Sometimes you want to send your current OpenOffice.org document by e-mail. You have several options how to start this task easy and fast from within OOo.

Sending e-mail to another happy OOo user

If you know that the recipient also uses OpenOffice.org (and all your friends should do so by now), you just click the “Document as E-mail” icon on the Standard toolbar. This icon looks like a mail envelope. Alternatively you can choose “File – Send – Document as E-mail”.

This opens your default mail program with a “send new mail” window. The current OOo document is automatically saved in its current state as a temporary file, and this temporary file is already appended as an attachment to your e-mail window. The OpenDocument format (ODF) is used for the attached file, which has several advantages. First, it is open, which means that your recipient will be able to read the document by using open software. Then, the file format uses the ZIP compression by default, which means a small file size and fast transmission.

Just fill in the recipient's address, a subject line, and some additional text as a mail body, if you like so. Then click the Send button.

Sending e-mail to a poor Microsoft Office only user

If you suspect that the recipient may not be able to read open standard documents, you can use the Microsoft Office format for the attachment. Of course, this does not mean that you must use that old format yourself. You can easily create a snapshot of the current state of your current document and send that temporary file by e-mail. Then continue working on your current OOo document as normal.

To send the current text document as a Microsoft Word file, choose “File – Send – E-mail as Microsoft Word”. That's all to do. Again, your default mail program will open, and this time a Word file is attached.

If you are working on a Calc spreadsheet, you can send this as an Excel file. Your current Impress presentation can be sent easily as a PowerPoint file. I'm sorry, but no Microsoft Office equivalent exists for the wonderful, multi page, multi layer OOo Draw line art application.

By the way, Thunderbird is a good e-mail program, and its Lightning extension keeps track of your events and tasks. Both are free and open software, too.