This article will limit itself to explaining how to install and uninstall the program. The guide also provides its own pragmatic tutorials, starting with Using OpenOffice.org, which explains using the program, and also gives links to other sources of information about the program.

If you have no experience with office suites, then OpenOffice.org will probably be no more costly to learn than any other. The important thing to remember is that you will have to set aside many hours of your time in order to become proficient, and there will be some frustration along the way.

If you already have experience with an office suite, then the move to OpenOffice.org will be costly as it will involve many hours to learn, and while some of your previous experience will help you, there will probably be even more frustration as there will be subtle differences in how things are done. Just how much time you will need depends on how well you know your current office suite software. If you have only a superficial knowledge of your current office suite, you have some advantage over a more skilled user, in that you will have less to “unlearn”.

If you are a very experienced office suite user, then OpenOffice.org may not be an advantage to you. The cost of keeping or upgrading you current office suite may be much less than the cost of learning to use OpenOffice.org. I would suggest that you allow yourself a few hours to try it out, and if you don't feel that you can achieve your current level of efficiency within a reasonable time frame, based on those hours of experimentation, then simply uninstall OpenOffice.org and continue with your current office suite.

OpenOffice.org may not be your favourite choice of office suite. Fortunately, there are alternatives. The guide lists a few here, but makes no judgements, as it is impossible to analyse all of them in depth.

The Wikipedia also provides a comparison list of office suites.

OpenOffice.org requires the Java Runtime Environment primarily for databases, but also for other features such as macro execution. The guide explains installing the Java Runtime Environment in this article.

The OpenOffice.org web site, http://www.openoffice.org/, provides a download button “Get OpenOffice.org” which takes you to the download page for the latest version of the office suite. Click on the “Download OpenOffice.org” panel. Note that, because I have already installed the Java Runtime Environment, I unchecked the “Include the Java JRE with this download” box.

Choose the version for your operating system - I chose the version for Windows, then click on the “continue to download” panel. This starts the download. Since most of the install programs are close to 100 MB in size, this may take a long time to download to your computer, and the installation itself can take ten minutes or more – make sure you have at least half an hour available. The download page also has a link “Installation Instructions” which gives a detailed analysis of the system requirements, and the installation process.

As for all guide downloads, I have saved this file in my downloads folder creating a www.openoffice.org sub folder. Use Windows Explorer to open this sub folder, then double click on the OOo_2.2.1_Win32Intel_install_en-US.exe file and you will see the following dialog box:

Click on Next >.

Personally, I'm not happy about cluttering my desktop with temporary installation file folders, and I also prefer to keep them around, in case I have to install the program again, at some later date.

I changed the root destination folder to my www.openoffice.org sub folder of my downloads folder, and then added the suggested sub folder OpenOffice.org 2.2 Installation Files to this. In future I will have all the unpacked files in this folder, and I can use the setup.exe program to re-install, if necessary.

Click on Unpack to start the unpacking process, which takes a few minutes. Once that has finished, you'll see the installation dialog as follows:

Click on Next >.

Set your user name and company name (organisation), if you have one, then click on Next >.

The complete setup type is both the best and simplest choice here, otherwise you'll need to spend some time choosing the various features to install, and frankly, the disk space savings are not worth the effort. Now click on Next >.

Again, the installer offers a reasonable choice. If you have Microsoft Office installed, or if you use the free Microsoft readers for these files, then you don't really want OpenOffice.org taking control of these extensions. You can always associate the extensions (.doc for Microsoft Word, .xls for Microsoft Excel, and .ppt for Microsoft PowerPoint) at a later time. Now click on Next >.

If you're happy (as I am) with the installation settings, click on Install. The installation takes several minutes, enough for a coffee break, and when completed you will be presented with the following dialog:

Click on Finish to terminate the installation process.

Unlike many programs, OpenOffice.org does not leave an icon on the desktop. Use the Programs menu option to reach the six OpenOffice.org programs available. Click on OpenOffice.org Writer.

Since this is the first time that the program has been used, you will be presented with the license and registration wizard, thus:

Click on Next >>.

Click on the Scroll Down button until you have read the entire license agreement, then click on Accept.

Type in your first and last name, together with your initials (these will be used in the author fields of any documents you create), then click on Next >>.

Filling in the registration form for open source software is a small price to pay for the use of the software, and it provides the organisations who develop this type of software with important information for future versions of the program. I left the default “I want to register now” radio button checked, and then clicked on Finish. OpenOffice.org Writer will now start up with a new, empty document, and at the same time, the following web page will open in your web browser (you'll need to be connected to the Internet, of course):

I chose English and clicked on Start Survey!.

The form itself is anonymous (you won't be asked for specific personal information), but very long. You can fill in as much of the form as you like, or have the patience for.

OpenOffice.org checks occasionally for updates. When a new version of the program is available, an icon appears to the right of the menu bar, as shown below:

Unfortunately, OpenOffice.org does not yet have an automatic updating mechanism. Clicking on the update icon opens a web page (you will need to be connected to the Internet) where you can download the latest version of the program.

You are now ready for the guide's first pragmatic tutorial in the Using OpenOffice.org article.

OpenOffice.org uses the standard Windows uninstall mechanism. From the desktop, double click on My Computer, then from the left hand pane select Add or Remove programs which will open the following dialog window:

Select the OpenOffice.org program, then click on Remove. The following warning dialog is displayed:

Click on Yes (or just press the Enter key) to continue. If you have an OpenOffice.org document open, then you will be presented with a dialog similar to this:

Close the program or programs listed (the list represents the window title or titles), then click on Retry. OpenOffice.org will then be uninstalled, which will take several minutes, enough time for another cup of coffee, and you can follow the progress in the dialog below:

When the dialog closes, OpenOffice.org will have been uninstalled.