How Can I Set Open Office as the Default Program for Opening Documents?

[pampchefsarah]

Hi y'all. I was wondering if I should post this question, but then I saw the responses to kcjodih's post, and realized someone here might be able to help. I'll try to be brief (Hah!).

I refuse to pay $150+ for MS Office (apologies to my BIL), and so we can't open any of the awesome docs from CS on the laptop (and I don't want to use my company laptop, even though I work from home). My Director's husband suggested downloading Open Office, since it's free, so I did. Well, I can't use it. Now when I try to open a non-PDF doc, the system asks:

"Do you want to save this file or find a program online to open it?"

If I choose "Find" I'm, of course, directed to the MS download site.

Can anyone tell me how to set the associations on my computer to automatically open in Open Office? I am not given the "Open With" dialogue box.

Thanks in advance. This is REALLY frustrating!

**warning - next I'll be asking for help to network my printer to use with the wireless laptop**

 

[gingertannery]

I was asked the first one or two times. Sorry I can't really remember doing anything special and was frustrated as you are.. It just switched my default to open office. Now it always open up to open office. Try going to start and open that.. see if you see open offfice as a program. Click on it to open it and then try to open the other document. Also look on the open office screen to see if you can click it to be the default. I have an older copy of windows(97) and it does not try to open it anymore. If you still have problems e-mail me. My ex is an expert with open office and I can ask him.
[email protected]
BTW I love it!! Can't believe it's free!!

 

[hollye44]

Yes, go through your settings in the Control Panel > Default Settings, and checkmark for the correct type of documents to automatically open with Open Office. That's what I had to do. Sometimes when I download a document, I go ahead and save, then open it up. I love Open Office, too!! We have the Excel, PowerPoint, etc. and they are all great.

 

[KristinS]

The only way I've had luck getting things to open is to change my default, but then also select "save as" and just save the document to your desktop. Then you'll be able to get the "open with" option.

 

[chefann]

If you do what Kristin suggests a couple of times, there should be a box to check for "do this for all files of this type." If you check that, it'll set Open Office as the default for .docs.

 

[pampchefsarah]

Thanks all!! Problem solved. Super easy solution.

 

[Jean DeVries]

Glad you got this fixed.

FYI for anyone who is a college student, or has a college student in their family:

http://www.ultimatesteal.com sells Microsoft Ultimate Office 07 (with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and a bunch of other stuff ) for $59.95. You can download it right from the site. It's actually Microsoft selling it, so it's legit. And for an additional $11 they will send you a backup disk.

 

[pampchefsarah]

I know this is an old thread, but I just had to thank you all for your help - again! I bought my own laptop, uninstalled the trial version of MS Office, downloaded Open Office, and then couldn't open any documents, unless I saved them first. Came back to this thread, and now it's working perfectly. But, if it wasn't for my Cheffer friends, I'd be stuck.