Am I forced to subscribe toMicrosoft Office if I want to submit fiction?
June 8, 2020 2:08 PM Subscribe
All my short stories are saved as .doc on my iMac (OS Catalina). Any document I try to open comes up in textedit only. I was going to subscribe to Microsoft Office for Word but the recent reviews have been just terrible. I am trying LibreOffice instead. Unfortunately, Submittable only takes .doc or docx. What are my options here?
Response by poster: theora55, How do you convert an old .doc to GoogleDocs? Is that possible?
posted by uans at 2:11 PM on June 8, 2020
posted by uans at 2:11 PM on June 8, 2020
You can save as .docx in LibreOffice, just use the file type dropdown when you save as.
posted by momus_window at 2:11 PM on June 8, 2020 [12 favorites]
posted by momus_window at 2:11 PM on June 8, 2020 [12 favorites]
You should be able to save a file as either .doc or .docx within LibreOffice. It has been years since I've used the software but it was definitely a key function back then and there'd be little reason for them to remove it.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 2:11 PM on June 8, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 2:11 PM on June 8, 2020 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: I get this message when I try to save as : This document may contain formatting or content that cannot be saved in the currently selected file format “Office Open XML Text”.
posted by uans at 2:16 PM on June 8, 2020
posted by uans at 2:16 PM on June 8, 2020
Apple's Pages can export to .doc and .docx.
posted by JackBurden at 2:20 PM on June 8, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by JackBurden at 2:20 PM on June 8, 2020 [1 favorite]
That is .docx and LibreOffice says that because it's possible that there is LO formatting that can't be saved as .docx. It *always* says that, for reasons. Go ahead and click "Use Microsoft Word 2007-2013 XML Format" (or whatever equivalent it says to you in your version). in that dialog box. It almost sure will be fine and will save it a perfectly fine .docx file that everybody else can read.
posted by skynxnex at 2:22 PM on June 8, 2020 [7 favorites]
posted by skynxnex at 2:22 PM on June 8, 2020 [7 favorites]
The various tools with Microsoft Word exports can still have really bad/weird layout glitches when imported into actual Word, so for a submission that's really important to you, you might want to have a friend with Word open it and give it a onceover to make sure there's not anything horribly off. If that's too big of a hassle, there's also a free version of Word for iDevices and Android that you could pop it into for a quick inspection.
posted by Candleman at 4:16 PM on June 8, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by Candleman at 4:16 PM on June 8, 2020 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: I'm saving as .doc through LibreOffice, and it looks good in there. But when I open it in the folder the formatting is way off. How can I make sure the doc I am attaching is the one from LibreOffice?
Sorry to be so dense.
posted by uans at 4:32 PM on June 8, 2020
Sorry to be so dense.
posted by uans at 4:32 PM on June 8, 2020
GoogleDocs, open the .doc file using the web browser and Googledocs. Most formatting is fine. Download as .docx
When libraries reopen, they always have computers with Word.
posted by theora55 at 4:36 PM on June 8, 2020
When libraries reopen, they always have computers with Word.
posted by theora55 at 4:36 PM on June 8, 2020
Response by poster: theora55 I sincerely hope this is my last question. How can I get Submittable to select the file when it is in Google Docs. I press the orange "Choose File" rectangle but Google Docs does not come up as an option.
posted by uans at 5:20 PM on June 8, 2020
posted by uans at 5:20 PM on June 8, 2020
Google Docs saves the files online rather than on your computer. When you're ready to submit, go to the File menu in Google Docs, go to "Download. The menu will expand to the right and the top option is "Microsoft Word .docx" - download that and then upload it in Submittable.
posted by Candleman at 5:37 PM on June 8, 2020
posted by Candleman at 5:37 PM on June 8, 2020
Response by poster: Okay, I've downloaded it to my desktop--when I open that file some of the formatting is lost--all single space now. Do I have to edit that again?
posted by uans at 5:43 PM on June 8, 2020
posted by uans at 5:43 PM on June 8, 2020
Response by poster: Perhaps it is easier to say that when I open the .docx file I saved to my desktop, it is opened by TextEdit. Will Submittable read it as I want it to be seen?
posted by uans at 5:44 PM on June 8, 2020
posted by uans at 5:44 PM on June 8, 2020
Will Submittable read it as I want it to be seen?
Yes, with my previous caveat.
posted by Candleman at 5:47 PM on June 8, 2020 [1 favorite]
Yes, with my previous caveat.
posted by Candleman at 5:47 PM on June 8, 2020 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: WCityMike, I tried.
I typed in: textutil -convert docx "[Story]"
Also tried : textutil -convert docx "Story"
Also tried "[Story.doc]" and "Story.doc"
Says the file doesn't exist.
posted by uans at 7:08 PM on June 8, 2020
I typed in: textutil -convert docx "[Story]"
Also tried : textutil -convert docx "Story"
Also tried "[Story.doc]" and "Story.doc"
Says the file doesn't exist.
posted by uans at 7:08 PM on June 8, 2020
it's probably .docx.
The fact that when you open the file by double clicking on it and it opens in textedit and looks like garbage is not relevant. Textedit doesn't show the formatting but for anybody who has Word installed it willl open in Word, not textedit.
Aside from that, use Pages, it's free, better than Word an can import/export to and from Word very efficiently.
posted by signal at 8:18 PM on June 8, 2020
The fact that when you open the file by double clicking on it and it opens in textedit and looks like garbage is not relevant. Textedit doesn't show the formatting but for anybody who has Word installed it willl open in Word, not textedit.
Aside from that, use Pages, it's free, better than Word an can import/export to and from Word very efficiently.
posted by signal at 8:18 PM on June 8, 2020
... when I open the .docx file I saved to my desktop, it is opened by TextEdit.
This is because you don't have an application installed on your computer that can properly display/edit a .docx file.
Typically modern computers (Window/MacOS/Linux) when you install an application that can display/edit a particular file format, that application is registered with the computer's operating system so that when you double-click on that file, the program that you installed that can handle that file will open that file. Your problem is that you don't have anything that will properly display/edit a .docx file on your computer. Your computer will fall back and take a look at the file and see that it's basically some sort of text file and will open it with the application that handles text files. In your case, TextEdit. Sometimes that fallback application is fine, but if it isn't designed to actually handle the .docx format then it will try and do it's best and just let you read it. That's a pretty good case and I'm surprised TextEdit will let you *see* enough of a .docx to notice that it doesn't have the formatting. I'd expect it to show you a whole bunch of mish-mash-nonsense at best.
Until you put some application on your computer that can display/edit .docx files, you'll probably never ever see them correctly when you try to open them on your computer.
But that same .docx from GoogleDocs will probably be just fine to submit to some place that expects a .docx file.
If you want to do this on your computer (vs the web) even just the double checking part... you need some application on your computer that handles the .docx format. LibreOffice is one choice, it seeps Pages is another.
posted by zengargoyle at 9:25 PM on June 8, 2020
This is because you don't have an application installed on your computer that can properly display/edit a .docx file.
Typically modern computers (Window/MacOS/Linux) when you install an application that can display/edit a particular file format, that application is registered with the computer's operating system so that when you double-click on that file, the program that you installed that can handle that file will open that file. Your problem is that you don't have anything that will properly display/edit a .docx file on your computer. Your computer will fall back and take a look at the file and see that it's basically some sort of text file and will open it with the application that handles text files. In your case, TextEdit. Sometimes that fallback application is fine, but if it isn't designed to actually handle the .docx format then it will try and do it's best and just let you read it. That's a pretty good case and I'm surprised TextEdit will let you *see* enough of a .docx to notice that it doesn't have the formatting. I'd expect it to show you a whole bunch of mish-mash-nonsense at best.
Until you put some application on your computer that can display/edit .docx files, you'll probably never ever see them correctly when you try to open them on your computer.
But that same .docx from GoogleDocs will probably be just fine to submit to some place that expects a .docx file.
If you want to do this on your computer (vs the web) even just the double checking part... you need some application on your computer that handles the .docx format. LibreOffice is one choice, it seeps Pages is another.
posted by zengargoyle at 9:25 PM on June 8, 2020
if you have an older hotmail.com or, now, a newer, Outlook.com account (both free) you have access to the Office web clients including Word, Powerpoint, and Excel. No subscription needed.
posted by alchemist at 10:01 PM on June 8, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by alchemist at 10:01 PM on June 8, 2020 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Problem solved. Thank you so much, everyone, for your help and patience
posted by uans at 1:24 PM on June 9, 2020
posted by uans at 1:24 PM on June 9, 2020
Alchemist, thanks, that's useful. The web version is pretty stripped down, but sometimes, Word is required. I miss my libraries and their computers with office and their laser printers.
posted by theora55 at 8:26 AM on June 11, 2020
posted by theora55 at 8:26 AM on June 11, 2020
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by theora55 at 2:09 PM on June 8, 2020 [2 favorites]