Open MS-Word and MS-PowerPoint file under Linux/UNIX

by Vivek Gite on March 5, 2006 · 4 comments

You can use program like OpenOffice.org office application to open Ms-Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files under Linux, FreeBSD and other Unixish oses. If you are looking for command line based utilities then try out catdoc or catppt:

catdoc : Reads MS-Word file and puts its content as plain text on standard output. catdoc doesn't attempt to extract formatting information other than tables from MS-Word document, so different output modes means mainly that different characters should be escaped and different ways used to represent characters, missing from output charset
Examples:
$ catdoc filename.doc
$ catdoc filename.doc > /tmp/output.txt

catppt : Reads MS-PowerPoint file and puts its content on standard output
Examples:
catppt filename.ppt
catdoc filename.ppt > /tmp/output.txt

You may need to install catdoc and catppt using apt-get, yum or FreeBSD ports collection:
# apt-get install catdoc catppt

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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Archit January 22, 2009

Hi,
nice tuto…
but problem with me is quit different…
i now shifted to linux (red hat enterprise ed..) now problem with me is that i am not able to open my ms word files in open office,I get someting like this msg :
“Unable to open document”
“Unhandeled MIME type:”application/msword”"

plz help me coz they are really important documents of me and my family…
Thanking you bof u r above litrature.
Hoping u r kind co-operation

Reply

2 ritish k desai January 28, 2009

sir/madam
i want to know that i can use excel file in linux as well as in microsoft? if yes pls. tell me how? pls. send detail on my mail

Reply

3 bharat prajapati April 1, 2010

i m not able to open powerpoint files in linux….
how can i check openoffice.org is in my rhel 5..
if not..than how can i install openoffice.org

Reply

4 salma June 29, 2011

I can,t open some of my powerpoint file ( it said ,it is in adiffrent conversion )

Reply

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