I received an .odt file for posting on an organization’s Web site. OpenOffice’s word processor uses this file format. I didn’t want to download and install OpenOffice even though it cost nothing. And going back to the sender wasn’t a good idea because she would either not know how to convert it or she wasn’t the one who created the file.

Considering the popularity of OpenOffice, I took a chance and searched the Internet to see if there were converters or a Web-based application that could read .odt files. I struck gold at Media Convert, a no-cost, Web-based application — so I didn’t need to install anything. It did the job beautifully. All you have to do is locate the file, select the input format, and select the output format.

The service doesn’t include Publisher, but you can convert it at PDF Online. At the very least, everyone can view PDF files and you don’t have to ask anyone to save the Publisher file into another format.

[tags]Open Office,Publisher,Microsoft,pdf,Meryl K. Evans[/tags]