Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

Am using Windows 10/11.
Have deleted old versions of Open Office.
Have installed latest version of Apache Open Office.
When trying to open Writer, system diverts to MS Word.
I don't want MS Word. I want to continue using Writer.
HELP

Please explain exactly what you are doing to start Writer.
If you are on Windows 10, you should be able to click the Windows icon, scroll down the alphabetical listing of programs to find OpenOffice. Click on it's listing and you should see an icon for Writer.

See also [Tutorial] Setting the default program to open files

If you're on Windows 10 and Windows 11 then for both those operating systems you would be much better of forgetting about OpenOffice and switch to using LibreOffice. There are several good reasons for this, some of which are given here: [Tutorial] Considering a Switch from OpenOffice to LibreOffice? Some Useful Information

I recently got a laptop with Windows 11. When I installed LibreOffice to it the installer did not give an offer to associate Microsoft Office file-types with LibreOffice. I think Microsoft are deliberately making things difficult for people that do not want to use Microsoft Office.

To fix that I had to use the Taskbar Search function (the magnifying glass symbol on the Taskbar) and type Default Apps in there. Doing that you can easily get to set LibreOffice (and perhaps OpenOffice) as the default app to handle your LibreOffice/OpenOffice file-types.

An additional tack you could take is to uninstall Microsoft Office from your system — this is what I did (in addition to manually setting LibreOffice to handle its own file-types in Default Apps). But by the sounds of things for your own problem you would still need to use Default Apps to set your file-types associations.

For alternative instructions on changing default apps in see this: How to Set Your Default Apps on Windows 11 The procedure for doing so in Windows 10 is very similar.

You need to set File Associations to tell the computer which application to use to open which type of file.

see
[Tutorial] Setting the default program to open files

for information on how to do this.