Safari cannot open OpenOffice document

dubina · Mar 17, 2012

I sent myself an email with an OpenOffice file attached., I thought I might be able to open the file in hotmail on my new iPad. (I do not know if my new iPad is a 2 or a 3...it was a gift and the store hasn't opened yet.). I got a message that told me that safari could not download the file...through Hotmail, I assume.

So...do I have to download OpenOffice to the iPad first?

Why does safari not open the OO doc file?

What is the workaround to get the doc to open on the iPad?

Any obvious mark or spec to show what vintage iPad I have?

Thanks,

xraydoc · Mar 17, 2012

dubina said:
I sent myself an email with an OpenOffice file attached., I thought I might be able to open the file in hotmail on my new iPad. (I do not know if my new iPad is a 2 or a 3...it was a gift and the store hasn't opened yet.). I got a message that told me that safari could not download the file...through Hotmail, I assume.

So...do I have to download OpenOffice to the iPad first?

Why does safari not open the OO doc file?

What is the workaround to get the doc to open on the iPad?

Any obvious mark or spec to show what vintage iPad I have?

Thanks,

The iPad's iOS does not natively support OpenOffice file formats. A viewer app called OpenReader can be downloaded from the app store. I do not believe it supports editing though.

OpenOffice.org does not make an iPad app as far as I know and I'm not sure if any of the other Office-type apps (QuickOffice, etc.) support O

files.

Don't kow much more about the .odf file format though.

As for which iPad you have - I'm not sure how you can be in possession of an iPad and not know what it is. Take a look at the box (the back, specifically).

dubina · Mar 17, 2012

The iPad's iOS does not natively support OpenOffice file formats. A viewer app called OpenReader can be downloaded from the app store. I do not believe it supports editing though.

OpenOffice.org does not make an iPad app as far as I know and I'm not sure if any of the other Office-type apps (QuickOffice, etc.) support O files.

Don't kow much more about the .odf file format though.

It is (fairly) easy to "select all", "copy" and paste an MS Office file to an Open Office or KingSoft (a Chinese version of MS Office) file and then to edit and mess around in the new format. I can use Open Office to create and edit doc files (actually, odt files) on an iMac. I have done that a lot. Thus, I would be shocked and dismayed if Apple gave users no way to port documents from a PC to an iPad and then do wordprocessing on the iPad. I see they sell keyboards for iPads, so surely they must do wordprocessing on them, as well. (or not)

As for which iPad you have - I'm not sure how you can be in possession of an iPad and not know what it is. Take a look at the box (the back, specifically).

Wife assumed she was getting latest and greatest, but she didn't know. store person did not advise that new unit would be available two days later. I called the Best Buy where wife bought iPad. They were sure it was an iPad 2, not a 3. I also checked the back of the box per your advice, and sure enough, it was an iPad2.

MisterMe · Mar 17, 2012

dubina said:
....

It is (fairly) easy to "select all", "copy" and paste an MS Office file to an Open Office or KingSoft (a Chinese version of MS Office) file and then to edit and mess around in the new format. I can use Open Office to create and edit doc files (actually, odt files) on an iMac. I have done that a lot. Thus, I would be shocked and dismayed if Apple gave users no way to port documents from a PC to an iPad and then do wordprocessing on the iPad. I see they sell keyboards for iPads, so surely they must do wordprocessing on them, as well. (or not)

...

In addition to being "shocked and dismayed," you are also all wet. OpenOffice.org's .odt document format has nothing to do with Microsoft Word's .doc format. O can create documents in the .doc format, but you must explicitly select this format when you save the document. This, clearly you did not do.

Before responding to your rant, I created a test document in both .doc and .odt format. It emailed both documents to my Live Hotmail account as attachments to a test message. I opened the test message in iPad Safari on Live Hotmail's website and in iPad Mail where I also have my Live.com account setup. In both Safari and Mail, I had no problem opening either the message or the attached converted .doc file in Mail. I had no problem opening either the message of the attached converted .doc file in Safari. In Mail and Safari, attempting to open the .odt file resulted in the error message that you reported.

The fact is that Apple has done a fantastic job of developing the iPad and its software. However, Apple has no control over who buys its products.

xraydoc · Mar 17, 2012

dubina said:
The iPad's iOS does not natively support OpenOffice file formats. A viewer app called OpenReader can be downloaded from the app store. I do not believe it supports editing though.

OpenOffice.org does not make an iPad app as far as I know and I'm not sure if any of the other Office-type apps (QuickOffice, etc.) support O files.

Don't kow much more about the .odf file format though.

It is (fairly) easy to "select all", "copy" and paste an MS Office file to an Open Office or KingSoft (a Chinese version of MS Office) file and then to edit and mess around in the new format. I can use Open Office to create and edit doc files (actually, odt files) on an iMac. I have done that a lot. Thus, I would be shocked and dismayed if Apple gave users no way to port documents from a PC to an iPad and then do wordprocessing on the iPad. I see they sell keyboards for iPads, so surely they must do wordprocessing on them, as well. (or not)

As for which iPad you have - I'm not sure how you can be in possession of an iPad and not know what it is. Take a look at the box (the back, specifically).

Wife assumed she was getting latest and greatest, but she didn't know. store person did not advise that new unit would be available two days later. I called the Best Buy where wife bought iPad. They were sure it was an iPad 2, not a 3. I also checked the back of the box per your advice, and sure enough, it was an iPad2.

If its two or three days old, consider returning it for an iPad 3.

And Apple doesn't build O

support in to iOS. Has nothing to do with not supporting PC users or word processing or anything of the sort. Simply that Apple (outside of 3rd party apps) supports MS Office files and iWork files, plus PDF, text and a few others.

I do a considerable amount of word processing on my iPad. But I use Pages (which can import .pages and .doc and export .pages, .doc and .pdf).

There are several apps which also support MS Office file formats including Office 2010 .docx and such. QuickOffice is one of them. I've never used it but it has good reviews on the app store.

But if you must have full create/edit capability for OpenOffice, consider returning your iPad and buying a netbook. The iPad does a lot of stuff well, but there is no OpenOffice-based suite for the iPad to my knowledge. Not yet at least.

dubina · Mar 17, 2012

tsk tsk

@xraydoc,

Thanks for the steer. I see Pages is a mere 20 bucks and I can handle that.

I think I can bully my odt files into Kingsoft doc files and open them in Hotmail on the iPad if I have Pages on the iPad. Does that sound right? That isn't ideal as I have a lot of fancy charts and graphics in my odt documents that don't paste over into Kingsoft, but the iPad is more portable than a Pc and I thought I would be able to do some spot editing and creation and then report the edited files back to the odt master.

I don't know enough about the iPad and surface computing to say it can't be the penultimate wordprocessor, but I like big screens and I do most of my writing on a PC. I thought the iPad would be good for thinking about stuff on the road and making improvemets on the fly, so to speak. Writing has a way of putting my ideas in little boxes, and I see no way around that except maybe to make it more spontaneous and the iPad might be a step in that direction.

that reminds me of two other things:

A friend doesn't like iPads because they have limited storage. I see external hard drives for the iPad (for pictures and movies, I guess). What do you think of external storage? How much storage is needed?

Also, the problem of iPad3 bandwidth. 4X pixel resolution would be nice sometimes, but it might be costly (or slow if I stayed with my "unlimited downloads" isp). Any thoughts on that?

I will certainly give Best Buy their old iPad back. More and more I think they are an unprincipled bunch of weasels.

Ignore the tsk tsk title. I posted this message or MisterMe at first, but then when looked at it, I found your reply after his, so I replied to you instead.

Thanks again.

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Safari cannot open OpenOffice document

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