A friend told me about a free download called Open Office. He said if I want to be able to open files created in Office 2003 or 2007 I would need this. I have office 2000.

I've never had a problem opening an email attachment in my Office 2000 in the past. My friend was told about it by HP Tech Support when he couldn't open an email attachment.

Is this download a good idea / necessary?

Is it safe?

What is it exactly?

Thanks...

Open Office is an Open Source equivalent of Microsoft Office. It can read and write files created with MS Office 2003 and earlier (not sure about 2007). While not as powerful as the Office apps, it is enough for most users.

However, the Office file formats have not really changed between 2000 and 2003 so you shouldn't have any real problems opening Office files in Office 2000.

But the download is safe. You can read more about it at openoffice.org.

Thanks ScottGem. That's exactly what I wanted to know...

Open Office is an Open Source equivalent of Microsoft Office. It can read and write files created with MS Office 2003 and earlier (not sure about 2007). While not as powerful as the Office apps, it is enough for most users.

I use NeoOffice on my Macbook, and it's near 100% compatible with Office 2007 (I believe this is true of all flavors of OpenOffice). It does most everything the average user will need (including most business users); I suspect the sticking point would be very complex spreadsheets, maybe some PowerPoint presentations(?). The current version of NeoOffice includes word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, database, and drawing modules (assuming same is true of OpenOffice). And you can't beat the price!