Not sure I have the right section... ok to move it to the correct one...

I love Open Office. Right in my price range... Free. I can open anything from Microsoft Office. Which is good. Unfortunately I can not get Microsoft Office to open anything Open Office. Which is a pain. Is there something I am missing? Something I should be doing? I tried to send Fay something and MS word would not open it.

Hi Holly,

I had Open Office at one time for a short while but don't have any any longer. When I had it, I played with it a little but not much. I didn't think about this earlier and I am not sure, but it seems like Open Office has a save as option that will let you save it in a form word can open - but not sure about that.

Fay

I read in a couple of places where you can save your documents in Open Office Writer as MS Word (or many other) documents and they will open up just as you intended in Word. I can't verify that as I don't have Open Office.

Hi Holly,
this is a part solution, it's a add on for Microsoft Office.It allows you to open ODF files.So the recipient needs to install it on their Office app.
Here is a copy from the blog where I read about it.

"Open ODF (OpenOffice) Files In Word

A friend once asked me to print out a document for her. With her liking freeware, she sent me an odf file.

For those of you that are unfamiliar with it, odf is the standard format for OpenOffice documents, an open-source Office alternative.

Luckily for you and me, Sun Microsystems (the guys we know from Java) developed an Office plug-in. It’s compatible with both Office 2000, 2003 and 2007, and it allows the user to open, edit and save in the odf format." http://www.sun.com/software/star/odf_plugin/get.jsp
Goof

Cool thanks Goof. That helps. Drives me crazy when I email something to fine tune at home... because of no interruptions and can not open it again at work.

Funny thing just found out about another Office replacement that sounds pretty good. Softmakers Office
You can set in the preferences to save to Microsoft Office file types.It will also run on a thumb drive.
Here is a link to Carputers News and Computer Tips.
http://newsandtips.carputers.net/2008/07/25/softmaker-office-2006/
Also Novell has their own edition of Open Office that you might be interested in, from the website I read about it in
"OpenOffice.org Novell Edition for Windows contains enhancements and bug fixes, especially for interoperability with Microsoft Office and other word processing programs, that are not available in the standard edition. These enhancements include:

* Microsoft Excel*: Compatibility: Improved Excel compatibility for certain built-in functions (e.g., CELL, INFO, INDIRECT), hyperlinks and filters, improved ergonomics, and support for “R1C1″ style addresses. Improved performance on certain text functions such as SEARCH. Natural sorting option in cell range sorting.
* Excel VBA Macro Interoperability: OpenOffice.org Novell Edition eases the migration of many macros from Microsoft Excel. Although not all macros can be successfully migrated, this interoperability offers more than the standard edition, which does not support migration of macros.
* Data Pilots: Data Pilots are interoperable with Microsoft Office PivotTables*. OpenOffice.org Novell Edition substantially improves the Data Pilot feature, making it possible to edit pilots after creation.
* Enhanced Fonts: Licensed fonts from Agfa* Monotype* which are metrically identical and visually compatible with some of the key Microsoft fonts. This allows OpenOffice.org Novell Edition to match fonts when opening documents originally composed in Microsoft Office, and very closely match pagination and page formatting.
* EMF+Support: The ability to render EMF+ formatted graphics
* SVG Support: The ability to import scalable vector graphics.
* Import File Formats: Microsoft Works, WordPerfect* text and graphics, T602 files, OfficeOpen XML, and more.
* Groupwise® Integration: OpenOffice.org Novell Edition includes improved integration with ODMA (Open Document Management Architecture) services, for example for GroupWise. If you have the GroupWise client installed on the machine, OpenOffice.org Novell Edition will offer to open documents from GroupWise, or save documents in GroupWise.

Yes, OpenOffice.org Novell Edition opens Microsoft Office 2007 (.docx, .pptx, .xlsx) files!"
http://newsandtips.carputers.net/2009/03/14/more-on-free-word-processors/
Goof