# Choosing Open Office applications (Mac)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/choosing-open-office-applications-mac/419178>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 14, 2007, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/choosing-open-office-applications-mac/419178 "2007-09-14T14:52:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2007, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/choosing-open-office-applications-mac/419178/1 "2007-09-14T14:52:28Z")

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I just installed Open Office and I’m confused about how to choose an app. If I hit the icon (there’s just one for the whole suite), then Writer comes up. But how do you choose Calc, etc.?

If I open the appropriate document with the program, the right app opens up. But how to choose to begin with? TYVM!

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**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2007, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/choosing-open-office-applications-mac/419178/2 "2007-09-14T16:49:44Z")

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Bump. I need an answer to this pretty quickly.

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**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2007, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/choosing-open-office-applications-mac/419178/3 "2007-09-14T16:55:53Z")

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It’s under the file menu.  
There’s a pop-up menu in there somewhere.

Lousy UI.

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**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2007, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/choosing-open-office-applications-mac/419178/4 "2007-09-14T17:29:49Z")

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NeoOffice puts it in the NeoOffice Menu (not sure what this is called - the “app menu” - it’s where the Prefs and About box are found).

But if OpenOffice doesn’t do that, you should be able to do File-\>New-\>(spreadsheet, database, etc.). That’s based on NeoOffice as well, but I’m betting that bit of UI is the same.

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**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2007, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/choosing-open-office-applications-mac/419178/5 "2007-09-14T20:15:35Z")

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I use StarOffice, but that is a spinoff of OO. Select File-\>New-\> and all the applications you can open will be there. You can do a File-\> Open for a Calc file inside of Writer and it will start up the right application also.

ETA: I use both the Solaris and Windows versions, but I’m sure the Mac version works the same way.

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**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2007, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/choosing-open-office-applications-mac/419178/6 "2007-09-15T01:46:51Z")

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[QUOTE=Voyager]  
I use StarOffice, but that is a spinoff of OO.  
[/QUOTE]

Idle question … isn’t it the other way 'round? I know the OOo BASIC refers to the StarOffice BASIC as the ‘original’.