MS Office 2013, a question

[Someone-Else]

Some one I know needs to send a 3rd party some information in "word" format.

I don't have office 2013, so I can't directly help, so I thought I would ask here.

What does MS Office 2013 save "word" documents as? (I think it used to be .doc)

The idea is my friend uses Open Office (same as me) and this has several options to save things as, but the 3rd party does not want a bunch of, well try this one, now try this one, to see which format works, so if I know what office 2013 can read, it can be saved, then sent in that format.
OR is it a case of the 3rd party needs the "comparability software" to read older versions of "word"

[joinerjohn]

I think the default setting for MS Office 2013 is now .docx (but don't quote me on that)

[DIY_Johnny]

i use word 2013, yes you can save as many different types

Word 2003 and before its .doc, after 2003 (i.e. 2007 onwards) its .docx as default. The 'x' extension means xml based and thus more portable.

Open office is generally very good at reading old versions of word but some things like background water-prints, macros etc can get a little mixed up

[Someone-Else]

Thanks for the info.

Just as a matter of interest its the other way round I wanted to know about

Some one I know needs to send a 3rd party some information in "word" format..............

The idea is my friend uses Open Office (same as me) and this has several options to save things as, so if I know what office 2013 can read, it can be saved, then sent in that format.

The only "problem" is that open office can not save as .docx

Word may be able to read other formats, but all that is wanted is "just to send and go" the 3rd party can not "faf about" changing settings, damn Microsoft.

[gas4you]

I've only got word 2010, but on the rare occasion I have received older documents, it always offers to convert them to the new standard, but warns all features may not be compatible.

Maybe 2013 will do this as well?

[DIY_Johnny]

ok I created and saved a few documents using Libre office, which is very similar to Open office (just another derivative of open office)

In open office the files save as .odt as default although I see I have the option to save as .doc, .docx etc

Anyway in Word 2013 every type I open (odt, xml, etc) opens just fine without any complaints or dialog boxes asking me if I wanted to convert to a .docx. I also used fonts native to Open Office and they all imported to Word 2013 just fine

[Someone-Else]

Thanks DIY_Johnny, that was interesting.
Have you got anything else installed for office / word? Its just that several times my associate has sent stuff to a 3rd party in various "save as options" and the 3rd party can not open them, but i thought i read about a "compatibility" piece of software for MS office, and I am wondering have you got that?

[BillyGoat]

Damn Microsoft? Yeah....they should put more thought into making it easier for people who use FOSS alternatives and really put some cash into testing that it works....

Out of interest, I created a new Word document in Word 2013, with pictures, etc and saved it as the native file format - Docx.

I opened the .docx file in Open Office (3.4.1 for completeness) and it opened without any problems - all formatting, etc in tact.

I made some changes and clicked save and the 'Save As' dialog came up - Open Office doesn't support that file format (as it's not an open standard, I'd guess) and defaulted to ODT.

Fair emuff, so I kept the default (knowing the DOC option would have been better) and saved it as a NEW file - test.odt

Went back to Word 2013 and click file open (without changing filters of any kind) and the ODT file was present and opened without any problems.

When I'd finished in Word 2013 with the ODT file, I made some changes and clicked SAVE and I got the warning about some missing features, etc - click OK.

Opened the ODT back in Open office - all fine, no problems.

If you wanted to make it easy on yourself, you could always change the properties in OO by going tools > options > Load/Save > General and change the 'Always save as' to Microsoft Word 2003 XML

Then no conversions/errors when you share with your loved Microsoft Users, but you will need JRE installed (free) to do this.

BG

[BillyGoat]

Just to add to the above, do you use Sky Drive for storage - or COULD you?

If you have your files in there or COULD put your files in there, then you could use the free Office tools at https://www.office.com/start/default.aspx

Just sign in with a LiveID (hotmail or Live, for example) and bam - just about most your Office needs. Clearly you won't be able to work without an internet connection, but you can use all the files types you need. They are saved AS you work (no more lost stuff) and it's really simple.

office_online.JPG (55.27 KiB) Viewed 2759 times

BG

[Someone-Else]

BillyGoat, thanks for your time and effort and testing, as I said, its really not for me, I still use Open Office, its for a college.

Damn Microsoft win again.

(It would not be feasible to ask the 3rd party to change their end, they will just say use MS office)

[BillyGoat]

Spelling? have you tried using Firefox and the dictionary "add on" it shows 95% of your spelling errors.

[sinks]

You could try quick office .you'll need to download Google drive.and create a gmail account if you haven't got one.it will create a word document then you can attach it to your email.I use it on my laptop and android phone.it does excel as well