Topic: 9 More OpenOffice Extensions

[sam]

Moving all of your apps and information in the cloud has been adopted by a great number of people. However, there are also a large number who still prefer having a desktop application. Pretty much everyone like free.

http://maketecheasier.com/9-more-openoffice-extensions/2010/04/17

[Simon]

One or two of them look handy.  If I didn't have MS Office, I'd use OO myself, and have recommended it to a few people.

[sam]

good man!

[Simon]

The feedback I always seem to get, though, is "We sent something to Auntie Maud and she can't open it!", and this is mainly because they don't save things in Office compatible formats (.doc, .xls, etc).  Is there any way to get Open Office to default to MS Office formats?

[sam]

I'm sure there must be... I just tend to change the format...

[sam]

yep, there is:

# Launch any OpenOffice.org application such as OpenOffice Writer.
# Click on Tools and then Options.
# Expand the Load/Save section in the left pane by clicking the + (plus sign).
# Click on General under the Load/Save section.
# In the area labeled as “Default file format” near the bottom of the dialog window, select the type of document you want, for example, Text Document for Writer files, in the Document Type drop-down list.
# To the right dropdown list labeled as “Always save as”, change or select the format as “Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP”.
# Repeat the above 2 steps for other documents such as spreadsheets or presentations that you want to save in Microsoft Office file format, and select the appropriate default save as format for them.
# Click OK to save the settings.
# From now on, whenever you want to save a document, the default format will be .doc, .xls or .ppt and other Microsoft Office file formats and extensions.

taken from: http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/01/25/configure-change-or-set-openofficeorg-to-default-save-files-in-microsoft-office-formats/

[sam]

actually that's a few years old but I bet its still very similar.

[Simon]

That's great, Sam, I'll pass that on.