Ubuntu Tip: How to Open/View .docx files in OpenOffice -- Ubuntu Geek

Ubuntu Tip: How to Open/View .docx files in OpenOffice

Posted by nitr8 on April 1st, 2008 Email This Post

As most company standard builds are now including Microsoft office 2007 you will start seeing more .docx documents. This has been covered time and time again but still people still ask the question.

If you wish to open up a .docx document in OpenOffice you can do this two ways: (See update)

Install ODF Converter from .deb’s

Download the convertor

i386 - ftp://ftp-mirror.internap.com/pub/www.getdeb.net/od/odf-converter_1.0.0-2~getdeb1_i386.deb
wget ftp://ftp-mirror.internap.com/pub/www.getdeb.net/od/odf-converter_1.0.0-2~getdeb1_i386.deb

Amd64 -http://cesium.di.uminho.pt/pub/getdeb/od/odf-converter_1.0.0-2~getdeb1_amd64.deb
wget http://cesium.di.uminho.pt/pub/getdeb/od/odf-converter_1.0.0-2~getdeb1_amd64.deb

Install the package

i386 users

sudo dpkg -i odf-converter_1.0.0-2~getdeb1_i386.deb

amd64 users
sudo dpkg -i odf-converter_1.0.0-2~getdeb1_amd64.deb

Install ODF Converter from Novell

Download the file odf-converter rpm from here

Now you need to install alien using the following command

sudo aptitude install alien

Use alien to convert it to a Slackware tgz file:
fakeroot alien -ct odf-converter-1.0.0-5.i586.rpm

Unpack the slackware tgz file:
tar xzf odf-converter-1.0.0.tgz

Copy three files into your OpenOffice.org directories — note that the usr that you’re copying from is a directory that was inside the tgz file.
sudo cp usr/lib/ooo-2.0/program/OdfConverter /usr/lib/openoffice/program/

sudo cp usr/lib/ooo-2.0/share/registry/modules/org/openoffice/TypeDetection/Filter/MOOXFilter_cpp.xcu /usr/lib/openoffice/share/registry/modules/org/openoffice/TypeDetection/Filter/

sudo cp usr/lib/ooo-2.0/share/registry/modules/org/openoffice/TypeDetection/Types/MOOXTypeDetection.xcu /usr/lib/openoffice/share/registry/modules/org/openoffice/TypeDetection/Types/

Restart OpenOffice, and enjoy. You can now open and edit .docx files using OpenOffice.org.

Update odf-converter-integrator (thanks Lutfi)

odf-converter-integrator is an easy way to open Microsoft Office 2007 files (also called Office Open XML, .docx, .xlsx, and .pptx) with a high-quality conversion on any Linux or Windows system in any OpenOffice.org.

Chocolate edition

sudo apt-get install libgif4
dpkg -i odf-converter-integrator-chocolate*deb

Strawberry edition

If the latest strawberry .deb is not available, make one from the latest .rpm using alien. After that:

sudo apt-get install libgif4
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/libtiff.so.4 /usr/libtiff.so.3
dpkg -i odf-converter-integrator*deb

http://katana.oooninja.com/w/odf-converter-integrator

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11 Responses to “Ubuntu Tip: How to Open/View .docx files in OpenOffice”

D4LT0N Says:
April 1st, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Hey, nice hint. Do you know when Open Office 2.4 will be release with Ubuntu? I hope not only with Intrepid Ibex…
admin Says:
April 1st, 2008 at 3:21 pm
openoffice 2.4 will be coming with ubuntu 8.04 (hardy heron) i.e next release
Lutfi Says:
April 3rd, 2008 at 3:06 am
Odf-Converter-1.0 from Getdeb.net is old version. Only read/write .docx file but for .xlsx and .pptx just read. The new version (1.1) already provide by http://katana.oooninja.com/w/odf-converter-integrator and off course Novell
nitr8 Says:
April 3rd, 2008 at 8:18 am
thanks Lutfi,

just updated main post

–me
Vikas Says:
April 4th, 2008 at 1:13 am
It is not clear which converter converts better. Or are they just the same?
Michael Vogt Says:
April 4th, 2008 at 5:10 am
You’ll probably want to change this:
sudo aptitude install alen

into this:
sudo aptitude install alien
admin Says:
April 4th, 2008 at 6:42 am
@Michael

thanks for this.I have updated the article
nitr8 Says:
April 4th, 2008 at 8:07 am
@ admin,

thanks you beat me too it

–me
tweedicus Says:
April 5th, 2008 at 2:45 am
Open and Save .docx in available by default in OpenOffice 2.4 which is in Hardy 8.04. I’m running the beta and can open and save .docx with no problem. Incidentally, I’m finding the beta 8.04 just as rock solid stable as 7.10. It’s a beautiful OS.
be4truth Says:
April 10th, 2008 at 3:00 am
Unfortunately on my Gutsy 64 bit system installing ‘libgif4′ wants to remove mplayer and DVD-Rip. That’s not a good deal :-).
Mark Preston Says:
May 18th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
I pasted your:

ftp://ftp-mirror.internap.com/pub/www.getdeb.net/od/odf-converter_1.0.0-2~getdeb1_i386.deb

into FF and when it opened, it came with GDebi Installer. I ran it from there. Next I opened OOWriter and tried to save a file with the .docx extension, but didn’t see that option. As the GDebi installer didn’t show a problem, I guess nothing is wrong.