[Solved] Support for xlsm? -> No

[bstott]

why does open office NOT support these files?

[RusselB]

Welcome to the Forums.
OpenOffice doesn't support .xlsm files, due to the fact that they are macro-enabled and Microsoft's macro language is not the same as the macro language (actually languages, since there's more than one) that OpenOffice does support.

If you need to use a macro-enabled .xls file, then OpenOffice is not for you. I don't have any .xlsm files to test with, so LibreOffice might work, since there are reports of LibreOffice having a better compatibility with Microsoft Office.
If you try LibreOffice and you still can't use the .xlsm files, then, to my knowledge, using a version of Microsoft Office is your only option.

[bstott]

So much for 'open' office. The reply does not answer the question WHY.

Open office deleted...

[RoryOF]

OpenOffice does not claim, and has never claimed, to be a clone of MS Office. One can download it free; if it doesn't suit you, don't use it.

[RusselB]

The answer to why is given in my reply.. but to make it simpler, the reason why is due to an incompatibility between macro languages.

[bstott]

I'm not ~@ I cannot anyway as it can not deal with macro's, Libra Office however does!
Byeee...

[FJCC]

I would be very cautious about accepting that a program can take code from another program and translate it reliably. The simpler the code, the more likely that is to be true. If your macros do critical calculations, where an error would have serious consequences, I would check the identity of the results very carefully. Failure to throw an error does not mean everything worked the same.

[Zizi64]

Libra Office

The name is LibreOffice.

Yes, the LibreOffice can run some xlsm macros, but not all of them.
You must rewrite your excel VBA macros based on the StarBasic (or an another supported programming language) and the API of the LibreOffice. API : Application Programming Interface.

[David Van Camp]

So, that begs the question: Why does Open Office want to on install by default link all *.xlsm files to Open Office (or even offer it as an option) if it cannot read them? This is an error that needs to be fixed IMHO. I just sat here waiting for a ridiculous amount of time, and then closing and trying again for no purpose whatsoever There wasn't even any error mes

[Hagar Delest]

AOO can read the .xslm files, it just cannot execute them (same for LO by the way).
It allows users to open such files and redo the code (and then save in ODF of course).

[David Van Camp]

Hmm, well, I waited for something like an hour and the progress bar was waaaay to the left before I cancled. Now, I guess this file actually HAS a macro (2 or 3, small), since it's a copy/modify of another file (but doesn't use them), but, is conditional formatting also considered 'macros'? Because that's really all it uses. A lot of them. Are those not supported also? And, would converting to XLS solve the issue?

[Hagar Delest]

Conditional formatting is not considered as macro.
Some MS Office files are indeed very difficult to load in AOO (don't know if LO is better for that but it's worth a try, at least with a portable version, just to check without installing anything).

If you use AOO or LO, then stick to the ODF file format. If you need to work in MS Office file format, then stick to MS Office. The MS Office file formats were poorly documented for vendor lock-in policy. Thus, any import/export in AOO/LO may cause glitches.
.xls is deprecated now.