About Converting Microsoft Office Documents

OpenOffice.org can automatically open Microsoft Office 97/2000/XP documents. However, some layout features and formatting attributes in more complex Microsoft Office documents are handled differently in OpenOffice.org or are unsupported. As a result, converted files require some degree of manual reformatting. The amount of reformatting that can be expected is proportional to the complexity of the structure and formatting of the source document. OpenOffice.org cannot run Visual Basic Scripts, but can load them for you to analyze.

The following lists provide a general overview of Microsoft Office features that may cause conversion challenges. These will not affect your ability to use or work with the content of the converted document.

Microsoft Word

AutoShapes
Revision marks
OLE objects
Certain controls and Microsoft Office form fields
Indexes
Tables, frames, and multi-column formatting
Hyperlinks and bookmarks
Microsoft WordArt graphics
Animated characters/text

Microsoft Excel

AutoShapes
OLE objects
Certain controls and Microsoft Office form fields
Pivot tables
New chart types
Conditional formatting
Some functions/formulas

Microsoft PowerPoint

AutoShapes
Tab, line, and paragraph spacing
Master background graphics
Grouped objects
Certain multimedia effects

For a detailed overview of the converting documents to and from Microsoft Office format, see the OpenOffice.org Migration Guide.

Using Microsoft Office and OpenOffice.org

Changing the Association of Microsoft Office Document Types

Setting the default file format

Index

Microsoft Office,document import restrictions

import restrictions for Microsoft Office

This help text is published from the OpenOffice-Help files under the Public Documentation License 1.0.