A list, but no file content, on my new iPad

[davowolf]

Yes Jim I thought of that but couldn't find Open Office in the App Store. Its quite and old version.

 

[Jimmysb]

Yes Jim I thought of that but couldn't find Open Office in the App Store. Its quite and old version.

Have a look at this link:

What Is an ODT File, and How Do You Open One?

Microsoft Office recently got upgraded support for ODT documents. Here's what they are.

www.howtogeek.com

You could download MS Word, and this will open your file, and stop them being greyed out.

 

[ferrarr]

Do you plan on editing the files on the iPad? If so you will need an editor app, like M$ Word. You may be able to use an online version of Word to do this.

Free Microsoft 365 Online | Word, Excel, PowerPoint

With Microsoft 365 for the web you can edit and share Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote files on your devices using a web browser.

www.microsoft.com

 

[Rod]

2) copying the odt files on my iMac and pasting them into a new Pages document which can then be read (and edited) on the iPad.

A bit tedious for sure but I think this is the best option.

 

[davowolf]

Do you plan on editing the files on the iPad? If so you will need an editor app, like M$ Word. You may be able to use an online version of Word to do this.

Free Microsoft 365 Online | Word, Excel, PowerPoint

With Microsoft 365 for the web you can edit and share Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote files on your devices using a web browser.

www.microsoft.com

No Bob, editing and new files in the iMac desktop not the iPad. The iPad is for out and about read only. Microsoft 365 Word as you suggest seems free only for a trial period and $130 (£85 to me in UK) pa. My Open Office, although it crashes sometimes, has been free for the several years I've used it, recommended by the way on this forum at the time.
My solution at the moment to thwart problem I originally posed, is simply to save each file as Word 97 from within Open Office (it is an option, perhaps surprisingly) and magically it opens to read on the iPad. This however is tedious as I have many dozens of chords and song words.
This now instead of the Pages solution I went for yesterday which Rod kindly responded to.

 

[MacInWin]

Why Word97? The easiest is just to save them as jpg or pdf files and open them with Preview on the iPad. That way you aren't dependent on Pages continuing to support Word format at all.

 

[davowolf]

Why Word97? The easiest is just to save them as jpg or pdf files and open them with Preview on the iPad. That way you aren't dependent on Pages continuing to support Word format at all.

No sensible reason to choose Word 97, MW, other than its one of the list of ‘save as’ options and it works; ie its icon appears like magic on the iPad and it opens to be read.
Incidentally I’ve used this time to reassess my use of the free Open Office and have looked back at posts on the subject, concluding, now that I seem to have solved this particular problem, that I’ll stick with it for now rather than incur costs of MS Word.

 

[MacInWin]

No sensible reason to choose Word 97, MW, other than its one of the list of ‘save as’ options and it works; ie its icon appears like magic on the iPad and it opens to be read.
Incidentally I’ve used this time to reassess my use of the free Open Office and have looked back at posts on the subject, concluding, now that I seem to have solved this particular problem, that I’ll stick with it for now rather than incur costs of MS Word.

THere is nothing wrong with OO, although there are other variants of the same software that are newer and have additional features. I don't know if they come with iPad variants, though. Just be prepared for when/if Pages drops Word97 support (It is, after all, 18 years old now), and you have to repeat the process again to create jpg/pdf files.

 

[ferrarr]

I just meant there is a web version of Word that can be used in your browser. So you should not have to install Word to use it. I have not tried doing this on an iPad yet. But try it and see if this can work for you?