Frequently Asked Questions


It's actually free?
OpenOffice.org is free. No qualifications, no additions. It's open source software. And it's a good product. It's part of a growing movement all over the world to make software open to everyone, not just controlled by a few companies, and priced anyway they please. Click here to learn more.

It actually lets me open and create Word, Excel, and Powerpoint files?
Yep. The conversion is really pretty good, and conversion enhancements have been added in 1.1. Sometimes the layout will switch a little in a Writer document, sometimes you'll need to change print settings, sometimes you'll need to apply different bullets. Overall interoperability is really good.

Is it hard to learn?
OpenOffice.org is quite similar to other office suites, including Microsoft Office. Calc and Excel are particularly similar since with spreadsheets, you're dealing with a lot of math, which doesn't change depending on your software. Take a look at these toolbars for OpenOffice.org Writer and Word, too. If you're a Word user now, you're going to be able to get started on Writer pretty easily.

The "OpenOffice.org Resource Kit" user's guide and CD includes tutorials. You can also get workbooks for each application.

Who else is using it?
10 million users worldwide, and growing   And those are just the ones who have told OpenOffice.org that they're using it. Read about how a company ditched Microsoft for OpenOffice.org, and is loving every minute of it. (If that news story isn't up anymore, click here.)  Or read this article, "Home Users Leap to Linux." And the US defense department is using StarOffice. (We might or might not back what the US defense department is using it for, but hey, whatever they're doing, they have a good office suite.)

Can I use it for my business?
Absolutely. It'll save you a lot of money in Microsoft Office licenses, today and every day going forward. Get your employees a little training ahead of time, throw them a party with some of the money you'll be saving, and you'll be good to go. You can still interact with businesses that use MS Office since you can save in MS Office format using OpenOffice.org.

Why haven't I heard of it?
If you're interested, but you're kind of worried because you've never heard of OpenOffice.org before, don't worry. It's been around for years; a German company called StarDivision has been selling it for years, for several hundred dollars. Then Sun Microsystems bought it and set it free for anyone to use. And frankly, Sun has always been really good at making good products, but less good at telling people about them. If Bill Gates blows his nose, he does a product launch; but you hear little or nothing about OpenOffice.org or StarOffice. 

I know it runs on Linux and Solaris, but does it run on Windows? Or Mac?
OpenOffice.org runs virtually identically on Windows and UNIX, and a Mac version is in beta/prerelease. All are available on the OpenOffice.org Resource Kit CD, and you can get the CD or download it here.

How do I learn to use it?
The core features of Writer, Calc, and Impress are very similar to Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. You'll be able to get started with the basics pretty easily. For the rest, you can get training,books, and workbooks from getOpenOffice.org.

Read the slashdot review of the "OpenOffice.org Resource Kit" user's guide with CD.

How do I get a CD of the software?
Get the $10 CD by clicking here. Or  download it here.

Is it the same as StarOffice?
OpenOffice.org is the same as StarOffice, which sold and supported by Sun Microsystems, but without the templates, Adabas database, some filters, and a few other features. We personally don't think most people need StarOffice; try OpenOffice.org and see how it works for you. If you want Sun behind you giving support and other consulting, then go ahead and use StarOffice or the Java Desktop.

It's free, but is it good?
It's a fullfledged office suite, as big as MS Office. It's got a great set of features—everything you need to do word processing, spreadsheets, and presentation slides. Plus extra programs for drawing that you don't get with Microsoft Office: OpenOffice.org Draw is like Canvas, with a bit of Visio thrown in.

Does it connect to databases?
Absolutely. If you've got Access databases sitting around, you can connect to them using OpenOffice.org's data source setup tools. Then you can suck that data into OpenOffice.org documents to do mail merges, pivot tables, and more. You can connect to just about any database under the sun; you can even use a plain text file or spreadsheet as a data source.

OpenOffice.org 2.0 also lets you create your own databases from scratch with the Base tool.

How does anyone make any money if it's free?
OpenOffice.org is open source software. Open Source is a very cool approach to open source which means that developers sometimes get paid in money, and sometimes get paid in recognition, job satisfaction, or the other intangibles that make a difference. (How many people do you know who earn good salaries and hate their jobs?)  To learn more about Open Source, you can read the well respected works on this topic by Eric Raymond and Richard Stallman.

Another factor is that Sun bought StarOffice outright. Back during the bubble when everyone had huge amounts of money.

And the other main factor is that people still make money from services. Giving away the product and making money from services is just an extreme extension of the common practice of selling a product cheaply, and then making  money on support and other services.