Which MS Office file formats have better compatibility with LibreOffice?

[TJMeneses]

Wish all I can that ODF was the ubiquitous document format used in my university, it’s not. MS Office dominates all office and student work. What I’d like to know is this; which format should I use when exporting my LO-created files to ensure the highest compatibility with, say MS Office 2007, and vice versa?

This is a catch-all kind of question. I expect that the answers might differ between applications e.g. Writer works best with 2007, but not Calc. The more comprehensive your answer to my question is, the more I’d appreciate it.

EDIT: Although I’ve selected an answer, I’d still like to know if there are certain cases (or certain features) where saving to the newer “open” OOXML formats provide better compatibility than .doc/.xls/.ppt.

[magicfab]

In most cases saving Writer/Calc/Impress to Word/Excel/Powerpoint 97/2000/XP formats will yield the best results, keeping in mind features and formatting will differ.

[TJMeneses]

Based on the parameters of my question, I suppose this was the answer I was really looking for. It’s really tricky to know when it’s better to use 2007/OOXML formats instead of the older non-X formats of '03. Thanks for the info.

[Mateusz]

Office 2007 SP2 can import ODF 1.1 file so try this

Why Word 14 doesn't open Writer 3.5 files?

Change version of ODF and try open it in Word 2010 (14). Go to LibO Tool > Options > Load/Save > ODF format version > and change from 1.2 extended to 1.0/1.1. Save file again and open in Word. Ps. It may cause troubles with new features.

[ehansen]

Please note that Excel can not in any way handle .ods files coming from LibreOffice. By design Excel will deliberately destroy any .ods created by LO deleting all formulas, and replace them with their current value. The only .ods file Excel can work with are the ones created by Excel…

[ROSt53]

IMHO as much as our devs try to create MSO compatible export and import filters, they never have a real chance because MS - to the best of my knowledge - is not following standard formats. Thus, for our devs this MSO compatibility remains a moving target. Will MS follow and agreed industry standard? What could be a reason for MS to follow or not follow this standard?

We as LibO users have only the chance to live with what LibO provides.

However, since I am using LibO (means abandoned MSO) I recognized that pdf-Files are in 99.9% of all file exchange needs the best solution. In the remaining cases I save in an MSO format to exchange files. In these few cases I take into account that I might loose a bit of formatting.

To give @TJMeneses a partial answer: Don’t worry too much about the best MSO format, use pdf-files and make the best out of the situation (trial and error) when you need to export or import MSO formats.

[ROSt53]

@TJMeneses - see also http://ask.libreoffice.org/en/question/13054/which-is-the-best-file-format-to-exhange-with/

[TJMeneses]

Hm, interesting points. I may try looking around for a corollary question I came up with after realizing that the original is too vague to be useful (“What would be the best format to collab between LO and MSO with?”)

[ROSt53]

@TJMeneses - It would really be good to have a good reference question with answers or a link to the Help wiki but this must have good information and should be updated always.