- OOo v3.0.0 - OOo will not become the default application for MS file types. It does not provide an option during install for an option to affect this behaviour. The lack of option here is assumed to be a bug and possibly this will be fixed in new releases.
- OOo v2.4.2 and previous versions - OOo will give the user an option during install on whether to make this the default program for MS Office file types or not.
Regardless of what options you took during installation, or your current configuration, it is an easy task to make either OOo or MS Office the default application for a particular file type.
Windows XP
Different ways to do this:
1) The easiest method is to simply right click on a file that you want to open. Select 'Open With...', then 'Choose Program...'.
From the dialog box that pops up select the program you want to make the default application (if it was a doc file then select swriter if you want Open Office to handle these files or Microsoft Word if you prefer that). You should be able to find it, but if you can't you can press 'Browse' and search for the program's main executable file.
Select "Always use the selected program to open this kind of file", and press OK. Now this program is the default. You can repeat this process for various file types (e.g. doc, xls etc.).
2) Or tell Windows what program to use to open what type of files:
This application has been reported to be successful in this forum.
Running this utility should set the associations correctly: OOoAssociation Utility.
3) The other option is to open Windows Explorer and then select:
Tools->Folder Options...->File Types
From here you can find a particular file type such as 'doc', and press 'Change' and you will be presented with the same dialog as in step 1. You can use this list to quickly set the default application for all the relevant file types.
Windows Vista
Methods 1 and 2 for Windows XP will work for Vista too, but there is also another option. It's not often I have good things to say about Vista, but I am pleased to announce that this is definitely one occasion where it can make life easier.
4) Start button->Control Panel->Programs->Default Programs->Set your default programs
Now find OpenOffice.org or Microsoft Office in the list and after selecting the appropriate one you can either choose 'Set this program as default' to make it the default application for all file types it can handle in one fell swoop, or 'Choose defaults for this program' to quickly pick the file types you would like this program to handle.
If you have a section to add for a different OS please do so.