Summary

OpenOffice is an office suite, similar to Microsoft Office or WordPerfect Office. The word processing application in the suite is called Writer. It's possible to exchange documents between Writer and Microsoft Word. Writer can read Word files. Word can't read Writer files, but Writer can write files in Word format. The exchange is not necessarily perfect. Sometimes information is not interpreted correctly. But most file content is converted successfully. The simpler the document, the more likely it is to convert successfully.

Writer is very similar to Word. People familiar with Word will feel at home in Writer. However, not everything is exactly the same. Writer has almost all the functionality of Word, but the features are not always found at the same location or activated in exactly the same manner. This chapter explains how to use the following features in Writer:

• Styles

• Templates

• Autocorrection

• Spell checking

• Tables

• Columns

• Frames

• Graphics

• Tracking changes

Another popular application in the OpenOffice Suite is the spreadsheet application. OpenOffice Calc is described in Chapter 12.