Summary: OpenOffice is a free software suite to rival Microsoft Office. Exchanging documents between the two is not only possible, but quite easy.
I took my laptop in to be repaired and the technician added a program that he said that was as good as Microsoft Word or better: OpenOffice.org Writer. He suggested I keep it on and try it since it was free and if I did not like it, he would take it off. One problem that I have with this program is that my club members are unable to open my documents to them now. I think he should take this program off and return my microsoft word so that I can use it. What do you think?
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I think you need to give OpenOffice Writer a little bit more of a chance.
There may well be reasons to revert to Microsoft Word, but exchanging documents with Microsoft Word users isn't one of them. You're probably just missing a simple step.
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OpenOffice is a free, open source set of software that includes equivalents for not only Microsoft Word, but Excel, PowerPoint, and more. It's not perfect but it's actually very good, and it's a very reasonable alternative for many uses.
OpenOffice Writer, the Microsoft Word equivalent, saves its documents in "Open Document Text" or ".odt" format. In fact, if you do a File, Save As... you'll see:
As you can see, the "Save As Type" is listed.
However, if you click on the down arrow and drop-down the list, you'll see there are many other alternatives:
You can see I've circled one that you'll probably find interesting: "Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP (.doc)".
You can also make this the default save type if you like. In Writer, click on Tools, Options, expand the Load/Save branch, and click on General. You should be looking at something like this:
Under "Always save as" you'll find pretty much the same list. You can change that to "Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP (.doc)" (you may have to scroll up in the list to find it) and now you'll save your documents in Microsoft Word format by default.
So the short answer is that as long as you save your documents in Microsoft Word format you should be able to exchange them with others without much trouble.
Play with Open Office some. I think you'll find it's a reasonable alternative, and of course you certainly can't beat the price.
Related:
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Ask Leo! - So, what about Open Office?
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Ask Leo! - How do I convert a Word document into a PDF file?
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Ask Leo! - Is Free Software Worth it?
Article C3255 - January 3, 2008
Well I hack for the sake of protecting my own website. And I use RedHat 9 and it comes with OpenOffice.Org. And like Leo said you have to give it a chance. Apart from it being free, it is compatible with any form of office software available and it doesnt have all the security issues that MS Office does. Also did i mention the fact that it is opensource and free. That in its self makes it better because it is so compatible and free. You don't always have to register it or purchase it everytime you wipe your system and also you dont always have to purchase anything for the latest version. You just download it. And to top it all off did i mention that its free?
Posted by: Geoff at January 5, 2008 11:25 PMI've changed my default to word 97/2000 xp and the document is fine until you close out and need to go back into that document, that's when you will discover that the formatting is off and the opendocument will not let you correct the document. You must delete it that file name and retype that document in order to get the formatting right. It looks fine on the screen until you print it or close out and go back into it.
Posted by: Marilyn at January 20, 2008 2:00 PMI have just started using Openoffice writer, think it is great. Main reason for the delay was that all other people still use MS word.
Main problem I have now is if I have a OO document with cross-references they do not save into Word/XP format. You also lose the text of the cross-reference. This is an issue for me.
Any idea as to how I can resolve this issue.
Posted by: Billy at April 18, 2008 3:00 AMI have the openoffice.org suite, and when I try to save a file I get nothing like the drop down menu that you have. Mine only has 5 choices, none of which are microsoft word. Any ideas how to remedy this?
Posted by: Matt at July 26, 2008 9:20 PMThis is great information. The only reason I need to save documents in Word is because friends are unable to open Writer. That's the only reason I need this option. Thanks for your help.
Posted by: leeann at September 17, 2008 8:06 AM