Open Office

The Free Alternative to MS Office

Many, if not all, of us use some form of Microsoft Office. If a free alternative was available, would you use it?

Open Office offers much of the same functionality of MS Office. It costs nothing. Interested? Please read on...

• Open your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Safari, etc.)

• Navigate to www.openoffice.org  Click

• Click "get openoffice.org"  Click

• Select "Download OpenOffice.org"  Click

• Select your operating system. Windows is circled.  Click

• Select "continue to download" on the next screen.  Click

• When the "File Download" dialogue box appears, select "Save."  Click

• Choose a location where the file will be saved. I recommend saving to the Desktop. I have selected my HW3 folder.  Click

• Select 'Save."  Click

• Find your downloaded file and double-click it.  Click

• When the "Open File - Security Warning" dialogue box appears, select "Run."  Click

• Select "Next."  Click

• Note where the files will be unpacked. My files are going to my Desktop. Select "Unpack."  Click

• The files will be unpacked.  Click

• Select "Next" when the Installation Wizard window opens.  Click

• Select "I accept the terms in the license agreement."  Click

• Select "Next."  Click

• Fill in User Name, Organization, and leave the next section as Anyone. Select "Next."  Click

• Select "Complete."  Click

• On the next screen, you can decide if Open Office will be the default application for opening MS Office files. If you have MS Office installed, I would leave these boxes unchecked. If you do not have MS Office, check them. This will allow Open Office to open Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations for you. I have left them unchecked. Select "Next." Click

• Select "Install."  Click

• The Open Office files will be copied to your computer.  Click  Click

• When the Installation Wizard is complete, select "Finish."  Click

• Goto Start, All Programs, OpenOffice.org 2.2, OpenOffice.org Writer.  Click

• A blank document will open.  Click

• Base = MS Access; Calc = MS Excel; Draw = a drawing interface; Impress = MS PowerPoint; Math = I have no idea; Writer = MS Word.