Worried about uninstalling MS Office and installing OOo

[okieman]

I'm running Windows XP Pro with MS Office 2000.

Word started acting real screwy and a guru in a Microsoft forum told me to delete a certain registry key, then restart MS Word and it rebuilds the registry key with all the original defaults in place. When I tried it, it wanted me to insert my MS Office CD. Uh-oh. That's buried in one of a dozen boxes in my brother's shed. For some reason I put it away years ago before I learned that any installer disk should be duped and either the original or the copy ready just in case. So, tonight I started thinking... I don't have time to find the old disk ... I can't afford Office 2010 ... The only MS Office apps I ever used were Word (frequently), Powerpoint (when friends emailed me interesting/funny Powerpoints), and Internet Explorer ... maybe I should try OpenOffice?

Finally here's my question: Bearing in mind that I'm a heavy computer user in several areas (web development, graphic design, audio recording/mixing, etc.) I have a large number of apps installed. Boot takes a long time (yes I defrag and tweak). I'm tempted to uninstall all of MS Office and replace it with OpenOffice. But without the MS install disk, there's no turning back.

Maybe an impossible question, but what would you do in a similar situation?

[RoryOF]

You should tidy your brother's shed. This requires effort on your part; you installing OpenOffice will require effort on your part and effort on our part trying to sort out incompatibilities, and may ultimately lead to you having to tidy your brother's shed anyway, so do it now and save much wasted effort.

[jrkrideau]

You should tidy your brother's shed.

You must be joking! I helped my brother-in-law tidy his shed. It took us 2.5 days of hard labour, much dirt and the need to retire for frequent beers since we were doing it in the middle of summer. Also the shed held all the items a pack-rat family can accumulate from 1898 to 1995.

@okieman
Just install it. It won't conflict with MS items. However as Rory implies, OOo Writer is a very different kettle of fish from Word and you need to be prepared for a noticeable learning curve.

OOo Authors has some very good documents about OOo. The Getting Started guides and the Writer Styles and Template chapters are well worth reading, especially as OOo, in general, and Writer, in particular, are highly Styles oriented—translation: If you don't use styles it can really muck up what you are trying to do.

[TheGurkha]

You don't need to uninstall MS Office to install OOo - so you'd be no worse off.

Image your PC before you do anything if you're worried.

[RoryOF]

I still think he should tidy the shed!!

[okieman]

I don't disagree with the "shed cleaners." I just dread the chore. And I'm still amazed I didn't back up those install disks and put one in storage and one right here. Doh!!!

[keme]

If you really want MS Office back, you may look for a downloadable Office 2000 ISO image (search the web). You may need a license key (depends on how much damage is done to your current install). If you get one, make sure you do thorough malware scans on that image before making a CD, and scan the CD after burning too. Will perhaps take a few hours, but that's time well spent.

To open existing MS Word and Powerpoint documents for viewing/printing, you can use viewers freely downloadable from Microsoft. They will also render newer MS Office documents correctly, which often is not the case when opening such documents with the corresponding OOo applications. That, and a new OOo install, should cover your needs.

Leave shed alone for now. Someone else will most likely help out.
(In a couple thousand years the shed with contents may constitute a source invaluable to archaeology. Granted, archaeologists are slow, but they are really tidy.) ::-)

[jrkrideau]

Leave shed alone for now. Someone else will most likely help out.
(In a couple thousand years the shed with contents may constitute a source invaluable to archaeology. Granted, archaeologists are slow, but they are really tidy.) ::-)

So, not tidying the shed could be considered helping science? I like this

[RoryOF]

There is nothing archaeologists like better than a midden!

Edit: Perhaps you should approach the local Conservation Authority and have it listed as either a National Monument, or a Site of Special Scientific Interest?