The free WORD program?

[Heather Positive Thinker]

I seem to recall some time ago that someone had recommended a free download which was equivalent to MS Word - can anyone remember the name of it and has anyone tried it out please?

While Im here - can anyone recommend a program for producing invoices please.

[Mary from Italy]

OpenOffice.org: Home (http://www.openoffice.org)

I tried it out once, because I had a corrupt Word file that wouldn't open, and somebody told me to try OpenOffice. It opened the file beautifully, and works fine, but I went back to MS Office because I have to work on clients' files, and OO's formatting isn't quite 100% compatible with MS Office.

No idea about invoices, I'm afraid. I've created mine in Word so that they calculate the VAT and total automatically.

[Elaine ..Spain]

Open Office is the program you are thinking about Heather - and yes it is very good.

OpenOffice.org: Home (http://www.openoffice.org/)

[KiteRunner]

Heather, the latest issue of YFT magazine has a review of a free word processing program called AbiWord2.4 available from AbiWord (http://www.abisource.com)

I haven't tried it myself.

[Nana Anna]

Have you looked at these for invoices templates? Some for Word or Excel.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/templates/CT101172551033.aspx

[alan 128]

Heather An other option for Word is from IBM Lotus Symphony (http://symphony.lotus.com/software/lotus/symphony/home.jspa)
again its free.

[Heather Positive Thinker]

Hi I have Works on my puter - Word costs too much. I saw a lot of templates required an exel program which is part of Word and I wondered if the freebie download would work. Thanks for your help everyone - much appreciated.

Those templates look good but they need that Excel program which I havent got :( Any other ideas people please?

[Mary from Italy]

You can use OpenOffice instead of Excel.

[Heather Positive Thinker]

Mary, sorry Im a thicko, how do I do that please? Ive just downloaded the openoffice thank you :) but what do I do now - can I download the templates that are for excel and use open office and well, how, please?

[John-Nihon]

Hi Heather, The following link may help for Open Office:

http://www.familytreeforum.com/computer-help/25821-openoffice-org.html (http://www.familytreeforum.com/computer-help/25821-openoffice-org.html)

:D

[Heather Positive Thinker]

Thanks John, but I wonder if you (or Mary) can tell me how to use a Word template for invoices on the OO instead of Excel or is it possible to do please? Or do OO have their own templates I can download for Invoices. I couldnt see any.?

[Mary from Italy]

can I download the templates that are for excel and use open office and well, how, please?

Sorry, I've only used it for Word documents myself, and I no longer have it on my computer.

It should have a spreadsheet program that works like Excel. If you can find it, you should be able to open the templates in it.

Try clicking on Help (in OpenOffice), or have a look here:

Calc (http://www.openoffice.org/product/calc.html)

Open Office tips (http://scs.earlham.edu/openoffice.html)

[Mary from Italy]

Thanks John, but I wonder if you (or Mary) can tell me how to use a Word template for invoices on the OO instead of Excel or is it possible to do please?

I think you're probably better off using Excel (which seems to be called Calc in OpenOffice), because it's a lot better at calculations than Word. I only used Word for mine because I have no idea how to use Excel :)

[Heather Positive Thinker]

Blow me guys, I think I may have done it on a template on there. Its not perfect but Im quite pleased with it - itll certainly save a few hundred quid on getting invoices printed up. Im just a bit confused because I saved it as Invoice template and when I click to open it I get a message saying it is using macros and may not display properly. But it seems to be ok. I cant work out how to change the colour on the shaded areas yet though but I got rid of all the columns and rows which I didnt want and Ive added a few lines that we repeat on every invoice - like the VAT no and terms, data plate nos etc. I have done it on the word processor I think - there didnt seem to be an option and I guess I can use my calculator as normal.

[Mary from Italy]

Good heavens, that was quick!

[John-Nihon]

Hi Heather, Have you checked this link out:

http://www.familytreeforum.com/computer-help/36964-openoffice-org-templates.html (http://www.familytreeforum.com/computer-help/36964-openoffice-org-templates.html)

[Heather Positive Thinker]

Oh, hubby doesnt like it - says doesnt look professional :(