Issue 8938

If would indeed be nice. Its worth mentioning that StarOffice has some
third party filters for works 2/3/4 for windows and solaris which are
not part of OpenOffice because they do not belong to us.

This doesn't reference specific code so it doesn't go in code.

what is the current status on this?

Reassigned to Bettina.

People still use microsoft Works, and have old files in Works format.
Just having a converter from  'Works  - Text' (wps) format to OpenOffice
would be useful. 
 It is less important to convert back or to convert other formats.
Has there been any action since 2003 ?

confirming as a new enhancement issue.

Microsoft Works is often offered as a standard with many PCs, so having at 
least a converter from wps format to OpenOffice would be really useful.

*** Issue 52389 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***

*** Issue 54435 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***

adjusted summary.

*** Issue 63560 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***

*** Issue 70289 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***

A Works import filter is being developed at this project space:
http://libwps.sourceforge.net/

While I cannot yet give a specific ETA, I mention it early on to avoid the
chance of different person possibility working on the same problem.

Thank you to Fridrich Strba for integrating libwps into ooo-build and creating
an OOo cws "wpsimport01" back in December.  

http://fridrich.blogspot.com/2006/12/microsoft-works-import-filter-for.html

Well this filter is ready or not?
Could you set a target milestone?

Hi Mathias, have you already considered this enhancement? Please take over.
Thank you.

This is done by Fridrich; perhaps he can tell us something about the targetted
release for this filter.

The import filter is currently in CWS wpsimport01. Its integration is contingent
to the inclusion of libwps module as an external module. Had a chat about it
with Martin Holmichel about a week ago and it should be on its way. When it is
done, what to do next? MBA?

Fixed in wpsimport01

Good news! But which version will integrate this CWS?

The CWS should be built on at least Windows and Linux and handed over to QA. We
need a set of test documents that QA can use for testing and a description what
the filter is able to import. After QA approval the CWS can become integrated
into the master. 

Fridrich, can you provide a Linux build? And what about Windows? Should I try to
get the Windows build organized?

@mba: nah, we are not as far as that. Still waiting for the creation of a libwps
module in CVS. If you feel like wanting to help, some kicks in Nesshof's
direction could improve the situation :-)

Martin is waiting for legal approval. 

fridrich_strba: For the build in src680, I had to do something like:

--- libwps/libwps-0.1.0~svn20070129.diff
+++ libwps/libwps-0.1.0~svn20070129.diff
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+--- misc/build/libwps-0.1.0~svn20070129/src/lib/makefile.mk
++++ misc/build/libwps-0.1.0~svn20070129/src/lib/makefile.mk
+@@ -5,9 +5,7 @@ TARGET=wpslib
+ ENABLE_EXCEPTIONS=TRUE
+ LIBTARGET=NO
+ 
+-.INCLUDE :  svpre.mk
+ .INCLUDE :  settings.mk
+-.INCLUDE :  sv.mk
+ 
+ .IF "$(GUI)"=="WNT"
+ CFLAGS+=-GR
--- libwps/makefile.mk
+++ libwps/makefile.mk
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ INCPRE+=$(SOLARVER)$/$(UPD)$/$(INPATH)$/
 .ENDIF
 
 TARFILE_NAME=libwps-0.1.0~svn20070129
-#PATCH_FILE_NAME=$(TARFILE_NAME).diff
+PATCH_FILE_NAME=$(TARFILE_NAME).diff
 BUILD_ACTION=dmake $(MFLAGS) $(CALLMACROS)
 BUILD_DIR=src/lib
 
Is that correct, etc.? ;-)

> TARFILE_NAME=libwps-0.1.0~svn20070129

FWIW, There's a proper tarball release 0.1.0 from February, and the current SVN
has one extra bug fix for malformed documents.

Dear developrs,
what are the plans for integration of this patch?

Thanks a lot for your attention.

Fridrich, is there anything left that prevented you from committing your code to
cvs? Can I help?

According to Martin the legal review is done and libwps was created in cvs.

*** Issue 79185 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***

.

Took decision that I don't want to share copyright of the code in wpsimport01
with Sun Microsystems. The only beneficiary of JCA is Sun who is this way asking
all external developers to do something it would not accept to do itself.
For those who need this feature, there is a LGPL licensed patch in ooo-build
module at svn.gnome.org. All are free to use this build patch as long as they
comply with the LGPL terms. Several GNU/Linux distributions like OpenSuSE,
Debian, Ubuntu,... ship this importer, so use their packages if you need it.

Great.
Your fundamentalism will cause pain for thousands and thousands of our Windows 
users, some of which _might_ discover that particular distro has the feature 
they need and even smaller fraction will consider switching to Linux just to 
be able to read Works files. 
The rest will either suffer without Works files cursing OpenOffice suite or 
just shell out some money for MSO.

All the code I wrote for libwps may be shipped with OpenOffice.org and
StarOffice.  I'd sign the JCA to get this moving.  

I wrote libwps in 2006, and one of the reasons I haven't worked on libwps since
is because getting it accepted here is glacially slow.  I only use the official
OpenOffice.org, so what was the point of my work?

The desperate users should remember that libwps (http://lbiwps.sf.net) includes
command line utilities to convert wps files.

Reassigned to ES.

Reassigning to project lead.

As the current situation is unclear -> target "not determined"

*** Issue 84132 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***

*** Issue 99309 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***

This issue is over 6 years old, and I have almost given up all hope of it ever 
being resolved.
It's a real shame because OpenOffice is so close to being great....but in some 
areas still so very far from what it could be.

It's a shame that this issue has not been resolved.  It would be useful to many,
many people.

I still receive Microsoft Works files....after 6 years still no way to open 
them with OpenOffice!!!

The link below for desperate users at http://lbiwps.sf.net does not work 
either!!!

Help!!!

The correct link is http://libwps.sourceforge.net

Looks like the simple solution for Works users trying to move up to the real 
world may be to use http://go-oo.org/ and not the normal OpenOffice.  I haven't 
tried it yet - downloading it now.

I have two friends who are still using Works, and unfortunately they never 
spotted that Works can be set to default to saving in Word6 or RTF formats.

For people who want to continue using Works, the rest of us need OpenOffice to 
be able to read their Works files without fuss.  This also applies to people who 
accidentally open Works and create documents without realising their mistake.

For people who want to move up, there is a need for a batch converter that will 
convert all the old files.

This is still a huge problem for us but I recently discovered that Novell's 
Edition (3.0) of OOo does support MS-Works importing.  I can only guess that 
they took the time to add the functionality from the libwps library.

I'd also love to see a batch converter to help us completely migrate away from 
Works files and over to OOo.

Just getting people to convert their Works files isn't the only issue at hand. 
Many new OEM systems still ship with Works pre-installed when MS-Office is not 
chosen as an option, propagating the likelihood of new works files being created.

I have purchased computers over the years with Win. 98, XP and windows 7 and 
ALL of them had WORKS installed as Word processor. So it really isn't by choice 
that I have a couple hundred Documents that I can't read with OpenOffice. If 
you can't read these doc's then it is useless to me. I'm dumb founded as to why 
this is such a HUGE problem..

After reformatting I thought open office would work for me but I will be 
uninstalling it as all the other computers I have have Works installed on them 
and this is useless to me, and it looks like a lot of other people feel the 
same. I will be purchasing Works as I log off and uninstall.

jarv442, to continue to use a product that nobody can open is just silly. You
can convert your works files. I really dislike that OOo can't open works files.
This makes it difficult for me to get those around me to use it. However, once
converted you are using a program that makes your files assessable. I've just
installed goo on a computer I'm reformatting for someone so they can get to
there files. I've given up on OOo in that sense. Works is a nightmare that M$
should get rid of.

neooffice opens works files fine - but that is Mac only.

OpenOffice needs to be the migration path from MS works by forcing people to 
convert from the native wps files pretty much sells the user on a MS office 
solution.  This has been open for 9 years. My client just got a W7 computer with 
works and I cannot read files he emailed to me. This is bad and needs to be fixed.

I occasionally get sent Works documents by random people.   The one I got today
was a WDB of books someone wants to sell. No idea why he didn't use a spreadsheet.

LibreOffice 3.4.2 can open Microsoft Works files.  Perhaps their code could be used.

In accordance to Apache policies we will not carry LGPLd code in OpenOffice.

An alternative would be to make such filters available as extensions. For the
time being a work around would be to have them converted by another
package to rich text format (.rtf) which tends to be more portable.

*** Issue 126078 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***