Updating older Microsoft Word files into Word 2007 generally occurs without too much of a hitch. However, when some older files are corrupted, you can fix the problem by opening the file(s) in OpenOffice and then saving them. One caveat: This workaround is effective for some circumstances only.
Open Office is a “free and open” productivity suite that involves a variety of tools for:
- multimedia presentations (Impress)
- drawings and sketches (Draw)
- spreadsheets (Calc)
- word processing (Writer)
- basic database management (Base)
After downloading Open Office, the workaround involves the following steps:
1. Start Open Office. You will see the following Toolbar.
2. In the Menu Bar at the top, click File, and then click Open.
3. Find the file you want and click Open. After the file is open, you’ll see a Filter Selection window where you will let Open Office Writer know what sort of file you’re trying to open.
4. Find what the original file type was, select that file type, and click OK.
5. After the file has been opened, go to the Menu Bar, click File, click Save As…, and output the file in the format you want. You will have a variety of file formats that you can save the file as, or you may leave it in the Open Office file format ( which is a .odt file).
