Can't Convert to .docx

Hi! Since updating Libre to 4.1, I can no longer convert .odt files to .docx . If I save the file as a docx to my desktop, I get a solid orange icon for it. When I then try to open the file using that icon, I get an error message that says: “This program is unable to run because of missing or corrupted files.” I have no problem converting to .doc, though. I’ve never had this problem before, and it affects all documents I try to covert to .docx . These are known good documents.

I need to send documents to one person who uses Word 2010. Any advice?

Hi @Miss-Marbles,

It’s strange that you can’t save a file in docx format, but if you’re just looking for interoperability with a Word 2010 user, you have a few options:

  1. Word 2010 does support ODF 1.1 (per Microsoft), so you could save in LO’s native file format and Word 2010 should be able to read them (Note: Word might give a warning, but that’s just a bug in Word and may be ignored). There is a way to change LibreOffice 4.1 to output ODF 1.1-version files, but that’s probably not necessary in your case.
  2. LibreOffice has support for both DOCX (XML-based) and DOC (binary) MS-Word formats. I’m not sure there’s a side-by-side comparison, but many users have said that LO’s DOC support is at least as good if not better than its support of DOCX, so personally I’d use DOC for interoperability if ODF is not an option.

Regarding the underlying DOCX problem, there are a number of possible explanations. Have you tried taking one of the output DOCX files and opening it on another computer? Are you able to download a DOCX file you didn’t create and open it with LibreOffice?

Hi Qubit, thanks for the answer! Alas, I have no other PC to try opening one of my output docs on. I did check with the person who uses Word 2010, and they were able to open a document from me if sent in .doc format. So I don’t need .docx after all. What I’ll do is wait for the next upgrade to LO to see if that fixes the .docx issue on my PC. Perhaps a file was corrupted in transit when I downloaded 4.1?

Thank you for your help!!

Miss Marbles

“Perhaps a file was corrupted in transit when I downloaded 4.1?”


That is very unlikely. If file is broken during download, then it will most probably return some kind of error when installing. If you can simplify your document as much as possible and still reproduce the problem (step-by-step), then I suggest to report a bug to bug tracker: https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/bug/ and upload your file.