Taking your documents along: from Word and Pages to LibreOffice and OnlyOffice

LibreOffice 24.2 and OnlyOffice 8.0 open your existing .docx and .pages files on Linux, but the way they do it differs per suite and per file type.

Requirements

• A Linux distribution with LibreOffice 24.2 or newer (installed by default on most distributions)
• Or OnlyOffice 8.0 (desktop version for Linux)
• Access to your documents, whether they are on a local drive, external hard drive, or network folder
• For .pages files: optionally access to a Mac with Apple Pages

Opening Microsoft Word documents in LibreOffice

LibreOffice reads .doc and .docx without any detours. You open a file via File > Open or with Ctrl+O. This works for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files.

Support is broader than you might think. In addition to modern .docx files (from Word 2007 onwards), LibreOffice also reads older formats such as Word 97/2000/XP/2003 and even Word 6.0/95. For those older files, LibreOffice uses specific encoding methods to preserve the content as well as possible.

What goes wrong: complex layouts, certain fonts, or advanced features such as tracked changes and macros can be displayed differently. That is not a flaw in LibreOffice, but a limitation of the fact that different programs interpret the Word format in slightly different ways. Text, basic formatting, tables, and images usually survive the transition without problems.

Setting the default save format to .docx

If you regularly share documents with Word users, adjust the default save format. Otherwise, LibreOffice saves new files in the OpenDocument format (.odt), which Word does not always open directly.

1. Open LibreOffice Writer.

2. Go to Tools > Options > Load/Save > General.

3. Under Default file format, choose Word 2007-2019.

4. Click OK.

This costs you nothing, except that your new documents will by default be in a proprietary format. For new projects, OpenDocument remains the better choice: it is an open standard, free of licensing costs, and not dependent on the whims of a vendor.

Bulk conversion with the Document Converter

Manually opening and saving each file is time-consuming if you want to migrate an archive from an old hard drive or network folder. LibreOffice has a separate tool for that: the Document Converter.

1. Open the Document Converter via your distribution's start menu or with the command:

libreoffice --converter

2. Select the source folder with your documents.

3. Choose which file types you want to convert (.doc, .docx, .xls, .ppt, and so on).

4. Determine the target format — OpenDocument or another format.

5. Choose a target folder. The tool preserves the folder structure and saves the new files in the location you chose.

The conversion works in bulk and leaves your original files intact. That is useful if you want to migrate an archive or if you want to be sure you always have an open format version of your documents. It does cost disk space: you will have two versions of each file.

Apple Pages files: the detour via .docx

LibreOffice cannot open .pages files directly. The Pages format is not documented and Apple does not support it in other suites.

The simplest route: export your Pages documents to .docx on your Mac before moving them to Linux. Apple Pages supports export to Microsoft Word format, and that file will then open without problems in LibreOffice.

If you no longer have access to a Mac, OnlyOffice is the alternative. OnlyOffice 8.0 has explicit support for importing .pages files. The documentation lists Pages as a supported input format for the Word Processor, and OnlyOffice's GitHub page confirms that PAGES is one of the supported formats.

OnlyOffice converts your Pages files to DOCX in a few clicks. That makes it the better choice if you have many Pages files and want to convert them all at once without first needing a Mac. OnlyOffice works on Linux both as a desktop app and via a server installation, and the integration with cloud storage makes it suitable for teams.

What is preserved, what breaks

Not everything survives the transition unscathed. These are the pain points:

• Tracked changes: Word's system for version control is not always interpreted perfectly. LibreOffice does have a similar feature, but importing tracked changes from a .docx file can be incomplete.
• Macros: VBA macros do not work in LibreOffice or OnlyOffice. Both suites do support Basic scripts, but you have to adjust them manually.
• Fonts: If a document uses a font that is not installed on your Linux system, a substitute font is used. That can change the layout.
• Advanced layout: Columns, text boxes, shapes, and linked tables of contents can shift or show errors.

The best strategy: after the transfer, open every important document and check that everything is correct. Save a copy in the OpenDocument format (.odt, .ods, .odp) as an archive, and export to .docx or .pptx only if you need to share it with others.

Verification

Check whether your documents came over correctly:

file jouw-document.docx

This shows the file type. You can check a file opened in LibreOffice via File > Properties, where you can see the format and version of the document.

For a quick check of whether all images and tables were preserved: open the document and compare the page count with the original. A difference of one page is normal; a difference of five means something went wrong with the layout.

Common problems

LibreOffice shows an empty document when opening a .docx file.

The file may be damaged or created with a very recent version of Word. Try opening the file in Word and saving it again as .docx or .doc. If that does not work, try OnlyOffice — it sometimes has better support for recent formats.

The Document Converter cannot find files in my folder.

Check whether you selected the correct file extensions in the tool. By default, only .doc and .docx are checked — you need to select .xls and .ppt separately.

Fonts look different in the converted document.

Install the Microsoft fonts on your Linux system. On distributions with apt:

sudo apt install ttf-mscorefonts-installer

This costs you a few hundred megabytes of disk space, but it ensures that documents look the same as on Windows.

Where to find help

The Dutch-language help for LibreOffice is an excellent resource. The pages of LibreOffice Help and LibreOffice Documentation explain how to open, convert, and configure files. OnlyOffice also has extensive documentation, including API information that states which formats are supported.

If you get stuck, consult the official documentation rather than forums or blogs. Many tips there are outdated or based on older versions. The official sources are up-to-date and verified.

Your documents do not have to be left behind when switching to Linux. LibreOffice and OnlyOffice offer robust solutions for opening and converting Microsoft Word and Apple Pages files. The core of a successful transition is preparation: know which format you are using, which features are in your documents, and which program handles those features best. OpenDocument is an open standard that you can always open, regardless of the operating system. And that is exactly the reason your documents last longer on Linux than on a platform that renews its formats every few years.