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I have a user who has a lot of files that need to be converted from .doc to docx. A fully batched process is not the right way to go but multiple files are needed. I think that a right-click in explorer would be good, and have got this working nicely but now need a converter that works!

I have tried the OFC.exe tool that is described here but can't get it to work and can't see how I would integrate it into a right click solution.

I am using the wordconv file converter as described at this stack overflow question but I cannot find any description of the command line. What is frustrating to me is that when i run the conversion, I find the doc is converted to docx, but it is still in compatibility mode.

I would like to use wordconv, because it is already installed and made by MS so no issues with having to get new software purchased in the corporate environment. I don't really want to break out visual studio and get all COM'd up.

So: will wordconv work? do you have the command line? do i need another approach?

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No More Hacks
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  • Belongs on SuperUser, unless you want to program a Word Converter (in that case, please change the question) – vstrien Jun 12 '12 at 12:47
  • @vstrien: A lot of things dealing with Word and conversion of Word documents are related to Word automation. Therefore I don't see a problem with this question on SO. – Dirk Vollmar Jun 12 '12 at 14:29

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You probably already got the right command line switches:

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\wordconv.exe" -oice -nme <input file> <output file>

where and need to be fully qualified path names. There is no official documentation available from Microsoft, just the above re-engineered version.

You should be aware that simply using the wordconv utility won't get you out of Compatibility Mode. If that is required, you will have to use Word 2007 (or better Word 2010 as there is yet another Word 2007 Compatibility Mode in Word 2010).

However, Compatibility Mode exists to allow for a high-fidelity representation of you legacy .doc documents in .docx format. If you convert out of Compatibility Mode, document layout is likely to change or even break. Therefore you should consider whether you really need a full conversion.

For more information you can check out this thread:

Automation: how to automate transforming .doc to .docx?

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Dirk Vollmar
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  • OK this is good to know. The getting out of compatibility mode is important as the ultimate destination of these documents is a sharepoint library and I have advice (and some anecdotal evidence) that compatibility mode is a problem. – No More Hacks Jun 13 '12 at 07:28