Are my Office and Onenote files going to be useless?

QAs Microsoft has stopped supporting Office 2007, I downloaded your recommended replacement, Libreoffice. I have saved my Excel home accounts using Libreoffice’s ‘ODF Spreadsheet (.ods) (*.ods)’ option. Similarly, I have saved my Microsoft Word documents using Libreoffice’s ‘ODF Text Document (.odt) (*.odt)’ option. Have I done the right thing here? I also have a lot of old correspondence saved on USB memory sticks. I want to keep these, but if I delete Microsoft Office I assume these will no longer be accessible? If so, is there a quick way of converting these files en bloc? Finally, I have also used Onenote 2007. How do I convert the information from that for use in Libreoffice? Alan Hughes-jones

AIf you plan to stick with Libreoffice for the long term then yes, saving your files using the program’s ‘native’ format makes sense. We say this because, although Libreoffice is able to open Microsoft Office files (and vice versa), there will be occasions when small aspects of a document won’t make the journey entirely unchanged — whether that be the page layout, formatting or other details. The content, though, will always remain intact. The Office files saved to your USB memory sticks are just the same as those on your hard drive, so you’ll be able to open them with Libreoffice at any point in the future.

Unfortunately, Libreoffice doesn’t currently have an equivalent program for Onenote, so if you’re ditching Microsoft’s program you’ll need an alternative. Evernote ( www.evernote.com) is a popular choice. It can import files from Onenote: just open the File menu, then choose Import followed by Onenote, and then follow the prompts (see screenshot).