Upgrading Word reformatted LibreWriter documents

[Kostuj]

Hi,

I have been staying with Office/Writer version 7.6.7.2 and not updating for a while now, hoping that I would not encounter any unexpected surprises while substantially revising a book of mine. I am still hopeful that I can finish this process with Libre.

Separately, however, and largely for improved computer security, I very recently found a need to update my very old Microsoft Office 2003 to Office 2024. And unbeknownst to me, that installation process apparently associated itself in one or more ways to all of my Libre/ODF files, including having the new Word program open those files.

I was able to change to have Libre open the files again without much difficulty. But I am also getting notable formatting changes in various ways, and at least at the moment I have lost a good deal of my previous work since updating my Microsoft Office.

I am also now getting a message upon opening my Libre files saying that, “The following formats are not registered to be opened by default in LibreOffice:

.odp
.ods

Select OK if you want to change default file format registrations.”

But I have not taken any steps yet since discovering this, as I am not sure what the effect(s) would be and I wanted to make a quick inquiry about it here first. I would be grateful for any recommendations regarding how to get my original formatting back the way I originally intended it within LibreWriter. Thank you very much in advance for any possible suggestions. I really appreciate it.

[Hrbrgr]

@Kostuj

“The following formats are not registered to be opened by default in LibreOffice:

.odp
.ods

Assign files to LibreOffice

[Wanderer]

@Kostuj

But I have not taken any steps yet since discovering this, as I am not sure what the effect(s) would be

You can safely set this back to LibreOffice. The only “change” is, wich program is called, if you double-click one of these files.
.
But this will not change any formatting in your documents… And as it is not related to .odt, it may not affect you at all in Writer. (.ods is for Calc-sheets, …)
.
The best way “back” may be to check your backups for a version before your update. If I’m remembering right, there is an option to compare two documents to find out where you made changes.
.
If you don’t do backups often I wish you good luck but recommend to change this first. Together with: When opening with another software change the name when saving…

[EarnestAl]

@Kostuj

at least at the moment I have lost a good deal of my previous work since updating my Microsoft Office.

If the document was saved in Microsoft Office (online version saves automatically) then you are likely to have lost formatting that Word does not support. Microsoft claim compatibility with ODF 1.3 ODF 1.4 so if you did save from MS Office 2024 and lost formatting you could try to post a bug report with them

[mikekaganski]

@Kostuj

But I am also getting notable formatting changes in various ways, and at least at the moment I have lost a good deal of my previous work since updating my Microsoft Office.

This is unexpected. I can only think of two things how it could happen:

1. You opened the files in MS Office, and then saved them there. Of course, that would change the files much. At this stage, you would definitely need a backup of your files to restore from.

2. The upgrade of MS Office has removed fonts that were used in your documents. Then you would need to check which used font are missing (in LibreOffice, such fonts would be displayed italicized in the font selector), and either replace with existing fonts (and reformat the documents, because of the different fonts would likely still have different metrics), or find and install the needed fonts.

See e.g. this MS Q&A.

[Kostuj]

I sincerely thank everyone for their replies. At least a couple of you suggested that perhaps I saved the documents in the new Word version after that program preliminarily opened the first Libre file that I checked after upgrading Word. But I did not do that unless it was done automatically and very quickly. As soon as I first noticed that the new Word desktop version opened the Libre file, I quickly closed it and changed to having Libre open the file type before I tried opening any others. But no matter which Libre file I now open, I am getting the same results as I originally described.

For instance, I do have some local backups of the Libre files in questions, which were commonly set to read-only when I backed them up. And I recovered one such backup from well before I upgraded to MS Office 2024. Sure enough, opening that file simply to check it out resulted in the same very changed formatting and same message received about .odp and .ods file formats not registered to be opened by default by LibreOffice.

A couple of others very kindly suggested setting this back or assigning the files back to LibreOffice, but unfortunately those comments were confusing to me and had no suggestions about how to do so. I was wondering on my own whether uninstalling and reinstalling the same Libre version I have been using, or upgrading to a newer Libre version, might help fundamentally take me back to where I need to be at least for now. And while I have not done so yet, I could always put this to Microsoft and see what they have to say about it.

I still have not really taken any further steps, and I am still hopeful that I have not permanently lost what I did and will be able to eventually get back to where I was. So any other additional possible suggestions would surely be appreciated. Thank you very much again to everyone for their very gracious responses.

[EarnestAl]

@Kostuj

A couple of others very kindly suggested setting this back or assigning the files back to LibreOffice, but unfortunately those comments were confusing to me and had no suggestions about how to do so

The link provided by @Hrbrgr gave instructions on how to reassign file types.
Here is just one way in pictures (note Windows 11 used so there might be small differences in appearance)

1. Open File Explorer and right click an Open Document Format file that is assigned to MS Office. Select Open With > Choose another app
   
   
2. In the new dialogue, under suggested apps, select LibreOffice Writer and click the button Always
   
   

[Kostuj]

You are right and I sincerely apologize. And I still did not recognize it as being a link within Hrbrgr’s very kind reply until you stated it. Thank you very much. While I do not have the opportunity to try it at this moment, I certainly will and get back to you again shortly. Thank you very much again. I really appreciate it.

[Wanderer]

@Kostuj

recovered one such backup from well before I upgraded to MS Office 2024. Sure enough, opening that file simply to check it out resulted in the same very changed formatting

Then you have 2 problems and the change in appearance is not done by opening in MS-Word. One problem is easy to solve (re-assign the missing types) the foematting issue is more complicated…
.
My best guess is: The install may have changed your installation of fonts (already mentioned above by @mikekaganski)…

[Kostuj]

I sincerely thank everyone again for their extremely kind and helpful comments. They are all very much appreciated. I did go through the suggested process, which more permanently makes Libre open its associated files rather than needing to do that for each file individually. But beyond that unfortunately nothing changed, with the same odd and altered formatting observed from what I recalled of my most recent work and the same new notice popping up upon opening my LibreWriter documents.

However, and while very embarrassing to admit, I then did some further investigation largely in view of the kind comments regarding the new installation possibly changing my installation of fonts. While it did not seem like that long, and in needing to critically attend to other parts of the business most recently, I guess it has been about a couple of months now since I actually did any editing work on the book. And I have had it on write protection and not taken it off for quite a while now and not saved any newer versions since.

And in my first Libre file opening since upgrading to MS Office 2024, I first very broadly noticed discrepancies and alterations surrounding figures, with many of their captions missing or placed differently, and altered spacings between images and surrounding texts as examples. And in looking a little deeper, I also found various captions that are of different font sizes (I used the same font style throughout the work) and also italicized in certain places but not in others. And I find it highly unlikely that these types of discrepancies would be caused by any formatting differences between my current LibreOffice version and my very recent upgrading of MS Office from 2003 to 2024.

So I looked back into my editing notes in more detail, and it now appears very likely that I actually produced and left these elements exactly as I have found them upon my most recent openings of the files. And while I will need to thoroughly inspect and confirm this yet again, it is looking more like no notable formatting alterations really occurred due to the update installation of MS Office. While I was primarily attending to the far more crucial textual content, I really thought I had completed more work on the formatting of the figures than I apparently have to this point. So, it looks like I owe everyone a double apology and hope I have not wasted too much of everyone’s time.

Assuming and hoping that this continues to hold true I just need to make two, more minor decisions before I soon get back to work on the book. One is the new prompt I am getting, upon initially opening really any Libre file, about whether or not to change the LibreOffice default file format registrations to be or include .odp and .ods file formats and to have Libre open them by default. And the other is whether or not to update Libre before continuing from my current 7.6.7.2 version (not that old yet) to the newer 24.8.3 version that I keep being prompted to do, hoping that I do not get any notable formatting changes or other surprises there.

So naturally I would be grateful for any further comments regarding either of these. But if not, I understand and should hopefully be able to navigate through these elements, which seem a bit less severe than what I thought was going on earlier. I once again sincerely thank everyone for their gracious input, and I am sorry for any inconveniences caused because of the formatting issue(s) that I really thought was taking place earlier.

[robleyd]

@Kostuj

change the LibreOffice default file format registrations to be or include .odp and .ods file formats and to have Libre open them by default

It would make sense to use LibreOffice to open these (spreadsheet and presentation) file formats that it is designed to handle and are its native format. Of course, for reasons of your own, you may wish to have them handled by M$ Office. The decision is entirely yours.

[Kostuj]

Thank you very much for the additional comments. They are greatly appreciated. Because I apparently could not remember some of the elements I was working on and formatting I was experimenting with just a couple of months ago, I figured that even if there were any notable differences between my current Libre version and the most recent one, I might not even notice them anyhow.

So I updated to the latest version. And with that, the message I had been receiving upon opening any of my Libre files, which stated that certain file types were not registered to be opened by default by Libre, no longer appears. I thought that might be a possibility, so no decision is needed in that regard anymore, and preliminarily all looks pretty good to me now when I took a look a little while ago.

I very much look forward now to finishing my book revising using LibreWriter. And I wish to sincerely thank everyone again for their very gracious and helpful input. I am extremely grateful to all.