When no document is open, the launch screen provides an icon for opening an existing document.

You can also open an existing document in one of the following ways. If a document is already open in OOo, the second document opens in a new window.

• Use File > Open.
• Click the Open button on the main toolbar.
• Press Control+O on the keyboard.

In each case, the Open dialog appears. Select the file you want, and then click Open.

In the Open dialog, you can reduce the list of files by selecting the type of file you are looking for. For example, if you choose Text documents as the file type, you will only see documents Writer can open (including .odt, .doc, .txt); if you choose Spreadsheets, you will see .ods, .xsl, and other files that Calc opens.

You can also open an existing document that is in an OpenDocument format by double-clicking on the file’s icon on the desktop or in a file manager such as Windows Explorer.

If you have associated Microsoft Office file formats with OpenOffice.org, you can also open these files by double-clicking on them.

Under Microsoft Windows you can use either the OpenOffice.org Open and Save As dialogs or the ones provided by Microsoft Windows.