Microsoft Word documents

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		+	== Can [[AbiWord|AbiWord]] open Microsoft Word® documents? ==
-	<H2>FAQ: Can [[AbiWord|AbiWord]] open Microsoft Word&reg; documents?</H2>	+	AbiWord does a reasonably good job opening most Microsoft Word documents. However, no non-Microsoft word processor can be 100% Word compatible. Developing good MS Word filters is a very difficult process. With each new Word release, Microsoft also makes considerable changes to the Word file format.
-	Presently,  can open most Microsoft Word documents well. For further information and a few "quid pro quos", please continue reading.	+	If the Word document you're trying to open with AbiWord has complicated tables, text boxes, embedded spreadsheets, and so forth, it may not work as expected. Please bear with us as we work to improve AbiWord's MS Word compatibility. If you have a Word document which fails to load, please use our website's "Report a Bug" feature. Be sure to include the document with your report to help us analyze the problem.
-	<H3>Contents</H3>	+	=== Saving as ''.doc'' ===
		+	AbiWord can currently save in a Word-compatible ''.doc'' format. This is done by saving in Rich Text Format ([[RTF|.rtf]]) with a ''.doc'' extension. This means the document may include styled text (specific fonts; bold, italic, and other styling; colors, and so forth), HTML, tables, and other standard formatting. Word has no trouble opening these files correctly.
-	=== Caveat ===	+	Some people have suggested that this file-saving method is "cheating" and doesn't represent true Word compatibility. However, Microsoft itself has a history of considering Rich Text files "Word-compatible": In Windows 98, the Wordpad application includes the option to save files as Microsoft Word 6.0 ''.doc'' files. It turns out that these files are actually Rich Text files saved with the ''.doc'' extension.
-	However, if the document has complicated tables, text boxes, embedded spreadsheets, and so forth, then it might not work as expected. Developing good MS Word filters is a very difficult process, so please bear with us as we work on getting Word documents to open correctly. If you have a Word document which fails to load, please open a Bug and include the document so we can improve the importer.	+	Therefore, because the Rich Text format covers the great majority of users's formatting needs, we have no plans to enable AbiWord to create actual binary Word files (see [http://www.abisource.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=2565 Bug 2565].)
-	=== Saving as .doc ===	+	=== Saving Word documents you have edited ===
-	can currently save in an MS Word compatible ".doc" format.  This is done by saving as Rich Text Format (.rtf) but with a .doc extension.  The file extension does not mean that the file is a binary Microsoft Word document and .doc may contain RTF, HTML or plain text. This is a feature &mdash; Microsoft themselves have used .doc to exploit a mis-feature of MS-Word.	+	Many users have wondered why, when they try to Save a Microsoft Word document, the ''Save As'' window appears. This is because of the small possibility of losing some of the information contained in the original file. The last thing we want is for users to lose data, so we take this precaution to be sure that users do not inadvertently overwrite their original files. If they do so, they must deliberately choose to do so.
-	Some developers and even a few users have suggested that this is dishonest and ''cheating''.  In fact this ''cheating'' is something Microsoft themselves have done in their own software!  (Example: MS Wordpad on Windows 98 claims to save as Microsoft Word 6.0 (.doc) but if you look at the files in a text editor you can see that it is in fact Rich Text Format).	+	==Word file formats==
-	There are no plans to support binary MS Word export.	+	Word is the word processor from Microsoft (often called MS Word) and natively supports DOC files format. It also supports [[RTF]] (Rich Text Format) and [[TXT]] and can export [[HTML]] documents. Word 2007 natively supports the Office [[XML]] (Office Open) format. This format has a .[[DOCX]] extension.
-	See Abiword Bug 2565	+
-	http://www.abisource.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=2565	+
-	=== The "Save As" Problem ===	+	Word and Word files have undergone many changes in functions and file formats. The most important are:
		+	* Word 97 - This is the common format for exchange of Windows DOC files. All later tools have an option to save in this format although some file features may be lost.
		+	* Word 2000 - This is the oldest version that can generate LIT file content using a plugin and it is the oldest version that will support conversion to DOCX format.
		+	* Word 2002 - This is the oldest version supported by security updates.
		+	* Word 2003 - The last version to use DOC as its native format. Can save in Office XML and DOCX with an update.
		+	* Word 2007 - This version uses Office DOCX as the native save format. The file is zip compressed and used in the compressed form. It will typically have a .DOCX file extension.
		+	* Word 2008 includes MacOS X support.
-	There is only one downside of this approach and many users have wondered why when they try to Save a Microsoft word document they get prompted to ''Save As'' instead.  This is because of the small possibility of losing some of the information contained in the original file and the last thing we want is for users to lose data so we must make sure that users do not accidentally overwrite the original and they must choose do so deliberately.	+	[[Category:FAQ]]
-	(please feel free to edit this or perhaps split the Save As Problem into another section).	+
-		+
-	=== _Editorial Note_ ===	+
-		+
-	Darn, my changes wiped out Main.[[HorkanA|HorkanA]]''s, much like happened some time ago with my changes wiping out Main.[[HubertFiguiere|HubertFiguiere]]''s &mdash; over on twiki.org a problem like this was traced to one of the Sourceforge servers running out of "temp" space.  I''ll try to find a link and then send it to Main.[[HubertFiguiere|HubertFiguiere]] (as, IIRC, he is the webmaster for [[AbiWord|AbiWord]]).	+
-		+
-	[[Category:To Convert]]	+

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Current revision as of 22:38, 14 February 2011

Contents 1 Can AbiWord open Microsoft Word® documents? 1.1 Saving as .doc 1.2 Saving Word documents you have edited 2 Word file formats

Can AbiWord open Microsoft Word® documents?

AbiWord does a reasonably good job opening most Microsoft Word documents. However, no non-Microsoft word processor can be 100% Word compatible. Developing good MS Word filters is a very difficult process. With each new Word release, Microsoft also makes considerable changes to the Word file format.

If the Word document you're trying to open with AbiWord has complicated tables, text boxes, embedded spreadsheets, and so forth, it may not work as expected. Please bear with us as we work to improve AbiWord's MS Word compatibility. If you have a Word document which fails to load, please use our website's "Report a Bug" feature. Be sure to include the document with your report to help us analyze the problem.

Saving as .doc

AbiWord can currently save in a Word-compatible .doc format. This is done by saving in Rich Text Format (.rtf) with a .doc extension. This means the document may include styled text (specific fonts; bold, italic, and other styling; colors, and so forth), HTML, tables, and other standard formatting. Word has no trouble opening these files correctly.

Some people have suggested that this file-saving method is "cheating" and doesn't represent true Word compatibility. However, Microsoft itself has a history of considering Rich Text files "Word-compatible": In Windows 98, the Wordpad application includes the option to save files as Microsoft Word 6.0 .doc files. It turns out that these files are actually Rich Text files saved with the .doc extension.

Therefore, because the Rich Text format covers the great majority of users's formatting needs, we have no plans to enable AbiWord to create actual binary Word files (see Bug 2565.)

Saving Word documents you have edited

Many users have wondered why, when they try to Save a Microsoft Word document, the Save As window appears. This is because of the small possibility of losing some of the information contained in the original file. The last thing we want is for users to lose data, so we take this precaution to be sure that users do not inadvertently overwrite their original files. If they do so, they must deliberately choose to do so.

Word file formats

Word is the word processor from Microsoft (often called MS Word) and natively supports DOC files format. It also supports RTF (Rich Text Format) and TXT and can export HTML documents. Word 2007 natively supports the Office XML (Office Open) format. This format has a .DOCX extension.

Word and Word files have undergone many changes in functions and file formats. The most important are:

• Word 97 - This is the common format for exchange of Windows DOC files. All later tools have an option to save in this format although some file features may be lost.
• Word 2000 - This is the oldest version that can generate LIT file content using a plugin and it is the oldest version that will support conversion to DOCX format.
• Word 2002 - This is the oldest version supported by security updates.
• Word 2003 - The last version to use DOC as its native format. Can save in Office XML and DOCX with an update.
• Word 2007 - This version uses Office DOCX as the native save format. The file is zip compressed and used in the compressed form. It will typically have a .DOCX file extension.
• Word 2008 includes MacOS X support.