As you probably know, the latest release of Microsoft Office 2007 uses OpenXML as its default document format. While it is similar to OpenDocument (ODF), it is not currently supported by OpenOffice (in contrast to previous *.doc MS Office binary format).
Workaround for OpenXML files
The first alternative is to download Novell’s version of OpenOffice.org and install Novell OpenXML translator add-ins which enables OpenOffice to open Microsoft’s OpenXML files.
Another alternative is to use docx2doc service to convert OpenXML files to the previous Office 2000 doc format. The service costs USD2 per conversion, and you only need to pay upon successful conversion.
The final and most obvious alternative is to use (or ask somebody with) Office 2007 for converting OpenXML files back to the old Microsoft Office format (*.doc, *.ppt, etc), or use odf-converter add-ins for Microsoft Office to convert OpenXML files.
These are method currently known to me for opening OpenXML in GNU/Linux operating system, please suggest other alternative if you know one.
p/s : Hang on tight, the official OpenOffice.org project may implement OpenXML support in future release, until then, you may want to tell people to avoid sending you document files in OpenXML format.
Credit to Najmi for mentioning some of the solutions
[tags]openoffice,openxml,openoffice.org,microsoft office,docx,office 2007,microsoft[/tags]
