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I'm trying to convert a bunch of xlsx files to xls (because some other software<cough>matlab<cough> can process xls but not xlsx on the mac).

I've tried unoconv but it has issues (which apparently stem from pyuno's shared object not being 64-bit-compatible -- even trying to override this with 

$ VERSIONER_PYTHON_PREFER_32_BIT=yes ./unoconv

still dies, this time with Fatal Python error: Interpreter not initialized (version mismatch?) which I'm surmising has to do with a mismatch between the python used with OpenOffice and the one shipped with MacOS X).

I'm using the Microsoft-provided "Open XML Converter" in the meantime, but I'd really like to figure out a way to do it with FOSS tools and via the shell. Any ideas?

Oh, I'm running on Snow Leopard if that makes any difference.

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1 Answer

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I've not tried this with .xls(x) files per say, but I have used LibreOffice to batch convert .doc(x) files to .pdf using the convert-to option. OpenOffice has the same options, afaik.

Check the help option for your app. In my case it was:

/Applications/LibreOffice.app/Contents/MacOS/soffice -help

In particular, for my switch to .pdf files, I did something like this:

/Applications/LibreOffice.app/Contents/MacOS/soffice -headless -convert-to pdf:writer_pdf_Export *.doc

The -headless flag just prevents the whole GUI from loading. There is likely a similar output file extension and filter (the pdf:writer_pdf_Export) for your .xls(x) case.

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OK, thanks-- OpenOffice 3.3 doesn't have seem to have the -convert-to (and -headless claims to be recognized, but still causes the GUI to fire up). LibreOffice does the trick (though it still seems to be spending time firing up a bunch of stuff in the background). I used this command line: $ /Applications/LibreOffice.app/Contents/MacOS/soffice --headless --convert-to xls 'test 1873.xlsx' – jhfrontz Jan 30 '12 at 19:46
The LibreOffice icon will show up in the dock, but I don't' get it loading a bunch of stuff. Also, for my install, the options aren't long options - they only have one - character, not two. That is interesting about OpenOffice not having these options. There is probably a way to define a macro in OO and then call that macro from the command line, but I'm unsure. – cm2 Jan 30 '12 at 20:47
I get it loading stuff (lots of disk spinning and time elapsed) and actually switching visual focus to the space (virtual desktop) where I have OO pinned -- not intolerable, but not what I would have hoped for "headless". Oh, this is on LibreOffice 3.4.5 OOO340m1(Build:502) – jhfrontz Jan 31 '12 at 21:29
Interesting. I'm using LibreOffice 3.3 330m19(Build:401). Not sure what has changed, but at least it is working for you now :). – cm2 Feb 1 '12 at 17:57

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