Opening an existing document

Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

Chapter 1. Introducing OpenOffice.org

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• The advantages of OpenOffice.org
• Minimum requirements
• How to get and install the software
• How to get help
• Starting OpenOffice.org
• Parts of the main window
• Parts of a dialog (box)
• Starting a new document
• Opening an existing document
• Saving, renaming, and deleting documents
• Using the Open and Save As dialogs
• Using the Navigator
• Undoing and redoing changes
• Closing a document

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When no document is open, the Welcome screen provides an icon for opening an existing document.

You can also open an existing document in one of the following ways.

• Use File > Open.
• Click the Open button on the main toolbar.
• Press Control+O on the keyboard.

In each case, the Open dialog appears. Select the file you want, and then click Open. If a document is already open in OOo, the second document opens in a new window.

In the Open dialog, you can reduce the list of files by selecting the type of file you are looking for. For example, if you choose Text documents as the file type, you will only see documents Writer can open (including .odt, .doc, docx, .txt); if you choose Spreadsheets, you will see .ods, .xsl, and other files that Calc opens.

You can also open an existing document that is in an OpenDocument format by double-clicking on the file’s icon on the desktop or in a file manager such as Windows Explorer.

If you have associated Microsoft Office file formats with OpenOffice.org, you can also open these files by double-clicking on them.

Under Microsoft Windows you can use either the OpenOffice.org Open and Save As dialogs or the ones provided by Microsoft Windows. See [[../Open_and_Save_As_dialogs | Using the Open and Save As dialogs]].