Microsoft Office and OpenOffice Files

Microsoft Office 2003 software suite is installed on the APN Public PCs

OpenOffice software suite is also installed.  OpenOffice is free.  That is you can download and install the software on your home computer without having to buy a software license for it.  OpenOffice website.

• Writer  word processing

• Calc  spreadsheets, graphs and charts

• Impress  slide presentation

• Draw  desktop publishing

• Base  database

• Math  um

• OpenOffice applications can open and modify SOME Microsoft Office 2003 (and earlier) files. For example, a Word 2003 .doc file can be open, changed and saved in OpenOffice Writer.

• However - Microsoft Publisher files can not be viewed or modified by other applications. You will need to use Publisher.

• Microsoft Access files can not be viewed or modified by OpenOffice Base, you will need to use Microsoft Access.

• To view and or modify OpenOffice files in Microsoft Office you may need to change its file type first.  To do this open the file in OpenOffice eg Writer, select File, Save As and select from the Save As Type drop down menu Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP. 

Some Office 2007 documents can be viewed and modified in Office 2003 programs because the Microsoft Compatibility Pack for Office 2007 is installed. Office 2007 documents are not currently compatible with OpenOffice. 

Microsoft Access 2007 files (.accdb) are not compatible with Access 2003 - the database would need to converted to a 2003 database on a computer with Access 2007 installed first.

To view and or modify Microsoft Office 2007 files using OpenOffice you will need to open the 2007 file in Microsoft Office 2003 first and then save the file as a Office 2003 document.

For example if you open a file with extension .docx in Word 2003, select File, Save As and change the save as type drop down box to Word Document (.doc).

When deciding what application to create and save your work in remember to consider your audience. If you do not know what software programs your audience will be using to view your work then consider saving your file as a .pdf.  If the person you are sending the file needs to edit the file make sure you are both using compatabile software.

See also

PDFs