How can I open MS Word files in LibreOffice?

Question

I would like to just use Ubuntu from now on, I don't want to go back to windows unless I have to. The problem being, I have a few documents that I need to work on in Microsoft Word. Can someone give me directions on how to open them through Ubuntu?

Did you even tried opening a DOC or DOCX document with LibreOffice? — Luis Alvarado, Aug 08 '13 at 16:42

sameetandpotatoes · Answer 1 · 2013-08-08T16:19:44.417

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In this Wiki article, it says that Microsoft Office documents saved as a .doc or a .docx file can be opened in LibreOffice. Therefore, you should be able to just open it. Just copy the files onto a flash drive and then in Ubuntu, double click the .doc or .docx file to open it in LibreOffice.

Edit: When opening .doc or .docx files in LibreOffice, be aware that the formatting can be a little off in some cases, so sometimes when opening a MS Word file in LibreOffice it does not look as it was intended/how it would have looked in MS Word.. Thanks to Shaun for pointing that out.

edited Aug 08 '13 at 16:19

answered Aug 08 '13 at 14:49

sameetandpotatoes

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It's worth being aware that the formatting can be a little off in some cases, so sometimes when opening a MS Word file in LibreOffice it does not look as it was intended/how it would have looked in MS Word. Another option if you have a gmail account is to open it in Google Drive, although this can suffer the same problem as well. – Shaun Killingbeck Aug 08 '13 at 16:14
Thanks for commenting Shaun. I'll definitely include this information in my answer. – sameetandpotatoes Aug 08 '13 at 16:18

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 08 '13 at 14:48

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Open LibreOffice Writer, hit "Open" (or do CTRL+O), and navigate to where you saved the file.

Or, just double click the .doc or .docx file.

Either of those methods should be able to open the file.

answered Aug 08 '13 at 14:48

Thomas Ward

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 08 '13 at 14:49

Copy the files from within Windows on a USB stick or put them on a network share you can get too from Ubuntu.

Open them with the "open" dialog inside LibreOffice. Nowadays LibreOffice will open .DOC (and .XLS) files without much difficulty.

The only thing LO can not do for you macro's. Those tend to be created in Visual Basic.

score 0 · Answer 4 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:24

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This has been answered in exquisite detail here. You can just boot into Ubuntu and open files by a simple double-click, and the only difference you'll ever notice is that you're using LibreOffice.

And if you're truly nostalgic about MS Office, the above link will show you how to get that running on Ubuntu.

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:24

Community

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answered Aug 08 '13 at 16:36

xyz

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How can I open MS Word files in LibreOffice?

4 Answers4