How to Use OpenOffice to Automatically Open Word Files

Any business looking for a cost-effective alternative to the Microsoft Office suite may do well to look into the open-source, free-to-download Apache OpenOffice. The suite includes a robust array of office applications including a word processor, spreadsheet editor and database program. If you already have documents in Microsoft Office's proprietary file formats, including Word's DOC and DOCX formats, OpenOffice can open them without any intermediary conversion needed. To automatically open Word files in OpenOffice, change the default program to OpenOffice on either Windows 8 or Windows 7 workstations.

Windows 8

1. Hover the mouse cursor over the top-right corner of the screen and click "Search."
2. Enter "Default Programs" into the search input box, click "Apps" and click "Default Programs."
3. Click "Set Your Default Programs."
4. Click the "OpenOffice.org" entry in the "Programs" pane.
5. Click the "Choose Defaults for this Program" button.
6. Check the ".doc," ".docx," ".docm," ".dot," ".dotm," and ".dotx" entries.
7. Click the "Save" button.

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