[aaaa44]

I bought a new computer and transferred my Word 2000 files from my old computer onto the new one.  I have Open Office installed on my new computer and no version of Office.  I will be using Open Office from now on on the new computer because it's free.  

 

When I transferred my files they transferred in "MS Word 97-2003" format.  Should I change them to Open Office format?  When I try to save a change I make in a file I get the message: 

"This document may contain formatting or content that cannot be saved in the MS Word .......format.  Do you want to save the document in this format anyway?......"  (geekstogo would not allow be to copy the popup image) 

 

If I change all my Word documents over to Open Office format then I won't have to go through this step. 

 

 

How stable is the Open Office program?  Is it going to be around for a long time?  My documents are extremely important, and if there is any risk of losing my data to a program that is not extremely reliable then I'll just continue purchasing MS Word.  Thanks for any replies. 

 

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May I ask which version of OpenOffice you are using? Are you using the original one, or the new Apache OpenOffice? The original one has been discontinued and it has split in two branches, LibreOffice and Apache OpenOffice.

Here's Apache OpenOffice: https://www.openoffice.org
And here's LibreOffice: https://www.libreoffice.org/

OpenOffice (the original project) have been around for over 20 years now (or close to that), so it's indeed a well known program and is also very stable. It's one of the most popular, if not THE most popular Office alternative to Microsoft Office. A lot of people worldwide use it and it's prized by the community as well. This is what I install on Windows for people that don't want to use Microsoft Office or pay for it, excellent choice.

[Aura]

May I ask which version of OpenOffice you are using? Are you using the original one, or the new Apache OpenOffice? The original one has been discontinued and it has split in two branches, LibreOffice and Apache OpenOffice.

Here's Apache OpenOffice: https://www.openoffice.org
And here's LibreOffice: https://www.libreoffice.org/

OpenOffice (the original project) have been around for over 20 years now (or close to that), so it's indeed a well known program and is also very stable. It's one of the most popular, if not THE most popular Office alternative to Microsoft Office. A lot of people worldwide use it and it's prized by the community as well. This is what I install on Windows for people that don't want to use Microsoft Office or pay for it, excellent choice.

[aaaa44]

I'm using Apache OpenOffice 4.1.1, the latest version.  I just read the instructions at openofficetutorial.org on how to convert Word files to OO files.  So I guess I have to convert each file individually and there's no way to convert all my files at once to OO format.       

[Aura]

Well, they'll be converted as you use them, so it's not that bad. You can still use .doc and .docx files on OpenOffice as you can convert them. If you don't have to use them again, no need to convert them. But if you do, you'll convert them on opening/saving anyway.

[aaaa44]

I have been using my old computer until now and finally want to put it to rest and start using my new computer.  I have added a lot of data to my files on my old computer since transferring my files to my new computer, so I need to transfer my files onto my new computer again.  Should I delete the files that I transferred to my new computer before transferring the files again?  Is there a way to automatically convert my Word files to Open Office as they transfer, or do I have to convert each file individually as I save them?  Thanks. 

[Aura]

That would be the easiest thing to do, to delete the documents before copying them over again. However if you wish, you can transfer them without deleting the older copy and just choose to "overwrite" the old copies with the new ones. And I don't think that there's a way to convert each Word file to OpenOffice ones directly on the transfer. They'll be converted as you use them and save them.

[aaaa44]

Thanks for the help.

[Aura]

No problem, good luck with the transfer