On Monday I answered the question (at least in from perspective) why Microsoft Office continues to dominant the realm of word processing, spreadsheets and presentation graphics — it’s the proprietary document formats for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Basically, once you’ve started amassing a pile of documents saved in .doc, .xls, or .ppt format, you’re stuck with an application that can read and edit those formats. Obviously, many find it easy to just stick with Microsoft Office; however, for those that prefer a non-traditional route, alternatives do exist.

What alternatives are there for Microsoft Office?

OpenOffice (originally known as StarOffice) is a fantastic alternative to Microsoft Office. A favorite option for Linux users, OpenOffice is also available for Macintosh and Windows computers. The application is free and comes equipped with 5 main applications:

• Writer replaces Word for word processing
• Calc replaces Excel for spreadsheets
• Impress replaces PowerPoint for presentation graphics
• Base replaces Access for database applications
• Draw probably replaces Visio and maybe Publisher for sketching and graphic planning

I’ve never used Base or Draw so I can’t say much about them one way or another. I have, however, used and continue to use Writer, Calc, and Impress. Matter of fact, on my home desktop computer, I have completely migrated to these 3 applications for word processing, spreadsheets, and presentation graphics. Why? Simple, OpenOffice is free, does nearly everything I need for these types of applications, and I it can read and write the big three Office proprietary formats. I don’t have to migrate anything. And while I could start saving newly created documents in the OpenOffice default format (ODT), that could cause problems later if I ever need to share a document with someone that only has Microsoft Office. To avoid such a problem I don’t even bother with these alternative document formats. I simply changed my default file format to the Microsoft standard formats and I don’t have to deal with any incompatibility document issues — ever.

2 options for setting your OpenOffice default document format

If you decide to take the plunge, or help a friend take the plunge, the key to a successful transition is to set your default document formats to the Microsoft equivalents (.doc, .xls, and .ppt). You can do that in two different ways:

Option #1

If you’re installing the latest version of OpenOffice for the first time, you are prompted during the installation to make a decision about which file formats to use. The prompt is very simple to understand - you either save in Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint formats or not.

The check boxes are deselected by default; however, all you need to do is to click each of those check boxes and any documents you create with Writer, Calc, or Impress will automatically be saved in the corresponding Microsoft format.

Option #2

If you’ve already installed OpenOffice, or clicked right past the format selection prompt during installation, all is not lost. Simply start the application that you want to change the default document format and follow these steps:

• Start the application you want to change the default document format
• From the menu bar select Tools -> Options
• In the dialog box that appears, expand the Load/Save section
• Select the General subsection
• In the lower right hand corner, notice the “Always save as” option
• Click on the down arrow and scroll up and down until you find the Microsoft document types
• Select the desired document format and then click OK

Now, from that point forward all newly created documents will get saved in the selected document format type.

Make the switch but keep using the Microsoft proprietary formats

Learning to use the various OpenOffice applications is easy. There are some differences from their Office counterparts, but the differences are minor. The real key to making a successful switch to OpenOffice is to set the default document formats to a standard Microsoft format. Set it, forget it, and just start enjoying the free Office alternative: OpenOffice.

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Filed under: How-To & Tech Tips