For those who use the brilliant freebie software OpenOffice, it has been noticed over the years that the various updates, security fixes, and improvements do seem to have been missed out upon by many users.
Well, here is a how to tell guide if you want to get the most out of OpenOffice, and how to keep on top of the updates. There are two ways of telling which version you currently have installed:-
Step 1:-
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Example 1
- First things first, open OpenOffice Writer (or any of the OpenOffice software) and press Help from the top menu > and choose ‘About’ from the menu.
- In the middle of the screen will appear a dialog box which will tell you what version you currently have installed
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Example 2
- Make sure all OpenOffice programs are shut. Then start OpenOffice Writer for example. When it is starting you will see a splashscreen as it is loading (see below for example). The numbers which proceed ‘OpenOffice…’ is your version number. For example ‘OpenOffice 2.2′.
Step 2:-
Now that you have established which version you have installed, visit the official OpenOffice website. On the OpenOffice website, look at the option to download it. You will see that they state the latest version (see below for example). If the version number is higher than the one you currently have installed, choose to download it and install it. The upgrade shouldn’t take longer than 10 minutes to complete on a standard broadband connection.
Note: At the time of writing this, the current version is OpenOffice 2.4.1. OpenOffice version 3 is set for release in September of this year (2008). The Blogberry will of course post news of when this is available, so add it to your favourites / bookmarks (link at the very top of this page), or subscribe to the RSS feed.
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