Compatibility with Other Office Applications

OpenOffice.org can work with documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and databases in many other formats, including Microsoft Office. They can be easily opened like other files and saved back to the original format. Though some work has already been invested in interoperability, occasionally there are still formatting issues. If you have problems with your documents, consider opening them in the original application and resaving them in an open format such as RTF for text documents. In case of migration problems with spreadsheets however, it is advisable to re-save them as Excel files and use this as intermediate format (with CSV format you would lose all cell formatting and CVS sometimes leads to incorrect cell type detection for spreadsheets).

[Tip]OpenOffice.org Migration Guide

For useful information about migrating from other office suites to OpenOffice.org, refer to the OpenOffice.org Migration Guide at http://documentation.openoffice.org/manuals/oooauthors2/0600MG-MigrationGuide.pdf.

Converting Documents to the OpenOffice.org Format

OpenOffice.org can read, edit, and save documents in a number of formats. It is not necessary to convert files from those formats to the OpenOffice.org format to use those files. However, if you want to convert the files, you can do so. To convert a number of documents, such as when first switching to OpenOffice.org, do the following:

  1. Select File+Wizards+Document Converter.

  2. Choose the file format from which to convert.

    There are several StarOffice and Microsoft Office formats available.

  3. Click Next.

  4. Specify where OpenOffice.org should look for templates and documents to convert and in which directory the converted files should be placed.

    Documents retrieved from a Windows partition are usually in a subdirectory of /windows.

  5. Make sure that all other settings are correct, then click Next.

  6. Review the summary of the actions to perform, then start the conversion by clicking Convert. When everything is done, close the Wizard by clicking Close.

    The amount of time needed for the conversion depends on the number of files and their complexity. For most documents, conversion does not take very long.

Sharing Files with Users of Other Office Suites

OpenOffice.org is available for a number of operating systems. This makes it an excellent tool when a group of users frequently need to share files and do not use the same system on their computers.

When sharing documents with others, you have several options.

If the recipient needs to be able to edit the file

Save the document in the format the other user needs. For example, to save as a Microsoft Word file, click File+Save As, then select the Microsoft Word file type for the version of Word the other user needs.

If the recipient only needs to read the document

Export the document to a PDF file with File+Export as PDF. PDF files can be read on any platform using a PDF viewer.

If you want to share a document for editing

Agree on a common exchange format that works for everyone. TXT and RTF formats, although limited in formatting, might be a good option for text documents.

If you want to e-mail a document as a PDF

Click File+Send+E-mail as PDF. Your default e-mail program opens with the file attached.

If you want to e-mail a document to a Microsoft Word user

Click File+Send+E-mail as Microsoft Word. Your default e-mail program opens with the file attached.

Send a document as the body of an e-mail

Click File+Send+Document as E-mail. Your default e-mail program opens with the contents of the document as the e-mail body.