Problem with file corruption

[somethingsketchy]

I am currently using OpenOffice writer 3.0.1 (latest) for word processing of school assignments. For the past 5 days I have noticed assignments were being returned missing most, if not, entire sections of text from professors.

I save all of my documents approximately every 5 minutes and the file extensions are in .doc or .docx (unfortunately most teachers do not like the .odt extension). For some reason I was returned an online quiz answer sheet that had no answer grid (where the answers are typed) from the professor. I am half-tempted (for future documents) to print a hard copy of the document, then scan the document and upload the scanned image to the website.

My questions to the other forum readers are:

1. Should I keep saving in .doc extension or just save in .odt and convert to .doc?
2. How can I prevent file corruption in the future with saving documents?
3. Should I use another word processor altogether?

Thank you for your time.

 

[Fardringle]

Can you close and re-open the original documents successfully (i.e. Is all of the data intact in the documents BEFORE you submit them to your professors)?

If you physically copy the files from your computer to another machine running MS Office (by CD/flash drive/floppy/etc), can you open them on the second computer? Or, if you have MS Word on your computer, can you open the files in Word? I assume that you don't have Word since you are using OpenOffice, but it's likely that your teachers are using Word so you'll need to find a way to verify that the files from your computer will actually open correctly in Word.

 

[somethingsketchy]

I did attempt to try and read a copy of the .doc file (after it was opened and saved in an OpenOffice Writer session) with a friend's Word application and he was unable to read the file. Must have been something when I initially downloaded the quiz, altered the file with the appropriate answers, saved it in the required .doc format, then submitted it is where the corruption occurs.

For now I have submitted both a hard copy and a "soft copy" via email so hopefully that'll work.

Thanks Fardringle for the advice. Appreciated your time on the issue.

 

[VinylxScratches]

You might want to give IBM Lotus Symphony and see how well that works with .doc files. Honestly if Office is the standard at your school, you should buy it. I got Office 2007 for 60 bucks through Microsoft's Ultimate Steal. Open Office is good but things don't always work out well.

 

[lxskllr]

OO doesn't like some of the MS file formats for saving. I always use .odt format(it's native), then save a second copy in .doc Word 6.0 format if I have to give it to others.

 

[zenguy]

I've not seen this issue, but Try saving as "PDF" and submit that.
I would also try and stick with "DOC" over "DOCx" if you are having problems.

Also try the OO Version from here........
http://download.novell.com/Dow...d?buildid=uozWMoU4UPQ~

OO itself does not differ from the one at OpenOffice.Org except that Novell's Dist includes the lastest "MS Office" conversion/compatibility updates which then get rolled over to OpenOffice.Org. This is because Novell Engineers are the one primarily responsible for this task due to their agreement to work together on software compatibility.