Word Out. Open Office In.

[Coppit]

In my little used backup laptop I've installed Open Office after cancelling the monthly fee for using Word. Will the Word files stil be accessible or do I have to transfer them to Open Office?

[drmorgans]

You might want to try Libre Office instead. My understanding is that Open Office hasn't been maintained for quite a while whereas Libre Office is updated regularly.

[Buenchico]

I used OpenOffice for many years but I've switched to LibreOffice, which is a spin-off from OpenOffice that's more up-to-date. (For example, while OpenOffice can read Word files that have been created in the newer .docx format, it can only save them in the older .doc format. LibreOffice can both read and write files using the latest Microsoft formats).
https://www.libreoffice.org/
[Note: There's absolutely no problem with having BOTH OpenOffice and LibreOffice on your PC at the same time. I've got those two, as SoftMaker Free Office as well, on my own computer].

To answer your question though (and irrespective of which of the free office suites you choose to use), your new software will be able to open your existing Microsoft Word files directly (from File > Open), without the need for you to do anything.

However it's possible that your computer might retain the existing 'file association', which tells it to try to use Microsoft Word when your double-click on an existing file. To get around that, right-click on a random Word file and select 'Open with'. Then select 'Choose another app' (even if the one you want to use is already shown in the list). Then choose the correct app and put a tick in the box marked 'Always use this app to open .docx' files before clicking 'OK'. You'll only need to do it once for Word files but if you've got Excel files, or similar, you'll need to repeat it for each file type.

[aelmpvw]

//Then choose the correct app and put a tick in the box marked 'Always use this app to open .docx' files before clicking 'OK'//
i don't see the option to 'always use this app'?

[Buenchico]

^^^ Did you go via 'Choose another app', Aelmpvw?

An alternative way to change the file association for a particular type of file is . . .

Click the Search feature.

Start typing 'association'.

When 'Choose the default app for each type of file appears' above where you're typing, click on it.

Scroll down to the type of file that you're interested in. (e.g. '.docx').

Click on its existing file association, to the right of it.

Select your preferred app for opening that type of file.

[You might need to change more than file association. For example, people might send you email attachments using .doc. .docx, .odt or .txt. If you want all of them to automatically open in, say, LibreOffice, rather than, say, Word, you'll need to check/change all of the relevant file associations].

[Coppit]

Many thanks indeed for all yr replies.

[aelmpvw]

//Did you go via 'Choose another app//
no but now i have my problem is solved, brilliant Chris

[MTbowels]

You could also try Google Docs which can save created Google Docs documents in .doc and .docx format as well as importing and open8ng any such documents previously associated with Word. It's a great word processing package that's free.