How to from LibreOffice odt file export in Rich-Text Format (RTF) or as Word DOC files

[WinfredJ]

Hi!

I wrote a trilogy with my LibreOffice and sent my three files to a pro book formatter. He said he doesn’t work in LO and to convert the odt to RTF or Word DOC files. Which of the two file types is better? How can I do this as I need to send the files to him soon. Will doing the converting change a lot of what I had as layout in odt or LO? I had page breaks at each chapter and several at the very beginning with title page etc. LO use to have an easy way, or it was already in Word. I think it was in, Word 1997-2003, why does LO not have that any more?

Thanks for all you do!

Sincerely,
Winfred J

[EarnestAl]

File > Save As and choose file type .doc

How professional is the book formatter if he doesn’t accept any modern format?

[WinfredJ]

Hi Earnest Al!
I can’t second guess him as he’s giving me a big discount with my trilogy I wrote in LO. He’s squeezing me in a very busy schedule and saving me $250 from what would have been $450. I’m wondering too if the conversion might mean I have to do things like re-add in a lot that is lost in the transfer that would take him a tremendous amount of time, something I should do being I am so fortunate he is giving me such a big discount. I want to in every way have my manuscript as easy as possible for him to work on. In other words I fear that all is more than just a click away to convert. I’m just hoping that LO tech pros will not only know how to convert it, but know how to convert with the least amount of change too, much better than relying on like WikiHow etc. Thanks though for your input!
Top of the Evening!
Winfred

[EarnestAl]

LibreOffice is not MS Office. Its formats are different, there are differences it what and how things are done so not everything can be translated between one file format and another. The older .doc format will be less able to containing advanced formatting than .docx; as for rtf, it is even less able than .doc.

Things like Headings, chapters, table of contents, pixel images should be mostly OK. Math equations and vector drawings are less likely to convert.

Save As .doc and compare with the .odt

[WinfredJ]

Hi Earnest Al!

Thank you for your response! The only choices LO has when you click on “Export As” is PDF and EPUB. There is no choice for docx or rtf. I only have text and no graphs or images. I have chapter titles, dedication/copyright page, title page, and Table of Contents with page breaks between them. It is a fiction story in 3 books, or a “trilogy”. The person who is doing the formatting said he can’t work with odt.

He said in his email – “Unfortunately, I have no way opening these files because I do not use LibreOffice. Can you please export these files in Rich-Text Format (RTF) or as Word DOC files and resend them to me?”

So that is my problem, changing from LO’s odt to RTF or to Word DOC.

Thanks! Winfred

[EarnestAl]

I never said Export

1 File > Save As

2 and choose file type .doc