Try this then...

download: OpenOffice.org - Download tested and stable builds

You want one from "stable" (US English) or "localized" (other languages, including British English).

http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/n...wJRE_en-US.exe

or

http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/n...wJRE_en-GB.exe

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.

Thank you all, Keef, Mike-Bracknell, le Pingouin and LH2! Thanks to your joint help. I have downloaded and installed the 3.3 version and have GB English and Spanish. It took less than five minutes and appears to have gone without a hitch. Now I will be setting out to rediscover my talents learned on Visicalc on my first Apple in 1976! Visicalc was the only application that I had then. My business depended upon it and upon half a dozen databases that my wife and I wrote from scratch in Basic.... I still have at least two Apples here!

I am extremely grateful to you all and can only say that you have shown yet another of the marvels of PPRuNe. An excellent antidote to the nay-saying and backbiting that is all too common in some of the other sections of this great site.

Good news!
I go out for a few hours, come back, and he's all sorted.

It was the collective goodwill which did it, Keef!

Mine downloaded and ran - seemingly okay, but I haven't really put it to the test.

Nothing unusual about the download time, though I have only got one file.

OOo_3.3.0_Win_x86_langpack_en-GB.exe Not there. I don't think I was offered it at any stage. I'm in Texas at the moment - could it be I don't need it while in US?

Is there a chance I have the functionality already? Seems to have fonts and the like.



I elected to have it in D drive, which it did, creating two folders. Open Office, and OpenOffice.org 3 - Is this normal?





Oh, and another thing. Task Manager is showing two Open Office files running all the time. One of them is quite big. soffice.bin 34.264k sofice.exe is 192k

I can delete these after start-up, (while in a housecleaning mode,) and the programs still run. (delete the sofice.bin, and the other one goes.)

That's a lot of stuff in the memory for seemingly nowt.

If I run the program it runs okay, but the files don't come back. Very odd.

No, but Oracle "bought" Sun Microsystems, who made Open Office and Star Office (the commercial version), so that is why the name appears.

That has meant some of those who worked on the project have set up another version, LibreOffice, through a group called The Document Foundation as there were fears that Oracle would close down OpenOffice.org like they did when they acquired OpenSolaris, so you effectively have a "fork" in the project with two distinct versions. Since LibreOffice is now the one that seems to be the choice of the Linux distros it may be the one which will get the best updates, etc, for compatibility with MSOffice docs.

Loose rivets Control panel > administration tools>system configuration> start up and untick the 'open office' box, this will stop the files from opening automatically.

Loose rivets, those files are pre-loading OOffice to make it faster to start.

Thanks for the above posts.


I don't find it slow in opening even having zapped the files in Task manager. I'll run a comparison over the next couple of days. As mentioned, one of them is rather large just to have sitting there - I only have 1.5 gig memory.


Now I'm uncertain which way to go. It does seem that looking at the other route in the fork might be time well spent.

Having been wearing Word Perfect 8 like a comfy old cardigan, for so many years, I did notice a few similarities in OO. What I really need is another comfy old cardigan, but one that doesn't need Task manager to shut it down. (the only grumble I can find on W7- Vista, it shuts down okay.)

You could also try the Open Source version of OO LibreOffice
OO downloaded very quickly for me and I have experienced no problems on the PC whatsoever....

That's what I was getting at about the other fork in the road. Thanks for the link, I'll give it a try . . . BUT, can they co-exist on one logical drive, or do I need to uninstall the ORACLE version first?

Yes you can run them together so that you can compare them....

Downloaded the main Libra file, and it seems to be fine. But I'm confused about this.

Help within LO seems to be working without this, so anyone know what it is?


LibO_3.3.1_Win_x86_helppack_en-US.exe 8.6 MB (en-US - English (US))

I did in fact write a much more comprehensive post, but it was lost in a moment of family crisis.

The help download was quite small, but when run, seemed to want to go back to the web and get more stuff. Fine, but then it was exactly the same as the original install of the main program, so I quit, a bit sharpish so as not to risk the main installation.

Having said all this, the help section seems to be working well, so I'll try to find some time to play with the W-Processor soon.


(L-O is reporting JRE running.)