Enhance your documents with OpenOffice Writer

Discover all our tips for making good use of the word processor of the free office suite OpenOffice.

This is the first part of our research on the free OpenOffice suite.
This week, we will strive to detail the key tips and tricks of the word
processor Writer.

The second part of the research, on the Calc spreadsheet, will be published very soon.

A free office suite

As complete as the Microsoft Office Suite, OpenOffice has the added advantage of being free.

OpenOffice.org recorded more than 100 million downloads since the
release of version 3.0 in October 2008, and 3.1.1 a few weeks ago. A
great success due in large part by the free office suite, but its
effectiveness is comparable in many respects to that of Microsoft.
Besides, OpenOffice (OOo) has functions similar to Microsoft Office.

OOo, another name known for OpenOffice.org, includes a Writer, a word
processor similar to Word; Calc, a spreadsheet image of Excel; Base, a
management system relational database that is modeled like Microsoft
Access; Impress for creating presentations in the same way as
PowerPoint; OpenOffice Math who facilitates the writing of formulas,
and finally Draw which offers a range of drawing tools.

OpenOffice is also simplified version for children ages 8 to 12 (still
in testing) this suite is rather promising to introduce the kids to the
core functions of the office. The software suite OOo! For large and
small! can be installed on any computer, regardless of the operating
system (Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7 or Mac OS X) you just make sure to
download the correct version.

While Microsoft Office and OpenOffice even fight? Almost. But it is
also necessary to know the use. In this case, we will strive to detail
the key tips and tricks of word processing Writer and spreadsheet Calc.
Beforehand, here are some general functions for efficient use of OOo.

Minor changes

The publisher Sun Micro System has announced version 3.2 of OpenOffice
always free for download on 14 December. If we judge the version in
testing, no major changes planned. Improvements should nevertheless be
made for including the startup time and loading and saving ODF files.

Small reminder of the basic functions ...

When downloading OpenOffice 3.1.1 you must choose between the Java
version which weighs 145 MB or without Java (131.1 MB). It is best to
install the first, some basic features of OOo requiring the use of this
computer language. Most PCs by default launches Microsoft Office to
open documents. But, in the absence of Word and Excel, files are then
available for reading only. To open these documents and spreadsheets
with OOo:

1. Right click on the file to open, drag the cursor to "Open With", and click on "Choose Default Program".
2. Click once on swriter.exe (or scalc.exe for a spreadsheet), and finally press "OK". All your files will then open directly in OOo.

Knowing that users of Microsoft Office are more numerous than those of
OOo its better to ensure that files can be played by these two
programs.

1. On Writer, in "File" menu, select "Save As" option. Click on the arrow in the Type box, choose "Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP" (.doc) in the list of formats.
2. Click the Save
button. A