odf-converter-integrator

odf-converter-integrator is an easy way to open Microsoft Office 2007 files (also called Office Open XML, .docx, .xlsx, and .pptx) with a high-quality conversion on any Linux or Windows system in any OpenOffice.org.

odf-converter-integrator uses the high-quality odf-converter code (which converts between Office Open XML and OpenDocument) as packaged by Novell and integrates it into the operating system. That means when you click on a .docx/.xlsx/.pptx file on a web page, in an email attachment, or your desktop, odf-converter-integrator springs into action, converts the .docx/.xlsx/.pptx to an .odt/.ods/.odp, and then automatically opens the new document in OpenOffice.org, StarOffice, Abiword, KWord, Gnumeric, Microsoft Office 2003, or whatever is your default ODF editor.

odf-converter-integrator is simply a little glue to overcomes the integration limitation of the Novell odf-converter, which cannot integrate into most editions of OpenOffice.org (such as the vanilla/Sun Microsystems edition, Fedora, OxygenOffice, and others).

Which operating system and OOo edition do you use? Take the poll.

Download odf-converter-integrator or view the change log.

coming soon RSS feed for notification of software updates

For instructions on how to test and the results of those tests, see test.

Instructions on how to install odf-converter-integrator. Separately you may wish to install the Office 2007 fonts.

The same RPM should work any Fedora version regardless of whether you use Fedora OpenOffice.org or vanilla OpenOffice.org.

rpm -Uvh odf-converter-integrator-0.1.3-1.i386.rpm

If you use the edition of OpenOffice.org that came with Ubuntu (most common), install odf-converter-integrator chocolate edition. If you downloaded and installed the vanilla OpenOffice.org from the OpenOffice.org web site (less common), then install the strawberry edition.

The Ubuntu 7.10 OpenOffice.org 2.3 already includes a .docx/.xlsx/.pptx importer, so why would you use odf-converter-integrator? The code that comes with Ubuntu OpenOffice.org is an alpha version intended for OpenOffice.org, so the quality is poor and it doesn't handle simple formatting elements such as bullet points.

As a dependency, install libgif4 or libungif4g, but don't install both.

sudo apt-get install libgif4

or

sudo apt-get install libungif4g

Then, install odf-converter-integrator:

dpkg -i odf-converter-integrator-chocolate*deb

If the latest strawberry .deb is not available, make one from the latest .rpm using alien.

sudo alien --scripts odf-converter-integrator-0.1.5-1.i386.rpm

After that:

sudo apt-get install libgif4
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/libtiff.so.4 /usr/libtiff.so.3
dpkg -i odf-converter-integrator*deb

Mandriva Linux One 2008 complains about libgif.so.4 not being installed, but it probably is (as part of the libungif4 package). Ignore the error and just install the latest odf-converter-integrator RPM.

If you use the Novell/SUSE edition of OpenOffice.org, you don't need odf-converter-integrator. Just install Novell's odf-converter.

Just download and run the installation program. If you use OpenOffice.org, StarOffice, Abiword, or Gnumeric, that's it.

If you use Microsoft Word/Excel/Powerpoint 2003, install OpenXML/ODF Translator Add-in for Office.

Using odf-converter-integrator depends which edition you use.

The strawberry edition of odf-integrator-converter works with all editions of OpenOffice.org, Abiword, KWord, Gnumeric, etc. However, the strawyberry edition does not open documents from within OpenOffice.org, so to open a .docx/.xlsx/.pptx document, double click on it from your file browser (such as the place on your desktop), or from a web page, or from an email.

a screenshot would be nice to illustrate this point

If you use the Ubuntu edition of OpenOffice.org, install the chocolate edition of odf-converter-integrator.

• Add pretty icons
• See the “fixme” items in the Python script
• Investigate unnecessary libgif.so.4 dependency complaint on Mandriva Linux One 2008
• Add progress indicator

Do you need help? Post your questions in help. If you cannot use the wiki, email Andrew.

Yes, there are bugs. :) If you find any bugs in the integrator (such as installation issues), list them in bugs. If you find any bugs in the converter (such as formatting problems), report them to odf-converter tracker