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

[Wade Smart]

Chris G wrote:
> 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?
> 
20090118 0843 GMT-5

Hey Chris, I'm not sure what you're talking about here.

Open a new document.
Click on File, click on New and a pop out comes out to the right showing 
a list of options. At the bottom is Templates and Documents.

If you click on that a window comes up.
On the left are four icons (new document, templates, my documents and 
samples) in the middle area are nine options for the type of template 
and nothing is on the far left.

I'm not seeing any place to input text.

Can you describe this a bit further as what you are try to do?

Wade Smart
Sports Performance Specialist
-- 
Registered Linux User: #480675
Linux since June 2005