OpenOffice.org2 in Breezy can't open StarOffice 5 Documents

[Dave Croal]

I have some old StarCalc .sdc and StarWriter .sdw files from my StarOffice 5.x
days and just noticed that OpenOffice.org2 in Breezy can't open them.

For example when I try to access a .sdc file I get the Filter Selection dialog,
if I choose StarCalc 5.0 I get a General Input/Output error.

OpenOffice.org 1.1.4 from Hoary opens these files without problems, so does
OpenOffice.org2 for Windows.

[Mantas Kriaučiūnas (mantas)]

I think this bug is coused by unintuitive description in openoffice.org2
package. Now there is a line:

* openoffice.org2-filter-so52: SO 5.2 filters for OpenOffice.org

But IMHO this line should contain words "StarOffice" and "format", for example:

* openoffice.org2-filter-so52: support for old StarOffice 5.x file (document)
formats for OpenOffice.org

openoffice.org2-filter-so52 package's description should be improved also.

[Neilen Marais (neilenmarais)]

I can confirm that installing the openoffice.org2-filter-so52 package fixes it.

The real problem IMHO is not the naming of the filters, but the fact that

1) OOwriter gives you a list of seemingly supported formats, including staroffice 5.0, which seems like it should work.

2) The error message is completely unintelligeble. Should be something like "Plugin not found to handle xxx file format"

3) Why are the filters not just installed by default?

[Matthias Klose (doko)]

the filters are about 9mb (binary package), so they are not found on the CD. The openoffice.org package suggests the binary filters and mentions them in the package documentation.

[cdravi (cdravi)]

The problem for opening old sdc, sdw ... files still exists in Draper also, after upgrading from Breezy. However the problem is solved by simply "sudo apt-get install openoffice.org-filter-so52". Thanks folks.

[Lauren Matheson (inan-coldsnap)]

I agree that this package should be installed by default unless a more descriptive error message can instruct that filters need to be installed. General I/O error sounds like file corruption to me.