Open Office vs MS Office

I am still using MS Office 2003. I realize soon I will need to upgrade. Since I am on the cheap side, I was wondering if Open Office would be a good substitute. Could I still use all of my MS files? Is there a way to import the MS files to Open Office? Any info that you could give me on Open Office would be appreciated.

Thanks,

redsoxm16 said:

The files produced by Microsoft Office 2007 are also called Office Open XML, OpenXML, OOXML, Office 12, .docx, .docm, .xlsx, etc. (other extensions).

• OpenOffice.org 3 can open these files, but it cannot save in these formats.

That's from their FAQ section and I'm pretty sure that the file types that they save in cannot be read by MS Office

That's what I was afraid of. If I send someone a spreadsheet, I want them to be able to read it if they have MS Office. Thanks for your help.

redsoxm16 said:

The files produced by Microsoft Office 2007 are also called Office Open XML, OpenXML, OOXML, Office 12, .docx, .docm, .xlsx, etc. (other extensions).

• OpenOffice.org 3 can open these files, but it cannot save in these formats.

That's from their FAQ section and I'm pretty sure that the file types that they save in cannot be read by MS Office

You can open the standard office file formats like doc, xls, etc. And you can save them as .doc, .xls, etc....so you can still open them back up in Microsoft Office. It just doesn't natively handle the xml versions of the files which end in x.

No problem. I've been using OpenOffice at home now for a few years with Microsoft Office at work.

I don't use the docx or xlsx format features...neither does my employer or my previous employer. Seems lots just stuck with .doc and .xls in order to maximize compatibility.