Open Office - can't enter text into Writer, can't see help

[Chris G]

I'm trying to use OpenOffice 2.4 on xubuntu 8.10 and I'm failing
miserably. 

It all starts up OK and I get the main "OpenOffice.org" window and I
can click on New under the File menu - so far so good.  I'm then
presented with a "Templates and Documents - New Document" window which
again seems reasonable.  However at this point I'm stuck, I can't
enter text into what *appears* to be the text entry area to the right
of the icons in the "Templates and Documents - New Document" window.

In addition if I click on Help I get everything to do with Help in a
new window *except* the actual help.  I.e. I get the Contents, Index,
Find and Bookmarks tabs and I can move around in the Help and view all
the sections but nothing actually appears in the pane to the right
where, presumably, the actual help is supposed to appear.

Am I doing something really stupid or is my OpenOffice installation
broken in some way?

-- 
Chris Green