One-Minute Guide to OpenOffice.org

OpenOffice.org is your free ticket to ride the Microsoft Office train without actually going anywhere near the station. OpenOffice.org opens all the Microsoft Office formatsWord, Excel, and PowerPoint. And you can save any file in any of those formats, too. You can create a new Microsoft text document, spreadsheet, or set of slides without ever using Microsoft.

Governments, small businesses, schools , or anyone at all

Any group or individual that wants to get work done without spending $500 a pop can benefit enormously from simply switching to OpenOffice.org.

Handles and goes beyond Microsoft Office

In addition, OpenOffice.org opens dozens of other formats. Lotus 1-2-3, GIFs and SVG and PNG graphics, and handles them beautifully. Not only do you get the ability to open and edit all the files Microsoft does, but you get a whole lot more.

Going from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice.org

If you're an MS Office user , you'll still have to do some learning, but you'll have lots of "Oh, this is the same" moments.

Professional-level graphics

Plus, with OpenOffice.org you've got a great drawing/image editing program, Draw, which goes way beyond the minor tools you get in Microsoft Office. Draw is an excellent program, simpler for some than Adobe products, but with lots of power and features. Export to EPS, SVG, plus over a dozen other graphics formats, including standards like GIF andJPG.

Get started

Just hit Chapter 2, Installation , on page 19, or to learn more, read "Program Essentials" on page 6. To see what's changed, see "What's New" on page 13.