Add Windows partition to existing Ubuntu Partition

[Amedee Van Gasse (ub)]

On Tue, October 13, 2009 17:45, NoOp wrote:
> On 10/12/2009 07:42 PM, Michael White wrote:
>> To Karl and others, I like open office and if I had it my way I would
>> never EVER!!! touch Microsoft again. Unfortunately My college: Devry
>> University requires files to submited in the .docx format so I have
>> to have MS office.
>
> Then you should change colleges.  Try this; send them a standard .doc
> file (you can create one with OpenOffice.org) and just add an x to the
> end (.docx) and see if any of your instructors can tell the difference.

You know that OpenOffice.org 3.0 can open OpenXML (docx) files, don't you?

OOo can't save to docx, (at least not in the version that I use ATM,
PortableApps version 3.0.1), but the trick with renaming the extension
works.

At the Operating System level, Windows looks at the file extension and
passes this to the appropriate application. In case of docx, Windows will
pass it to MS Word (2007).
But at Application level (MSWord), the application is smart enough to look
at the file header (comparable with the magic numbers used by the "file"
utility on Linux) to determine the file type. "doc 97-2003" is a known
file type for Word 2007, so it won't complain. Perhaps you will just see a
progress bar flashing for some conversion filter. When the file is saved,
it may also ask if it should save in the new file format. No worries,
because OOo can open that.


It doesn't work the other way around. You cannot rename a .docx file to
.doc and simply expect that Word 2003 will be able to open it. You would
have to install the Office 2007 Compatibility Pack first. This is a free
add-on, by Microsoft, that adds support for the Office 2007 file formats
to Office 2003. However there will be a loss of the 2007 features that are
not supported in 2003.