Can we make LibreOffice handle windows write .wri files? I think they are just RTF. All I get is control characters, not formatting.
Right, AFAIK the only thing that creates.wri files is Microsoft Write (what a blast from the past! 
I found a .wri file here. I’m able to open that using LibreOffice 3.4.4 on Ubuntu 11.10. I get a little “####” and unicode spew at the top of the file and at the bottom of page 4, but I believe that nearly all of the text comes through.
Do you have any sample files we could take a look at? (you might have to open a bugzilla bug to upload them, as Ask.LO is very restrictive re: upload filetypes)
Guys, I came across this thread when researching how to do batch conversion on windows write to some other format. The resolution to that quest was some source code buried deep in another thread http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-software-2/reading-a-windows-write-file-616650/
The relevant link is http://www.msxnet.org/word2rtf/write.c
This converts to RTF. It’s GPL. I suspect it won’t be hard for someone to pick up this codebase and write a converter for LibreOffice. I’m not volunteering, but I could help
Hey @mgn, Because that code is under the GPLv2, I don’t think we can merge it into the LGPL/MPL-licensed LO codebase, however it’s possible that either (1) we could ask the author if he might consider relicensing it for us, or (2) have someone write a spec from that code so it may be reimplemented
LibreOffice 5.1 beta2 supports Microsoft Write (.wri).
I wrote the converter. Please report any problems you encounter – it would be good to have those fixed.
I have some .wri files that seem to be encoded in Dos Latin 1 that get encoding errors when opened with LibreOffice. Haven’t found a way around it except treating them as regular text files and converting using iconv (which kills the wri header/footer data so it gives another mess). Any idea how to fix?
I have a smattering of personal correspondence. It was the poor man’s Word back when. It’d be nice to see the original formatting restored. My oldest system is vista. I just trashed my win95 disks!
The best/only real .wri tool I have found, a bit klunky but very effective, is Crystal Office Systems tool Maple: http://crystaloffice.com/maple/
You can use it for 30 days free.
Once installed, open it up and crush the left pane away. Do File->Import, change the file type to windows write .wri, browse up the next file to convert, open it up, looks great, just like back in the late nineties, so now File->export, browse up the original again as Windows Write .wri. highlight(select) it, but then change the file type to Word 2007 docx, save, Edit->Select All (^A), Edit->Clear(Delete), and repeat as necessary.
Maybe the guys at Crystal Office Systems could donate some wri conversion code to Libre/Open Office?