Originally Posted by
Cameronian
I just don't understand what their different links mean!
Yeah, it could be a lot more user friendly that part.
I'll let you know what the general process is, then I'll give you a few direct links to try in case my explanation is not as clear as it should be. I am going to assume that you want the British English version of OpenOffice and that you live in Mallorca, as per your location.
First of all, for your list of mirrors you want to go here:
http://distribution.openoffice.org/mirrors/#mirrors (JavaScript required) Don't use any random mirrors found via Google unless you know exactly what you're doing, as that exposes you to the risk of downloading malware disguised as the real thing (these are called Trojans).
On the list at the link above, you want to pay attention at the columns labelled Location, Main, and Extended:
* Location is straightforward enough--this is the country where the servers are located. Often but not always, picking one close to you works best (that's what the main download link automatically does).
* Main, and Extended: these columns offer a choice of download methods. Ask if you want to know what those mean, but you'll be using the link that says "http". The difference between Main and Extended as far as we're concerned is that extended is where localised (i.e., national versions) of the software exist. If you want to go for the British English localised version (or anything other than US), you will use the Extended column.
Now that we hopefully made a bit of sense out of that table, find a location close to where you are (e.g., Spain or France), and click on the "http" link on the Extended column--if there isn't one, choose another location. You may want to open the link in a new tab or new window so you can find your way back to the mirrors table easily, in case your chosen link is not as fast as you would like.
Having opened that link, you will be presented with a directory listing, where one of the links should be named "localized". Click on it.
Next comes your choice of language, represented by the two-letter language ISO code. For British English, click on "en-GB".
Now comes the software version. The latest at this time is "3.3.0", so just go for that.
Finally, you have found the actual files you want to download. As we have previously established that you are a Windows used, download the two files ending on ".exe"
If the downloading goes slow with your chosen mirror, you can always cancel and repeat the process with a different one, starting back from the page with the mirrors listing. If all of them seem to go slow, then chances are the problem is at your end (e.g., could be your antivirus getting on the way--see if you can disable it while downloading, you can always do a manual check on the files latter).
Once the downloads are complete, click on the OOo_3.3.0_Win_x86_install-wJRE_en-GB.exe first, to install OpenOffice, and then on OOo_3.3.0_Win_x86_langpack_en-GB.exe to install the language tools (dictionary and hyphenation, I presume). This last step I'm not too sure about, not being a Windows user, but should be the same process as installing any other program--if you've done that before you shouldn't have much trouble with this, or get someone to give you a hand.
Hope the above helps a little. As I've said, their website is not practical at all in this regard.
As I've promised, here are a few direct links I've chosen for you following the process outlined above, they all point to the British 3.3.0 version on servers in Spain, France, Germany, and the UK, respectively. I still recommend that you try navigating through the mirrors page first, as you have no guarantee that these links I'm giving you are not malicious. In any case, here you are:
Spain:
http://ftp.udc.es/OpenOffice/localiz...wJRE_en-GB.exe
http://ftp.udc.es/OpenOffice/localiz...pack_en-GB.exe
France:
http://openoffice.cict.fr/localized/...wJRE_en-GB.exe
http://openoffice.cict.fr/localized/...pack_en-GB.exe
Germany:
http://vesta.informatik.rwth-aachen....wJRE_en-GB.exe
http://vesta.informatik.rwth-aachen....pack_en-GB.exe
Britain:
http://openoffice.virginmedia.com/lo...wJRE_en-GB.exe
http://openoffice.virginmedia.com/lo...pack_en-GB.exe
However you end up getting your hands on the installation files, it is always good practice to check that the files you have are what the publisher meant to distribute and they haven't been corrupted or altered in any way.
Modern software installation processes do this automatically by checking an encrypted digest of the contents of the package (this is called a "signature"), but sometimes this reliable process cannot be effected, or it doesn't succeed, as a result of the relative complexity of the mechanism (for the more IT literate: I'm talking about signers we do not have a trust chain to, e.g., as a result of missing CA certificates).
An alternative to the above, which some people may find more reassuring, albeit it's a manual process, is to check the MD5 hashes of the downloaded files. For OpenOffice, those are available here:
http://download.openoffice.org/md5sums/ and the checking process (equally valid for any other software) is described here:
http://www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/using_md5sums.html
HTH.