2008/9/6 cynthia machutta <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > I am e-mailing you to humbly request your help. My daughter provided me > with the link for OpenOffice because I cannot afford Microsoft Office at > this time. I downloaded OpenOffice but now I have a desktop icon that does > nothing. I don't know how to open it or use it. Did I do something wrong? > I have Vista. > > Thank you for taking the time to read this email, I appreciate it and I > appreciate what you are doing. I wish I could be of service to you but I > know very little about computers and at this time I am unemployed. Again, > thank you. > > Sincerely, > > Cynthia MacHutta
What you downloaded was the installer. You now need to run that so it can do its job and install OpenOffice. Once OpenOffice is installed you use it via Start>All Programs>OpenOffice and then choose the component you want. Or just open an existing document using it. In overview the installation process is as follows: 1. Run the installer that you downloaded. It will "unpack" itslef into a folder of your choice. This folder will contain programs, data and other folders also containing all sorts of stuff. 2. The setup program resulting from #1 will run *automatically* and install the software into a folder of your choice, probably C:\program files\openoffice ... Having completed these steps you may now completely delete the installer program. You may also delete the folder and its contents created in #1 leaving you with the software in the folder created in #2 and appropriate entries in your Start>All Programs menu. Detailed installation instructions are linked to from the download page < http://download.openoffice.org/index.html>. I recommend you read them carefully. Documentation (User Guides etc.) is also linked to from that page. The Getting Started guides will repay reading :-) -- Harold Fuchs London, England Please reply *only* to [email protected]
