This is very good software, I've used OpenOffice's word processor quite a bit and I really like it.

According to the website, 49 million copies have been downloaded.

Aonghus thank you for that. It is a good package quite aside from the Irish language. Note: anyone trying to download this by HTTP should try using a dedicated FTP package instead where you can download it at 40kbs and not 1.2kbs! Also it does not come with Irish dictionaries installed. They are available and I have just managed to install them. If someone wants help on this, I can explain further.

Please do!

1) The download
Open an FTP program like WS_FTP and make a new connection to ftp.heanet.ie, with "anonymous" as your username and your email address as your password. Once connected click on the "mirrors" directory, then "openoffice.org", then "localized", then "ga" then finally the file name OOo_2.1.0_Win32Intel_install_ga.exe. In needs to be a binary transfer but this should be automatic. It is a 104MB download.

2) Installing spell checkers.

It should install Open Office with both Irish and English as possible interface languages. If you are not totally fluent, you might like to perform complex things like installing languages and spell checkers in English. You change to English by going to the Uirlisí (=Tools) menu, choosing Roghanna (options), Socruithe Teanga (language settings), Teangacha (languages), and then specifying the language you want in Comhéadan Úsáideora (user interface) and then clicking OK. [Does the Irish language have nothing better for "OK" than "OK"?] It should be easy to switch back and forth between interfaces.

Spell checkers and hyphenation checkers are available for download in many languages at http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Dictionaries. First download the dictionary:
http://ftp.services.openoffice.org/pub/OpenOffice.org/contrib/dictionaries/ga_IE .zip. Unzip the contents to C:\Program Files\OpenOffice.org 2.1\share\dict\ooo\.
Download the hyphenator from http://ftp.services.openoffice.org/pub/OpenOffice.org/contrib/dictionaries/hyph_ ga_IE.zip and unzip the contents to the same location.

In the same folder there is a text file called dictionary.lst. Open it in notepad. You need to edit it to list your Irish dictionary and spellchecker, and the syntax of this is in a fixed form. For example, if you just want US and UK English spellcheckers hyphenators and thesauri, and your Irish spellchecker and hyphenator, then you can delete the rubbish you find in this file (which seems to relate to Czech, Hungarian, Thai etc), and paste in the following:

DICT en GB en_GB

HYPH en GB hyph_en_GB

THES en GB th_en_US_v2

DICT en US en_US

HYPH en US hyph_en_US

THES en US th_en_US_v2

DICT ga IE ga_IE
HYPH ga IE hyph_ga_IE

I think it make sense to paste as above and have each entry as a separate line. Save and close the file.
Close our Open office. You need to close the Quickstarter too, which is an icon in the Windows system tray. Right click that and exit too. The next time you open Open Office writer it should detect the new spell checker and hyphenator.

Go to Language settings (Socruithe Teanga), Languages (Teangacha) once again under the Tools (Uirlisí) menu, choose the language of user interace (Teanga, Comhéada Úsáideora) as either English or Irish, and choose the default language for Western documents (Teanga réamhshocraithe i gcáipéisí, Iartharach) as Irish. Next click on Language settings (Socruithe Teanga), Writing aids (Áiseanna scribhneoireachta), and where you see "openoffice.org Hunspell SpellChecker", highlight it and click on Edit (Eagar). You should be able to choose Irish from the list and see that both the SpellChecker and Hyphenator are installed. Press close and OK and you are ready to roll!

Does anyone know -- are there similar problems in installing the Mac version?