order. I have to press No on the first prompt, or it will fail and not open. Then they will both show up another time. So I have to go through 4 popups in total. At least it only happens the first time I open a document , but it's still a huge pain. I have over 50 documents it thinks are corrupt.

The reason it thinks this is because I batch renamed them to .odt files (previously .doxc). I had to do this because, as you might know, you can't save over a .doxc directly, you can only "save as" a new file. Which is a real pain in the butt and why I chose to batch rename the extensions.

Anyways, if you know any solution for disabling the popups, that would be a huge help! Or anything that helps the situation is much appreciated. Thanks!

[FJCC]

Manually changing extensions is not the way to go. That changes nothing within the document and can cause problems like the one you are seeing. If you want to convert many documents, try the document converter found in the menu File -> Wizards -> Document Converter. Choose to convert Word documents and pick the folder where the document are and another folder where you want the resulting documents stored. You should not delete the original documents in case there are problems with any of the conversions.

[stebobibo]

Thanks, FJCC. I was unaware of that option. That does convert them without giving me the popups. However, the files are in a bad format . Did I have to import a template during the wizard to avoid this (there was an option for this, but I was unsure what it meant)? I do prefer the template I usually have, which is just with margins changed and paragraph spacing changed. I had made this the "defaut". But with this conversion, the files have different margin. Do you know how to change this? They do have the paragraph spacing of my default though, which puzzles me.

I'll mark yours as answer after waiting a bit to see if anyone has a better solution.

[robleyd]

Templates on your installation only apply to documents created from them. The MS Word files will open with whatever settings they were created with.

See Associating a document with a different template for a possible solution.

[Hagar Delest]

Note that LibreOffice can save in .docx. However, the point of using AOO/LO is to use an open format like ODF. OOXML (.docx) still heavily relies on proprietary parts of the MS Office formats.

[stebobibo]

Templates on your installation only apply to documents created from them. The MS Word files will open with whatever settings they were created with.

See Associating a document with a different template for a possible solution.

Oh, I did not know that about templates. Thanks for sharing. I did use method #2 from that link you shared (it had option for batch reformat and #1 didn't). It got the job done, albeit with a lot of headache because the extension is bugged. The way it's bugged is that if any of the files you want to reformat have a # (hastag) in the name, the whole batch will not process. It took a lot of time for me to figure out why it wasn't working.
Thanks again for sharing that info and solution!

[LastUnicorn]

If you are working with .docx files a lot then you would be better off switching from OpenOffice to LibreOffice. There are several good reasons for doing so anyway, some of which are given here: [Tutorial] Considering a Switch from OpenOffice to LibreOffice? Some Useful Information

[stebobibo]

If you are working with .docx files a lot then you would be better off switching from OpenOffice to LibreOffice. There are several good reasons for doing so anyway, some of which are given here: [Tutorial] Considering a Switch from OpenOffice to LibreOffice? Some Useful Information

That's funny I always thought OO and Libre were the same things, just one was an old name or something. I checked Libre's about page and it says they are based off openoffice. Maybe that's what caused my mind to form that illusion. Anyways, thanks for that tip. I will check out the link when I have the time.

[Hagar Delest]

I will check out the link when I have the time.

Better sooner than later. You will see that since LO has much more features and better compatibility with MS Office format, it may spare you a significant amount of time.

[stebobibo]

I will check out the link when I have the time.

Better sooner than later. You will see that since LO has much more features and better compatibility with MS Office format, it may spare you a significant amount of time.

Okay, thanks!

[jaragon]

The reason it thinks this is because I batch renamed them to .odt files (previously .doxc). I had to do this because, as you might know, you can't save over a .doxc directly, you can only "save as" a new file. Which is a real pain in the butt and why I chose to batch rename the extensions.

Assuming that ".doxc" is a typo and you meant '.docx, yes, you can save over a .docx file directly. I do it all the time, and I just did it two minutes ago. There's nothing wrong with switching to LibreOffice Writer and .odt format; it's what I mostly use. But if there's some reason you've been working in Word .docx format, you don't have to switch. If you are unable to save directly over a .docx file, you have some other problem that you need to troubleshoot. You don't have to "Save As."

[Hagar Delest]

yes, you can save over a .docx file directly. I do it all the time, and I just did it two minutes ago.

True with LO, not with AOO, which is what stebobibo is using.

There's nothing wrong with switching to LibreOffice Writer and .odt format; it's what I mostly use.

As said, since the .docx format used by MS Office is not fully documented and since the features are different (no page style in MS Office for example), then you may face glitches because at each open/save operation, LO will have to import/export in an external format. If you need to work with .docx for a living, then better buy MS Office.
The .docx flavor that has been standardized is a poorer version that is not the default format used by MS Office.

[MrProgrammer]

a .doxc

The file format is DOCX, not DOXC.

The reason it thinks this is because I batch renamed them to .odt files (previously .doxc). I had to do this because, as you might know, you can't save over a .doxc directly, you can only "save as" a new file.

I want to make this clear right away. OpenOffice is not capable of saving in DOCX format! The programming required to do that does not exist in OpenOffice. You can try all the tricks you want, but OpenOffice will never create files in DOCX format because it can't. LibreOffice can save in that format. OpenOffice cannot. If you need to save in DOCX format you must use LIbreOffice.

OpenOffice is designed for ODT (Open Document Text) format files. When it writes an ODT file, it creates the content of the file in a specific way. OpenOffice can read (but not write) documents in the foreign DOCX format. The content of DOCX documents is completely different from the content of an ODT document.

Now let me explain what you did. You renamed the DOCX document and gave it the ODT extension. This was very bad! The change to the name of the file was all that happened. The content of the document stayed in DOCX format. So now you have a file which claims (via its extension) to have ODT content, even though it actually contains DOCX content. When you tell Writer to read the mangled file it is confused. It is expecting the file to contain data as it would be structured for an ODT document. Writer can't understand the content it finds because it's in DOCX format. So OpenOffice rightly tells you that the ODT document is corrupt. The warning message from opening a mangled file is appropriate and can't be disabled.

You should never change file extensions unless you fully understand what will happen, and based on your actions it is clear that you do not understand that. All operating systems have a setting, usually the default setting, to hide filename extensions. You should enable that option to prevent trouble like you created for yourself.

Yes, you can save over a .docx file directly.

Note that jaragon is using LibreOffice. OpenOffice cannot create documents in that format.

But if there's some reason you've been working in Word .docx format, you don't have to switch.

I say: good luck with that. Internally, LibreOffice (and OpenOffice) always works with ODT content. When you open a DOCX document, LibreOffice has to translate that content to ODT content. Then when you save to a DOCX document, LibreOffice has to translate ODT content back to DOCX content. The two contents are structured differently. Some DOCX content has no exact equivalent in ODT. Some of the ODT content has no exact equivalent in DOCX. The basics are more-or-less the same, but more advanced features or formatting may be difficult to translate. LibreOffice does the best it can. But making repeated translations from/to DOCX is just asking for trouble. If you need to work reliably with documents in DOCX format, MS Office is the one and only product for you because it is designed to support that content directly, without translation.