Getting Started Guide

Why do I need Java to run
OOo? Is it written in Java?
OpenOffice.org is not written in Java; it is written in
the C++ language. Java is one of several languages
that can be used to extend OOo. The Java JDK/JRE
is only required for some features. The most notable
one is the HSQLDB relational database engine.
Note: Java is available at no cost. If you do not want
to use Java, you can still use nearly all of the
features of OOo.
How can I contribute to
OpenOffice.org?
You can help with the development of OOo in many
ways, and you do not need to be a programmer. To
start, check out this webpage:
http://www.openoffice.org/contributing.html
What’s the catch? There really is none; you can read the licenses here:
http://www.openoffice.org/license.html
File formats OOo can open
OpenOffice.org can open a wide variety of file formats in addition to the
OpenDocument formats.
Opening text documents
In addition to OpenDocument formats (.odt, .ott, .oth, and .odm), Writer 3 can open
the formats used by OOo 1.x (.sxw, .stw, and .sxg) and the following text document
formats:
Microsoft Word 6.0/95/97/2000/XP) (.doc and .dot)
Microsoft Word 2003 XML (.xml)
Microsoft Word 2007 XML (.docx, .docm, .dotx, .dotm)
Microsoft WinWord 5 (.doc)
WordPerfect Document (.wpd)
WPS 2000/Office 1.0 (.wps)
Rich Text Format (.rtf)
Text CSV (.csv and .txt)
StarWriter formats (.sdw, .sgl, .vor)
DocBook (.xml)
Unified Office Format text (.uot, .uof)
Ichitaro 8/9/10/11 (.jtd and .jtt)
Hangul WP 97 (.hwp)
T602 Document (.602, .txt)
AportisDoc (Palm) (.pdb)
Pocket Word (.psw)
HTML Document (.htm, .html)
Most of these file types are automatically detected by OOo, so they can be opened
without explicitly selecting the document type in the file picker.
When opening .htm or .html files (used for web pages), OOo customizes Writer for
working with these files.
Appendix B Open Source, Open Standards, OpenDocument 367