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Monday 13 October 2008

Open Office 3 is finally out!

They released the final version of Open Office 3 today (Oct. 13, 2008). If you didn't already know, it is a great, free, and open source alternative to MS Office.

Besides many other updates and improvements, it will open the new .docx files created in MS Office 2007. But, when saving, you will have to save to another format. You can choose .doc format, which Open Office and all versions of MS Office will recognize.

If you are new to this and want to give it a try, click on the link below to download it.

For those who already use Open Office, here is how to update:

To manually Update to Open Office 3
Download Open Office 3 from here. http://www.filehippo.com/download_openoffice/ (Oct 13 - the Open Office server may be down due to version 3 being downloaded by so many people all at once - it became available today. Download it from the Filehippo site for the time being). Click on Download Latest Version. If your popup blocker blocks it, click on the appropriate place to allow it to download.
Run the installer file when finished downloading
When installing, allow default settings and go through the prompts.
When finished installing, click on Start, All programs, find Open Office 3, click and drag the new Open Office Writer icon to the location you want it on the Start Menu. If you have an old Open Office Writer icon on the Start Menu, drag the new one to just above it. Once you have put the new one on above the old one, remove the old one from the list (right-click and remove).
Repeat this process for any other new Open Office shortcuts you want on the Start Menu.
Click on the new Open Office Writer icon to open Open Office Writer.
Click on Next until you get to the Registration screen. Check off I do not want to register (since you already have registered), and click on Finish. If it doesn't open full-screen, and you want it to, maximize it. Now close it. Right click on the Open Office 3.0 Quickstarter icon in the system tray (it appears after you first open Open Office Writer) and click on Load Open Office.org During System Start-up to UN-check it.
Right-click on the icon again and choose Exit.
Done.

UPDATE
Updating to version 3 will re-set your toolbars. So, if you did any customizing of them, you'll have to do that all over again.

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