Opening an existing document

Getting Started with Apache OpenOffice 4

Chapter 1: Introducing Apache OpenOffice

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• What is Apache OpenOffice?
• The advantages of Apache OpenOffice
• Minimum requirements
• How to get and install the software
• Extensions and Add-Ons
• Starting Apache OpenOffice
• Parts of the main window
• Starting a new document
• Opening an existing document
• Saving documents
• Password protection
• Using the Navigator
• Using the Open and Save As dialogs
• Undoing and redoing changes
• Reloading a document
• Closing a document

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Opening an Existing Document

When no document is open, the Start Center provides an icon for opening an existing document or choosing from a list of recently-edited documents.

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

• Choose File → Open.
• Click the  Open  button on the main toolbar.
• Press  Ctrl  +  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 Apache OpenOffice, 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, .txt); if you choose Spreadsheets, you will see .ods, .xls, 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 Apache OpenOffice, you can also open these files by double-clicking on them.