How do I open Microsoft Word documents through Open Office?

First of all save your word document into a location on your computer where it is easy to locate, for example your desktop.

Now open Open Office Writer and you should have a blank document on your screen.

Go to the File option on the toolbar and then select Open...

You should have a screen similiar to the one on the left.

You should now have a screen as shown below.  Where it says Look in: click on the drop down arrow to the right and go to the location where you have the file save, in the example below I have saved my file on the Desktop.

If you cannot see the file make sure the option Files of type: is changed to All files (*.*) and your file should then be displayed in the viewing pane.  In my example you will see that I have chosen the fle that I have created called Test word file.doc, just click on open and this should open your document ok.

How do I save files in Open Office Writer in a format that can be opened on a computer with Microsoft Word?

When you are ready to save your file go to the File option on the toolbar and then File Save As.

You should see a similiar screen as in the example above.  Make sure the option Save as type: is changed to Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP (.doc) and that you have the option Automatic file name extension is selected.  If you cannot see the option Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP (.doc) in the Save as type: command line, just click on the drop down arrow to the right and it will be displayed in the menu that appears.

When ready just click on Save and your done!  Tip:  If your looking for the equivilant for excel this is called Calc in Open Office and for PowerPoint it is known as Impress.  The same techniques for opening and saving files apply to these programs as well just select the correct format from the drop down lists!

You can download OpenOffice free from http://www.openoffice.org/