OpenOffice Writer is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It is therefore recommendable to convert documents to pdf documents before you print them. Most of the details are in the layout, however subtleties such as the placement of footnotes could shift content around. When saving work, OpenOffice Writer only supports the older file formats (.doc. It is important that OpenOffice can open all Microsoft Word formats. OpenOffice Writer has all the functions that you need in everyday office life. OpenOffice doesn’t, however, provide an alternative for the Outlook e-mail program.

Just like Microsoft Office packet, OpenOffice (as well as being a word processing program) also provides an alternative to Excel, a database tool, a drawing program, a tool for mathematical formulas, and a presentation tool. The OpenOffice Writer is the most popular among the Microsoft Word alternatives, and together with LibreOffice, it’s most similar to the original. Apache OpenOffice was operated under the name until 2012 and now is simply called 'OpenOffice'.