Generally, you'll start one of the OpenOffice.org applications by clicking your Windows
Start toolbar button and doing one of the following:
You can edit Microsoft Office data files without converting them to OpenOffice.org format because OpenOffice.org can read and write Office files.
A quick way to start OpenOffice.org is to use the
QuickStarter icon on the taskbar. Right-click this icon; from the context menu, choose any OpenOffice.org program to launch it, use a template, or load an existing document. The
QuickStarter icon is available only if the
Load OpenOffice.org during system startup option is enabled. To enable this option, select the
Memory category in the
OpenOffice.org options list in the
Options dialog box of any OpenOffice.org program.
Select the
OpenOffice.org menu from your Windows
Programs menu and select from the list of OpenOffice.org programs. If, for example, you select
OpenOffice.org Draw , Draw will start and offer you a blank drawing area where you can begin a new drawing or load an existing drawing into the editing area.
You can start any OpenOffice.org program from your Windows Programs menu.
From any Windows Explorerlike window that displays a file listing, select any OpenOffice.org file and the appropriate OpenOffice.org program automatically launches with that file loaded. If, for example, you select a Writer document, Writer automatically opens and loads that document so you can edit the contents. If you select a Calc spreadsheet, Calc starts and loads that spreadsheet file. Of course, you can also select a Microsoft Office Word, Excel, or PowerPoint file and Writer, Calc, or Impress, respectively, will open that file. You then can save the file into a converted OpenOffice.org format if you wish.
As
133 Use Both OpenOffice.org and Microsoft Office demonstrates, you can assign Microsoft Office data filename extensions to OpenOffice.org files so that when you click on a DOC file inside a Windows Explorer window, Writer and not Word will automatically open the file.
From any OpenOffice.org program, you can start any other OpenOffice.org program by selecting
File, Open and selecting a file. If, for example, you are writing a letter inside Writer and remember that you have to update a spreadsheet, you don't need to start Calc. Instead, from Writer's
File, Open menu, select the spreadsheet to open. Calc will open and load that spreadsheet for you. Writer remains open with your document loaded for when you're ready to return to it.