# Can Open Office Run Word & Excel?



## workingmom (Feb 4, 2008)

Hi. I have a Gateway laptop with Vista. My Microsoft Word trial period has run out, and I have a bunch of Word & Excel documents saved. If I download Open Office, will it run those documents ?


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## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

Yes. Does quite a good job of it too.


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## workingmom (Feb 4, 2008)

Do I have to do anything after I download Open Office to make it run them?


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## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

Install it.


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## slurpee55 (Oct 20, 2004)

Bob's being a little terse here. 
OO is a full office suite, just like Microsoft Office. Writer will natively open Word documents and save other types of files as Word documents also. It can save in other formats as well, such as .pdf and OpenDocument (an XML format)L. 
Calc is a darn good spreadsheet program, natively able to open Excel files and save files as such. It also can save files to other formats, such as .pdf and OpenDocument. If you have a really, complex Excel spreadsheet, there is a possiblility that some things might not work - usually this is because of macros or VBA scripts that are not supported by OO. To a lesser degree, Writer might not open a really, really complex Word document correctly, but I have only seen a few cases where someone used Word to that extent.


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## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

Yes. No need to a lot of extra words.

If you want a longer sentence. Download the program and then install it.


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## slurpee55 (Oct 20, 2004)

LOL - okay, point taken Bob.


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## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

No sweat. There is even a "portable" version out there where you don't even need to install OpenOffice. You can just run it. I keep a copy on my flash drive for certain occasions.


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## slurpee55 (Oct 20, 2004)

Really? That sounds interesting...how big is the one that you keep on the flash drive?
[EDIT]I found out myself - about 144MB[/EDIT]


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## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

About 170 megs.


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## workingmom (Feb 4, 2008)

Thank you so much. I'm not likely to have anythng very complicated to save, and I don't know a .pdf from a PBJ ... lol... much less XML. I just want my kid to do his homework and be able to save it on the computer, and to keep track of my budget.

Thank you Slurpee, & thank you, too, Bob. I downloaded, and now I have to go to bed. I'll be back if I can't figure it out!


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## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

It's what my kids use as well. Most folks don't need all the complicated extra stuff anyway. Just want to save your basic word and excel files.

The only thing it really lacks from being a full office suit is a decent e-mail program.


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## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

slurpee55,

Since you were asking about it, you can download the portable version of OpenOffice from:
http://portableapps.com/apps/office/openoffice_portable


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## slurpee55 (Oct 20, 2004)

Thanks Bob - it will certainly come in handy - I have MS Office at work and at home, but some clients don't have it - or have very old versions....
Ever use the Base portion of it? I use Access a lot, and am wondering how it compares in general. I have had some problems, but that was with an earlier version of OO.


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## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

Database compatibility is always an issue. Even going from one version of Access to another means you have to update the database file and it is not backwards compatible.


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## letchworth (Jul 2, 2005)

workingmom said:


> Do I have to do anything after I download Open Office to make it run them?


There are some options you can select to make the M$Office file formats your default file formats when saving documents (that would help with assignments at school, etc.). As it originally installs it defaults to its own native format- but even without changing the default you can do a "Save As" and select from among the various file type choices.

Great program- I dumped M$Office several years ago and have never regretted the decision.
letchworth


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## caraewilton (Nov 7, 2007)

Hi. Are you guys sure oo.org will open a docx document (word 2007)?


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## slurpee55 (Oct 20, 2004)

Nope Cara, it won't open that format. But they can be converted to a format it will open - either save to a previous format (if you have 2007) or use something like http://docx-converter.com/


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## thebeginner (Feb 13, 2008)

I don't know if this is the place to post this, but I've heard people say that a vector drawing software is just as good as Visio for flow charts. It's free, but I've used a vector drawing software before there's no way I'd choose a vector drawing software over Visio for a flow chart or site map for a website. Open office does include a vector drawing software. To me Open Office is too limited for me to consider. About compatibility. Office 2007 has a different layout than normal.


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## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

caraewilton said:


> Hi. Are you guys sure oo.org will open a docx document (word 2007)?


No one ever said it would do that. Fortunately that is not an issue for this user. And as mentioned is easily gotten around.


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## slurpee55 (Oct 20, 2004)

workingmom said:


> Hi. I have a Gateway laptop with Vista. My Microsoft Word trial period has run out, and I have a bunch of Word & Excel documents saved. If I download Open Office, will it run those documents ?


I agree with Bob - the OP had a very specific question and I think it has been well answered. Let's not hijack (another) thread. 
(Wow, for once I am being the enforcer and not one of the hijackers...feels so odd....)


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## caraewilton (Nov 7, 2007)

yes sorry guys. agree the question has been well answered. the only reason i asked was cause when i read her question initially, on seeing "vista" and "word trial" I assumed office 07, so i was just wondering....
No harm meant


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## slurpee55 (Oct 20, 2004)

ah, you know what we do with hijackers, don't you caramia???


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