what's up, .DOC?

two related questions:

1) my xp did not come w ms word. i am currently using word viewer 2003 to read files, but what can i use to TWEAK them? no major editing, but i'd like to do some basic cut/pasting...and maybe fix a typo or two.

looking at various freebies, but would like to hear recommendations first.


2) have an old "contact list" file which is a mess beyond WORDS. originally saved in ms word, but had lotta foreign addys (japanese mainly), so i saved it back to TXT which, ironically, handled foreign chars a lot better. alas, but what i gained in japanese, i lost in FORMATTING -- what a HUMONGOUS mess of misaligned columns, etc!

attempts to rectify this resulted in like 7-8 intermediate files, which ended up mixed up and ultimately mixed together in one master file. currently trying to weed out all the DOUBLES (and triples, and quadruples, and...OCTUPLES!) therein, but i still haven't resolved the basic issue of whether to grid it all up in a master CHART again, or just list everything SERIALLY in one long vertical column. chart looks best, but a chart gone WRONG is just...PAINFUL.

at one point i was going to redo the whole thing in excel, etc., but at this point i'm thinking the less formatting the better.

any thoughts?

 

Edit Word .doc documents with

• OpenOffice.org
  -or-
• LibreOffice

 

Regarding your contacts list, if you still have the original Word document, you may be able to save it once you have OpenOffice or LibreOffice installed.

Just make sure that it is encoded as Unicode UTF8, then you should have no problems with Japanese characters. (Or in what way does the Word doc not handle Japanese characters as well as text docs?)

 

There is a fork of Open Office called GO-oo. It is said it to have better compatibility with Microsoft Office, but I have never used it. I use Open Office as suggested by @pwillener and find that it suits my needs.

 

well, maybe they can, but the problem is that they came from different sources to begin with. a dozen or so of these files were made on a normal [US] pc, where it was just natural to type in romanized forms. i mean, someone hands you an address "yokohama 356...", do you spend a lot of time hunting for software to type "yokohama" in japanese?

whereas the dozen or so other files actually came from japanese sources, so they were chock full of japanese to begin with. alas, but they weren't in word, nor have i made efforts to convert them to word. are you saying that with one of those apps, i could just PASTE them wholesale into word files without losing the japanese?

if so, that's prolly the best course of action. i guess i just didn't expect that to be the case. i mean, even as TXT files notepad and wordpad can't handle them; i have to actually open them in IE and then manually select "view >> encoding >>".

and i guess my bigger question is: is this WISE? in 10 years when word is buried and forgotten, am i going to be moaning over formatting gone wrong all over again? if you had 30 pages of contact info to hang onto, would you chart it up all nice and neat, or just dump it all into one long rambling file?

 

Notepad does not really support multibyte characters such as Japanese, unless the file is originally saved as Unicode UTF8.

Word documents, whether edited with MS Word or OpenOffice/LibreOffice, do support multibyte characters. As this has been a standard for almost 20 years now, I am sure it will continue to be supported 10 years from now.

Your idea to transfer it all to an Excel document is also good, as it also fully supports Japanese and other multibyte characters.

P.S. and yes, you can just paste Japanese text into Word or Excel documents, as you can here into the forum editor: 横浜市 (yes, this is Yokohama).

 

sorry, when i posted before i hadn't noticed u were in/from JAPAN....

i'll just point out that when i said 1/2 the files came "from japanese sources", they were actually of my own making, but done on a 9800 architecture PC. just getting them transfered to a western (dos) PC was a project in itself!

at any rate, the main problem now is that there are like 16 files -- PARTIAL files -- all mixed together in a rather chaotic fashion. this is a real headache sorting out by hand, but i suppose it's what i have to do. some s/w which could identify matching/mulitple lines in a file might speed it up a BIT, but ultimately it might make things worse.

just wish the "skewed" section would at least snap into COLUMNS for a while. that might knock 3 days off this thing!

 

I imagine that - these things were not really compatible!

As for merging your (partial) files, I'm sure there is no existing software that can do that for you.

But you may want to write a Windows script; I recently did something similar, extracting large amounts of data from a website into an Excel document. I had to learn scripting, as I have never done that before.

It took me about a day of trial and error, but I got it done at the end.

I - and others here - may assist you further with this enterprise, but for now I have to leave to attend a concert in Ikebukuro.

 

I have to apologize; I forgot one important thing about the script I wrote: the Japanese characters that I extracted into Excel ended up corrupted ("mojibake"). It seems that the scripting language I used does not support wide characters.

I will do some research if there is a scripting language that supports wide characters.

 

I DLed and installed all 3, but am trying OpenOffice for starters.

It opens the file with a large margin around it, a la "Print Layout" in MS Word. And it won't let me EDIT squat!

Am I in some weird MODE here? I've looked thru the various settings, but I'm just not seeing it.

I also checked the file itself. It does NOT have "read only" checked, fwiw.

 

D'OH! there is actually an "edit file" button one has to click on to get things rolling....

:-o

 

OK, I'm confused. Once I find the edit button, things look ok, but then if I change from "Print" layout to "Web" layout, the columns go all haywire.

Fair enough, it also does that in Word. Diff being that Word also has "normal" layout, which loses the margins but preserves the columns.

Worse yet, OO and Word apparently have different concepts abt formatting quite DEEP at HEART. For example, if I just save the file AS IS (having changed like ONE PERIOD or something), the next time I open it in Word, the columns are all haywire!! (Yes, I saved as DOC, not ODF.)

Plus I get the impression that everything is a lot BLURRIER now. As in, lower PIXELATION.

Does any of this ring a bell? If OO is gonna leave me with columns skewed 6 ways from Sunday -- not to mention BLURRY -- then I'm better off sticking to TXT files!

Note that I haven't even ATTEMPTED to merge in the Japanese or anything yet. I'm just talking abt the basic ENGLISH files that I started OUT with....

 

I spoke too soon. It is NOT the case that MS Word opens the more-or-less "unchanged" files blurrier and with the columns out of whack -- in fact, it doesn't open them AT ALL!

Yes, that's right. A file saved as DOC using either OO or LO is now identified as "corrupted".

Thank GOD I made safety copies before test driving these two! But what's the deal here? I thought the ENTIRE POINT of these apps was to sub in for MS Word!

Now what to do? Do I have to bite my lip and go buy MS Word for real?!

 

I have used google docs successfully. In your shoes, I would email myself the file. It's quite simple to get a gmail address. When you open the email, just click "view" instead of "download file," and Docs will open the file for you. Google docs support many languages. Their formatting tools are not nearly as extensive as either MS Word or OOO, but it sounds worth a try at this point. You may just love it and use no other. The Google translator works really well too. Luck to you!

 

Oooh, I hardly think adding in the step "must be online" is gonna help out anything. Does Google Apps have a portable (downloadable) version?

I've only just now noticed that MS Word itself (as well as the full Office) is available on CNET. What thu...?! I thought this (these) were hard to find items, which had to actually be purchased.

No cracks, no hacking -- the app is right there with "free to try" written on it!

Hmmm. So I guess that's my next step.

Alas, but the reviews are horrible -- every last one urges users to get Word 2003 instead. Any reliable sources?

CNET doesn't list it, and I'm always nervous about random "Free Here!" sites....

Speaking of which, back in the CLONES dept, I also see one TinyWord. Any good?

 

Hi

My micro-contribution to your issue is regarding Word versions. Microsoft Word 2007 is nice, but Microsoft Word 2010 is DEFINITELY the best they've come out with in a long time. Yes, the 2007/2010 versions are designed differently, and take some getting used to, but so did Windows Vista (which I hate) and Windows 7 (which I love).

 

Unfortunate no on the downloadable Google Docs. The big fantastic about it is sharing, but I thought it might open your document the way you needed it to be. With GDocs there is never a need to attach another document when sharing or working on a project. Good, but the editing capabilities will have to improve if it's going to take over anything serious in document creation.

Most any program is "free to try," I think. You can "try" the $500 Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended for free.

I will say Word 2003 is the most frustrating "hide everything under something else" program ever. They REALLY improved functionality and lowered the learning curve dramatically with 2007. I'm very curious to know more about 2010 now that MCMC rings in. It was thought by my instructors and peers that there wouldn't be much of a change from 2007. Now I must know!

 

I hadn't even realized there was a 2010 until this thread. The "horrible" reviews I was referring to below were re: 2007 as compared to 2003. Which seems to be the opposite of your experience, but pretty consistent among others commenting on CNET.

Come to think of it, I haven't even tried 2003! When I pushed aside WordViewer 2003 to investigate the "real" Word, I was suddenly back in 2007. Sorta forgot that Viewer was 2003 only b/c there had been a Word 2003 to copy off of.

So I guess now I have Word2003, Word2007 and Word2010 to DL. As well as Viewer 2007 and Viewer 2010 while I'm at it, I guess. (If they exist!)

Alas, but I'm on dialup, so this will have to wait till I go a-wifiin' somewhere. That's like a gig or two worth of stuff!

Still curious why OO and LO can fail on such BASIC tasks. I repeat, I only moved ONE PERIOD around and resaved my Doc files...wherein Word could no longer even RECOGNIZE the files!

I see a disclaimer that "not all aspects will function identically to the real Word" [sumpin ladat] but I didn't expect it to be...B]none[/B]!!

 

Any further thoughts/suggestions? Those open-source apps mung up the columns, and in most cases render the DOCs unopenable!

I thought this was supposed to be an "easy" task?! All I really want to do is open these files and replace a phone number or two here and there. Very very MINOR editing -- not even TOUCHING the fonts, etc!!

In fact, I don't think I'm even touching the COLUMNS -- just want to replace a couple of the entries THEREIN. Didn't think it would be such a major PROJECT!!

 

man, this is frustrating -- is it just a fact of life that columnation is inconsistent among Word, OO, and LO? let alone diff VERSIONS of Word?

do i have to commit to one or the other and then plan on opening it in the same app for the rest of eternity? or maybe export as PDF?

i can't believe i spent EONS getting the format just right back in the old days, yet now can barely get it to display that way! let alone be edited.

 

Hello,
I would like to make a few suggestions for your Word Processor. Try Importing your Word Document into AbiWord

Word Processor. I found that it can handle some things very well and it is only 8MB. You may also want to try a fork of OpenOffice called GO Open Office

which is supposed to have better interoperability with Microsoft Office.Finally, if you want to try a paid version of an Office Suite, you can try StarOffice

which was reviewed as having very good interoperability with Micorosoft Office. Better than anything out there. It is available as a trial version so you will be able to see how it suits your needs.

 

Try Polyedit_lite. You can find it here on MG in the office tools section. It will read and write .doc files, has utf-8 and utf-16 support. it is free for non commercial use. it is a 2.82 mbyte download so even on dial-up shouldn,t take but about 20 minutes to d/l it. I hope it works for you.

Jerry

 

hoo boy, MORE options!

i'm getting dizzy.

i should note, however, that i am no longer having trouble w MS Word opening DOCs saved elsewhere. i dunno what that was all about.

baby steps....

 

I also like OpenOffice, for what it's worth.

 

ok, i've gotten used to OO. i am STILL constantly fighting to keep columns lined up, but i've decided that's just the price i have to pay in order to get going on the actual CONTENT changes i've been wanting to do.

one thing eludes me, tho. i have headers and footers on some of my documents which show up in print view only. things like "Version 6", "Update 9/15/2003" etc. which i wanted ADDED to the printouts (they do not appear in web view).

try as i may, tho, i cannot find where these are LOCATED! i figured it was in some "file>>page setup" or "print properties" menu, but i'm not seeing it. various "template" and "layout" menus, but none with header/footer that i can find.

i do have "header/footer" on the "insert" pulldown, but it's just a check/uncheck option. nothing like the "Header: (fill in)" and "Header: On/Off/First Page Only" entries i'm looking for.

where ARE they?!

:confused

PS: same goes for the margins themselves! where on earth do i SET those?!

 

still wondering abt those header and footer settings, but more importantly, where do i turn off LINK DETECTION?!

drives me CRAZY to have every email addy, URL, etc that i tweak change colour and underline itself. especially since sections i'm NOT playing with are NOT displayed thus. i end up with lists of things where every 4th entry clashes with the rest.

at times i've retyped lines from scratch; at times i've highlighted entire pages and fiddled with "underline off" and "text color", but really now, what i want is to find the entry which says "detect links" or "highlight active links" or somesuch.

been all through "tools/customize" and "tools/options" but it's still evading me.

TIA!

 

put the whole thing on the back burner for a year, and now that i get back to it, i find i understand the headers/footers/margins/tabs/indents even LESS! where the *bleep* does one set these?!

worse yet, the columnation is jumbled beyond words after some update or others.

i am dangerously close to cut/pasting the entire thing into a TXT file. but isn't columnation even WORSE in those?

aside from a spreadsheet, which app is idiot-proof for a bunch of lists, tables, charts etc? i don't really want "templates" or "autotables", rly just the knowledge that when i hit tab i go to a predictable spot.

ideally, a TXT file with tabs easily set to 10, 20, 30, etc. nothing more!

 

Maybe one of these would work better for you.

Kingsoft Office Suite Free. Or if all you want is the word processor, Kingsoft Writer.

 

OK, thanks, i'll have a look at that.

in the mean time, could someone pls tell me where the [CENSORED!] the setting for "autocreate links" is in OO?! i'm sure it's right under my nose, but i have been through every "options" and "format" pulldown 15 times now and i STILL don't see it!

Tools>>Options>>OO Writer or Tools>>Options>>OO Writer/Web seems like the logical place, but i STILL don't see it. nor under Tools>>Options>>Language Settings/Writing Aids where the rest of the "autocorrect" type things are located.

i am editing a file chock full of URLs and email IDs, and am sick and tired of them underlining/turning blue! i fix them one at a time, but where is the universal SETTING?

or even a direct "turn off links" button i could manually apply to the entire document (after highlighting)? the kludge i'm using at present doesn't lend itself to repetition, so i have to delink EVERY LAST ENTRY by hand.

 

How about, from with in Writer, Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org > Appearance? See Thumbnail. I don't see anything related to "autocreate links".

 

that LOOKS good, but what exactly is the key setting there?

both "visited links" and "unvisited links" are UNchecked, btw. which would make me think i'd be even LESS likely to have them hyperlink!

i think it's less an "appearance" issue than an "active links" type setting. under "....Writer/Web" as i mentioned or under that "Internet" header down the bottom...or under...under....

like "active desktop: on/off" on the PC itself, i suspect there's some kind of "active webpage: on/off" setting somewhere. but durned if i can find it!

 

How about this?

In Writer pull up "Help", under the "Index" tab in the "Search term" box type links, then scroll down to "turning off automatic recognition". Highlight and click. See if that's of any use.

 

you da man!

insult to injury is that the 2 places search points me at i've looked at like 300 times already. maybe i need glasses.

anyway, thank god THAT's over with! now i can get back to the OTHER 57 problems i'm having.... rolleyes