# Strange Open Office behavior on a student's laptop

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-open-office-behavior-on-a-students-laptop/559950>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 8, 2010, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-open-office-behavior-on-a-students-laptop/559950 "2010-11-08T19:48:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-open-office-behavior-on-a-students-laptop/559950/1 "2010-11-08T19:48:36Z")

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I have a student who can open neither .doc nor .docx files that I send him. He’s using open office v3, which if I understand correctly should be able to open both of these formats.

When he tries to download a file in one of these formats, it saves it as a .docm file instead.

Then when he goes to that .docm file on his hard drive, and double clicks on it, (and I’ve seen this with my own two eyes…), it asks him _again_ whether he’d like to open or save the document. Now it wants to open or save a document titled something like W0000010.doc. Now, if we save this, and double click on _it_, it asks _once again_ whether he’d like to save or open the document.

I only had a moment to look at this, so I didn’t get a chance to see what happens if you select “open” instead of “save” at any point in this process.

But it’s odd behavior in any case.

Any idea what’s happening here?

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**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-open-office-behavior-on-a-students-laptop/559950/2 "2010-11-08T20:01:41Z")

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Sounds like a Word file with a macro.

Not sure Open Office can read that.

Try renaming the files to be .docx and give that a try. I think it will open minus the macro.

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**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-open-office-behavior-on-a-students-laptop/559950/3 "2010-11-08T20:06:47Z")

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This is a better answer:

[http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Documentation/FAQ/General/How\_do\_I\_open\_Microsoft\_Office\_2007\_files%3F](http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Documentation/FAQ/General/How_do_I_open_Microsoft_Office_2007_files%3F)