Is there anything to open .docx documents on Linux (Ubuntu)?

Question

My mother has some serious issues using Windows (viruses, spywares, and so on) and I seriously think about setting up Ubuntu as a replacement. (That would ease my "job" as well)

The only concern I have is, is there anything to edit .docx (or .xlsx, .pptx, ...) documents on Linux ? Last time I tried OpenOffice (was 3 years ago), it was only able to open "old" MS Office documents (.doc, .xls, ...).

Thank you very much for your answers !

Answer 1

OpenOffice opens it perfectly. Yeah the one which comes with Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (any version above 3.0). You can install it without a worry. (Or try it with a live disc, don't install it, check the documents).

If OpenOffice fails, you can try SoftMaker. Its a very nice alternative, and its very cheap (although, its not free, but it worth the price). There is a trial version available, install it, check the docs (for me it works flawless, much faster than OpenOffice). (Best and only alternative to OpenOffice I guess.) (And no I'm not a man at them, not working for them. I just tried / checked all the alternatives on Linux and this seemed to be the best amongst them. You can also use it on Windows and Windows CE. No mac though.)

Answer 2

You may also want to consider Google Docs. They recently released a new word processor, which is miles better than the old one, and it's easy for her to share documents with you (or others). Storing your docs on the web also helps avoid such other tech support calls, such as "The coffee spilled into the big box when I was using the cup-holder tray" and "help: what's a filesystem and where's my directory?".

Answer 3

OpenOffice is now able to handle DOCX.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenOffice.org for details.

If the converter does not work well enough, you may want to take a look at an alternative converter at http://www.oooninja.com/2008/12/better-office-docx-converter.html.