Docx is a file extension created using applications from MS Office 2007. OpenOffice on the other hand is an open source application that is a free and thus popular alternative to office suite applications such as Corel Word Perfect and Ms Office. OpenOffice is very popular in smaller offices and organizations that do not want to spend so much on expensive software. Documents processed with OpenOffice are saved in a format known as odt or OpenDocument Text. The odt format is a competing open source format to the docx format used in Microsoft office.

To open a docx file with Version 3.0 of OpenOffice is easy and straight forward. The Version 3.0 application can easily open and save files in the docx format. You can adjust the user settings of your OpenOffice application so that default settings for converting, opening and saving files will either be in docx or odt format. To access, simply go to settings and click on Load/Save preferences and select the desired option.

Old versions of OpenOffice prior to Version 3.0 do not have features to support docx files. To open docx with OppenOffice older versions would require that the docx file is first converted to doc format and then opened from the File/ Open menu in Openoffice.

Linux on the other hand is an operating system that mainly supports free open source software installations. Microsoft usually does not create applications or software that are compatible with the Linux platform and thus it is not easy to open docx with Linux.

An option to solve this is installing the latest OpenOffice version 3.0 which opens, edits and saves docx files. It is however a problem to retain the same formatting such as breaks, paragraphs, fonts, columns and embedded objects as set by the author from the Linux platform due to different default system fonts. For older versions of OpenOffice, a translator tool developed by Novell, the Openoffice OpenXML translator can be installed to enable the opening of docx files and the saving in the docx format.

The best option for Linux users may be to use online docx converters which only requires an access to the internet. You simply load the docx file online to the converter website and get converted and then you can download and save it in any preferred format.

Rate this topic:

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...