Open MS Word 2007 .docx documents in Ubuntu Linux!

I had an instructor upload a document in the new Microsoft Word 2007 .docx format and was in a panic to open it until I found this import filter for OpenOffice.org. A quick web search produced this page from mypapit. To make the magic work, you simply download this file to your desktop.

1. Double-click the odf_filter.tar.bz2 on your desktop, then click Extract.
2. This will place the files in a folder titled “files” on your desktop.
3. Click Applications, then Accessories, then Terminal.
4. In the terminal, type the following commands:
5. cd Desktop/
6. cd files/
7. sudo cp OdfConverter /usr/lib/openoffice/program/
   ***** The next line in the included instructions is wrong, so be sure to add the /(slash) before usr.
8. sudo cp MOOXFilter_cpp.xcu /usr/lib/openoffice/share/registry/modules/org/openoffice/
   TypeDetection/Filter/
9. sudo cp MOOXTypeDetection.xcu /usr/lib/openoffice/share/registry/modules/org/openoffice/TypeDetection/Types/
10. Click Applications > Office > OpenOffice Word Processor.
11. Click open and select Microsoft Word 2007 document as the file type.
12. Realize this could be avoided if Microsoft would just adhere to the open document format (ODF) accepted by the ISO as the standard for document formats. Check out my previous blog about this
13. Realize as well that if this is an archival document – someone in the future may NOT be able to access it because it is in a proprietary format (claiming to be open) like the one used in Microsoft Office 2007.

Here’s an interesting piece from eWeek about MS Office Alternatives:

Believe it or not, there are many choices available to IT managers considering switching from Microsoft Office to an alternative office productivity suite. A simple Google search will prove just how many competing suites are in the marketplace. StarOffice 8, OpenOffice.org, ThinkFree Office, Corel WordPerfect Office X3, NeoOffice, Google Docs and Spreadsheets, and Apple’s iWork are a handful of options available.

LCG