About Converting Microsoft Office Documents

Collabora Office can automatically open Microsoft Office 97/2000/XP documents. However, some layout features and formatting attributes in more complex Microsoft Office documents are handled differently in Collabora Office or are unsupported. As a result, converted files require some degree of manual reformatting. The amount of reformatting that can be expected is proportional to the complexity of the structure and formatting of the source document. Collabora Office cannot run Visual Basic Scripts, but can load them for you to analyze.

The most recent versions of Collabora Office can load and save the Microsoft Office Open XML document formats with the extensions docx, xlsx, and pptx. The same versions can also run some Excel Visual Basic scripts, if you enable this feature at - Load/Save - VBA Properties.

The following lists provide a general overview of Microsoft Office features that may cause conversion challenges. These will not affect your ability to use or work with the content of the converted document.

Microsoft Word

AutoShapes
Revision marks
OLE objects
Certain controls and Microsoft Office form fields
Indexes
Tables, frames, and multi-column formatting
Hyperlinks and bookmarks
Microsoft WordArt graphics
Animated characters/text

Microsoft PowerPoint

AutoShapes
Tab, line, and paragraph spacing
Master background graphics
Grouped objects
Certain multimedia effects

Microsoft Excel

AutoShapes
OLE objects
Certain controls and Microsoft Office form fields
Pivot tables
New chart types
Conditional formatting
Some functions/formulas (see below)

One example of differences between Calc and Excel is the handling of boolean values. Enter TRUE to cells A1 and A2.

In Calc, the formula =A1+A2 returns the value 2, and the formula =SUM(A1;A2) returns 2.
In Excel, the formula =A1+A2 returns 2, but the formula =SUM(A1,A2) returns 0.

For a detailed overview about converting documents to and from Microsoft Office format, see the Migration Guide.

Opening Microsoft Office Documents That Are Protected With a Password

Collabora Office can open the following Microsoft Office document types that are protected by a password.

Microsoft Office format	Supported encryption method
Word 6.0, Word 95	Weak XOR encryption
Word 97, Word 2000, Word XP, Word 2003	Office 97/2000 compatible encryption
Word XP, Word 2003	Weak XOR encryption from older Word versions
Excel 2.1, Excel 3.0, Excel 4.0, Excel 5.0, Excel 95	Weak XOR encryption
Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel XP, Excel 2003	Office 97/2000 compatible encryption
Excel XP, Excel 2003	Weak XOR encryption from older Excel versions

Microsoft Office files that are encrypted by AES128 can be opened. Other encryption methods are not supported.

Using Microsoft Office and Collabora Office

Changing the Association of Microsoft Office Document Types

Setting the default file format