OpenOffice.org works with Microsoft Office documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and databases. These files can be seamlessly opened like other files and saved back to the same format. Because the Microsoft formats are closed and the specifics are not available to other applications, there are occasionally formatting issues. If you have problems with your documents, open them in the original application and resave them in an open format, such as RTF for text documents or CSV for spreadsheets.
To convert a number of documents, such as when first switching to OpenOffice.org:
Click .
Select the file format you want to convert.
There are several StarOffice and Microsoft Office formats available.
Click , then specify where OpenOffice.org should look for templates and documents to convert and in which directory the converted files should be placed.
Click to see a summary of the actions that will be performed.
Click .
When sharing documents with others, you have several options. If the recipient only needs to read the document, export it to PDF format by clicking . PDF files can be read on any platform using the Adobe* Acrobat* Reader. To share a document for editing, use one of the regular document formats. The default formats comply with the OASIS standard XML format, making them compatible with a number of applications. TXT and RTF formats, although limited in formatting, are a good option for text documents, and CSV is useful for spreadsheets. OpenOffice.org might also offer your recipient’s preferred format.
OpenOffice.org is available for a number of operating systems. This makes it an excellent tool when a group of users needs to share files and does not use the same file systems.