Source
r/kde•
karper

Is anyone currently using kword (the last release) as a document previewer?

I'd like to, but whenever I try to open a doc file, I get the annoying error message saying it could not import file of type application/msword.

In the past, this used to be cleared up by installing libgsf. I already have that installed, in addition to koffice-filters. Still, no cigar. Everytime I try to open a doc file, I get that irritating error. Reinstalling libgsf makes no difference.

Any thoughts on how to get it to work?

Posted Oct 24, 2011, 1:49 PM UTC

411
the_Madman•

I'm actually waiting on a stable Calligra release. The entire document filters/viewing/editing has (supposedly, according to the developers) been completely re-written and is now much cleaner/easier to maintain for them and much improved for users.

3
hal2k1•

The second beta release of Calligra is available now.

http://www.calligra-suite.org/news/announcements/calligra-2-4-beta-2/

Not only has the entire document filters/viewing/editing been completely re-written, the entire Calligra Words application has been re-written.

http://www.calligra-suite.org/words/

Calligra provides the engine for Nokia’s Harmattan Office used in Nokia's new N9 smartphone.

http://www.calligra-suite.org/news/calligra-provides-the-engine-for-nokias-harmattan-office/

"Harmattan Office is a document viewer based on the Calligra Office Engine which is part of the open-source Calligra Suite. This application provides an advanced viewer for documents in the OpenDocument Format, binary Microsoft Office documents, and Microsoft OOXML documents, as well as PDF.

Nokia has developed the Harmattan Office application together with the Calligra community and companies like KO GmbH. The result is the best mobile office document viewer available anywhere, outperforming all comparable proprietary applications on smartphone platforms."

So I guess, in relation to the original question, "Is anyone currently using kword (the last release) as a document previewer?" ... effectively the answer is "Yes, Nokia is".

3
karperOP•

effectively the answer is "Yes, Nokia is".

Doesn't help if I can't use it on my desktop. :)

The release schedule for calligra seems to indicate that the earliest I can expect a 2.4 release (which they should really consider naming 1.0) is sometime next year. I appreciate that this would mean a more fully realized product, but I do wish I didn't have to wait that long between stable releases.

1
SciK•

I have this error too but only on my desktop, surprisingly.

I have yet to figure out what difference enables my laptop to open such files. :(

2
karperOP•

Are the versions same? I do recall kword working fine earlier this year. I now have kword 2.3.3, which was the last release they made before the whole split happened. My libgsf version is 1.14.21, if that helps...

1
SciK•

Both computers run Arch and have the latest versions of all installed packages.

The workaround I’ve been using on my desktop is wv (for example, wvPDF to convert Microsoft Office files to PDFs).

Edit: woops, it seems to have stopped working on my laptop too, actually. I’ll see if rebuilding koffice-filters from source solves the problem.

Edit bis: it does!

1
karperOP•

I actually use LaTeX for all my word processing needs now, but often have to open msoffice files that come as attachments. I have libreoffice installed everywhere, but on my desktop I try to stick to as much kde software as possible.

Good to know something like wv exists. I'll definitely give it a whirl.

1
SciK•

OK, I’ve gotten it to work again by recompiling koffice-filters with libgsf as build-time dependency.

Unlike suggested by the presence of libgsf in its optional dependencies, koffice-filters has not been compiled with libgsf support.

I would like to file a bug report but I would not feel comfortable since English is not my native language. Is it yours?

1
karperOP•

No, it's not, but I'll put this on my to-do list and file the bug. Thanks for tracking it down! You're awesome! :)

2
railmaniac•

Able to reproduce on my system and verified.

2
karperOP•

Thanks. At the very least, the arch packages are borked, then. I can't wait for calligra to land in extra at this rate.

1