Random Linux Tip: MS Office 2007 Formats

I have a gig whose client uses Office 2007 extensively, apparently to the extent of deploying its automation via scripts in the office suite. Running Fedora 9 Linux, my OpenOffice balked at the docx and xslt files they were sending me. Word 2003 and Excel 2003 formats are the most recent versions of Office proprietary formats OpenOffice can read...

...if you're still using OpenOffice 2.

After initially seeing "sorry, you're S.O.L." and going to bed believing it... after failing to install a SuSE-only addon by Novell for OO2 to fix the problem, the facepalming moment arrives thanks to a guy named Russell Butler via the OpenOffice mailing list archives.

Answer: Use OpenOffice 3. Once that's installed, double-clicky, icon-worky. I don't have any pptx files to test, but my client's xslt and docx files were read fine.

* Note - I wrongly said on Twitter today that OOo 3 can read and write these formats - as of 3.1.0 it still cannot write them. To encourage Sun to add exporting Microsoft's latest Office formats, sign up for a free Sun.com account and then vote for the issue here.

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