I have a 60 page document for which the o/p will be m$doc and it's giving animal problems in the editing.

First of all, the TOC is not active, but passive. Openoffice created an active (but non transferable).
When I convert to m$ doc (the required output), I get a different number of pages with blanks thrown in. Any attempt to edit the doc usually ends in a mess - see attached.

Can someone tell me
1. Is Libreoffice-3.4.4 a _regression_ on openoffice?
2. Presuming I edit the odt file, how should I convert it to m$doc?

Attached Thumbnails

   

Going to .doc may be a problem. MS stuff can import some other generic things. Might be easier to go with html format.

The only true way to get a real .doc file is with ms products. That also is not true because .doc can be in one of a few formats that some versions can't open.

the older 3.4 might not work "well" in MS office 2012 document format ( .docx)
MS dose keep changing it every year office 2010 or 2008 .docx format yes
there is good support for the XP office ( office 2002 & 3 ) document format ( .doc).


also depending on the fonts used there might be issues
MS dose not install opensource GPL fonts
and Linux does not install MS proprietary fonts ( by default)


also do NOT convert between the two -
odt to doc( or docx) to odt back to docx
that is a big no-no

save the very last and final version as an odt AND AS a docx


also install the current Libreoffice 3.5.2
or the NOW in the Apache incubator OpenOffice

As John_VV points out, MS keeps changing its formats to make interoperability a challenge.

I have found that the more complex the formatting in a document, the less reliable saving from LO (or OO) to MS format becomes. Your screenshots seem to indicate that the document contains rather complex formatting with embedded images and the like. Unfortunately, I do not have an easy solution that does not involve MS Office.

Been there, done that.

Swallow hard. Fire up your Windows VM, import the crippled DOC converted from ODT and spend half a day editing. If you want 100% MSOffice compatibility, use MSOffice.

I don't agree with it, it is vendor lock in and all that, you co-workers (or in my case my client) wanted clean MSOffice, and that is it. So much for MSOffice open formats.

jlinkels

Thanks. That answers it.

My personal feeling is that LibreOffice is a regression where m$doc is concerned. There are a number of full page pictures, and that is where the issues are.
I never set up a vm for windows; I have XP for an oldish box here in the form of a hard disk lying unconnected on the base of the box, but I have not installed m$office since 1996 or so.
I'll try packaging the finished article in odt, rtf, doc, pdf, and any other transferable format I can think of and finish it off on a university box. Some plusses in being a mature student.