OpenOffice.org Opens up for Business

“Sharing documents While OpenOffice.org does fairly well saving
in Microsoft Office formats, it’s best to retain the default
setting to save documents in OpenDocument formats.

“If you need to retain a few machines on Microsoft Office,
either make OpenOffice.org the primary office suite or install the
OpenXML / ODF Translator, Sun ODF Plugin for Microsoft Office, or
Microsoft Office 2007 SP2. Any of these will allow Microsoft Office
to share ODF files with OpenOffice.org users.

“Chances are those with which you do business outside your
organization use Microsoft Office. When sending documents
externally, train your staff to click File — Send — Email as PDF
or Email as Microsoft Word. In the future ODF may be the ideal
exchange medium, but today PDF and Microsoft Office formats are the
de facto standards. (Freedom purists should remember the
specifications of the binary Microsoft Office file formats are
covered by the Microsoft Open Specification Promise).

“Recommended extensions
OpenOffice.org is a breeze to enhance with many free extensions
available at http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/. Here are a
few favorites.”

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