Originally posted May 17, 2010 by Cindy O'Neal
OpenOffice.org for PCs and Macs
What does this have to do with Kindle? A lot, if you like saving money and having a nice office suite of programs that includes a word processor that will export files to a PDF file. A pdf file, I might add, that can be used on your Kindle.
Most everyone has received a pdf file for one reason or another. Most computers are even shipping with the latest version of the free Acrobat Reader software already installed and ready to use. A pdf file is a great way to share a file created with say, the latest version of Microsoft Word with someone who maybe has an older version. I create quite a few files with Adobe InDesign (a great layout/desktop publishing application) and save copies of my files as pdf files so anyone can see them the way they were originally created without having to spend a lot of money on the actual software used to create them.
Adobe Acrobat can be quite pricey, and is what is needed if you want to convert various office files to pdf for sharing and other things. Once purchased and installed on your computer, you can make a pdf copy of pretty much anything you create on your computer. There are other, less expensive applications, you can purchase that will do a similar job, but not quite as well as the folks who invented pdf files (Adobe). They aren't too shabby, but free is always nice, and when you can get free and great quality, it is even nicer. If you can open it with OpenOffice.org, you can export it as a pdf file.
OpenOffice.org will open any Microsoft file, including the newest versions. Once opened, you can convert the document to a pdf file by clicking the word File at the top of the main window, then the words Export as PDF. It really is that easy. Take that pdf file and put it into the Documents folder of your Kindle and you have a new "book/document" you can read on your little machine.
OpenOffice.org is a great replacement for any office suite. It is absolutely free, along with any newer versions and updates. I use it myself, and have and will continue to recommend it to everyone I help with their computers highly. It is a rather large download (about 150 Mb), but with today's fast Internet connections, doesn't seem to be an issue for more and more people. If you are one of the lucky ones with high speed Internet, go for it! It will become your new best friend.
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