Moving Documents between Microsoft Word and Writer

You can convert your Microsoft Word documents to OpenOffice Writer documents, and vice versa. Always start by making a backup of the original document!

With the original word processor, make sure you first unformat citations, then save the document, and then close the word processor. Then, open the file with the other word processor. You must have the associated EndNote library available and open in order to format the citations and bibliography.

Note: If you have both Microsoft Word and OpenOffice Writer open, the Cite While You Write commands available within EndNote are active for the word processor that was launched first.

There are several Cite While You Write functions that are available only in Microsoft Word, and not in OpenOffice Writer. These include:

• Inserting notes. See Including Notes in the List of References in Word.
• Inserting figures and tables. See Finding and Inserting Figures and Tables in Word.
• Constant background instant formatting. See Instant Formatting in Word.
• Creating multiple bibliographies in a single document with sections. See Creating Multiple Bibliographies in a Single Document.
• Using a Traveling Library (although the OpenOffice Writer file stores a copy of the data for use in formatting, it does not have all the features available in Word's traveling library, such as the ability to export the document library to EndNote). See The Traveling Library in Word.