Does anybody use Open Office instead of WORD....

[lemonice]

and will it read and write genuine excel documents IYSWIM...in other words can i avoid forking out for Word(alternatively will my word 97 work with XP?

I think Word 97 should work with XP, but don't quote me. I used to have OpenOffice but ditched it because I found their version of Powerpoint so hard to use. I don't think I ever tried the Excel bit. I gues you could download it and try, since it's free?

I use the excel thing and its ok. And its great cos it's free!!!!!!!

Thanks I don't use powerpoint in fact I'm only using excel to either receive documents like price lists or AQA, I don't even use word much but can't run a business without it!
But I've looked at Ability Office and that includes a Photoshop look alike suite/application so I might try that...it is about 50.00 I think...

I used openoffice before I bought this laptop with office xp, and I thought it was great! A little old fashioned but the spreadsheet bit is fab.