How To open a MS Excel file?

[Jessie]

How do I open a Microsoft Excel file with open office?

[RoryOF]

Start OpenOffice, then /File /Open and navigate to the directory with your Excel file.

[ProfessorMetal]

Hi, Jessie

I know this a bit after the fact but I just joined the forum. You can also right click on the file you want to open and select Open With and then select OpenOffice.org Calc from the options in the popup menu as the program you want to open it with. The first time you do this for an Excel file it won't be there. Select the Choose Default option and you can then open it by clicking on Calc(it will appear in the list of programs you're presented with). Afterwards the Calc option will appear in the list and you won't have to do the extra step. Also, if you always want Calc to be the default program make sure the checkbox is selected on the dialog that Choose Default brings up. You can then double click on any Excel file and it will automatically open it with Calc. You can also do this with any Microsoft Office file. For example, if you want Word documents you can choose Writer as the program you want to open them with, etc.

Cheers,

[Villeroy]

Since Windows '95 the ways to open some selected file with some chosen program are the same. Why are people in 2013 so completely computer illiterate? This is so disappointing.

[Harshada]

Hi

To open an Excel file:
_ Click on the Open button on the toolbar, or select File > Open....
_ Browse to the Excel file of interest and click Open.
_ Select the Worksheet to import.
_ Click on Refresh.
_ The Data preview field is updated.
_ When you are satisfied, click OK.

[Villeroy]

Hi

To open an Excel file:
_ Click on the Open button on the toolbar, or select File > Open....
_ Browse to the Excel file of interest and click Open.
_ Select the Worksheet to import.
_ Click on Refresh.
_ The Data preview field is updated.
_ When you are satisfied, click OK.

@Harshada,
What you describe here is something different. The first step would be menu:Insert>Sheet From File... in order to import one particular sheet of an Excel workbook into your spreadsheet document.

To open an Excel file:
_ Click on the Open button on the toolbar, or select File > Open....
_ Browse to the Excel file of interest and click Open.
_ That's all.

If the double-click action on a file icon does not feed the file into the program you want right now there are many other ways:
1) Start the program first and then click some open button or menu File > Open...
2) Open the program first and then drag the file icon into the program window.
3) Right-click the file icon and choose "Open With...", choose the program to be used with that file.
4) Drag some file icon onto another icon that is linked to the executable program.
5) There may be more methods I don't recall yet.

The problem is that far too many users can not tell a file from an executable program because those stupid icons symbolize programs instead of file types and double-clicking is all they ever do with icons. Thanks to the software industry.