How To: Convert Office 2007 Documents on Any Platform
If you’re looking for a way to get Microsoft Office 2007 OOXML documents playing nicely with your OpenOffice programs, the Open XML Translator is what you’re after.
Open XML Translator is a free OpenOffice plugin that adds support for the new OOXML formats. Although the .deb files are specificly geared toward Ubuntu, they should work with similar Debian-based Linux distros.
Don’t expect flawless conversions of complex OOXML files, but for most people the converter should be able to extract usable text which you can then save in more widely supported format.
If you’re not using Ubuntu, there are some command line translators available for Fedora and Mandriva. There’s also OxygenOffice an enhanced version of OpenOffice which includes a different, but similarly functional set of converters (as well as some extra templates, fonts and other nicities).
Windows users can of course use the free Office converters available from Microsoft (don’t let the Microsoft Office bit in the title fool you, the pack works just fine with OpenOffice, Abiword and others).
Last week we mentioned that the OOXML converters for Office for Mac 2004 have been delayed until June, which means Mac users are out of luck unless you want to upgrade to Office for Mac 2008, switch to OpenOffice or try the beta version of the converters.
The final option is the online document converter Zamzar, which we’ve covered before. It isn’t the most convenient answer for some, but it should get the job done.
[tip of the hack to Lifehacker]
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