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# Using Microsoft Office and LibreOffice

LibreOffice can open and save documents in the Microsoft Office file formats, including Microsoft Office Open XML formats.

## Opening a Microsoft Office File

1. Choose File - Open. Select a Microsoft Office file in the LibreOffice file open dialog.

MS Office file... | ...will open in LibreOffice module
Microsoft Word, *.doc, *.docx | LibreOffice Writer
Microsoft Excel, *.xls, *.xlsx | LibreOffice Calc
Microsoft PowerPoint, *.ppt, *.pps, *.pptx | LibreOffice Impress

## Saving as a Microsoft Office File

1. Choose File - Save As.

2. In the File type box, select a Microsoft Office file format.

## Saving Documents by Default in Microsoft Office Formats

1. Choose LibreOffice - Preferences Tools - Options - Load/Save - General.

2. In the Default file format and ODF settings area, first select a document type, then select the file type for saving.

From now on, if you save a document, the File type will be set according to your choice. Of course, you still can select another file type in the file save dialog.

## Opening Microsoft Office Files by Default

1. In Windows’ File Explorer, right-click a file of the type that you want to assign to another application.

2. In the context menu, choose Open with - Choose another app.

3. In the list of applications that appears, select the program that should open the current type of files. Make sure that “Always use this app” is checked.

   If these steps do not apply to your brand of Microsoft Windows, search your Microsoft Windows Help for instructions how to change the file associations.

## Converting Many Microsoft Office Files into OpenDocument Format

The Document Converter Wizard will copy and convert all Microsoft Office files in a folder into LibreOffice documents in the OpenDocument file format. You can specify the folder to be read, and the folder where the converted files are to be saved.

1. Choose File - Wizards - Document Converter to start the wizard.

## Macros in Microsoft Office and LibreOffice

With a few exceptions, Microsoft Office and LibreOffice cannot run the same macro code. Microsoft Office uses VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) code, and LibreOffice uses Basic code based on the LibreOffice API (Application Program Interface) environment. Although the programming language is the same, the objects and methods are different.

The most recent versions of LibreOffice can run some Excel Visual Basic scripts if you enable this feature at LibreOffice - Preferences Tools - Options - Load/Save - VBA Properties.

If you use macros in one of the applications and want to use the same functionality in the other application, you must edit the macros. LibreOffice can load the macros that are contained within Microsoft Office files and you can then view and edit the macro code in the LibreOffice Basic IDE editor.

### You can choose to preserve or delete VBA macros

Open a Microsoft Office document that contains VBA macro code. Change only the normal contents (text, cells, graphics), and do not edit the macros. Save the document as a Microsoft Office file type. Open the file in Microsoft Office, and the VBA macros will run as before.

You may delete the VBA macros from the Microsoft Office file on loading or on saving.

1. Choose LibreOffice - Preferences Tools - Options - Load/Save - VBA Properties to set the VBA macro handling of LibreOffice.

Related Topics

About Converting Microsoft Office Documents

Opening Documents

Opening documents saved in other formats

Saving Documents in Other Formats

Changing the Association of Microsoft Office Document Types