- Open Word, create a new document (or edit an existing one)
- File>Options>Save
- Change ‘Save files in this format’ to OpenDocument Text (*.odt). Press OK.
- A pop-up will come up with “You are changing your default file format to OpenDocument Format. Do you also want to change this setting for all other Microsoft Office applications that support this format?”.
- Press “Yes”. Then, save your document somewhere. Word then alerts again something along the lines of “Document1 may contain features that are not compatibl ewith this format. Do you want to continue to safe in this format?”. Tick the “Don’t show this message again” checkbox, and click “Yes”.
And finally, you’ve now switched over to an open, useful standard, which anyone can work with.