OpenOffice anyone us it ?

[- Bobb -]

Just a quick general question... I'm downloading ithe Windows version
now and wondering if others have used it - if so how did you like it ?
Is it very compatible with Office 2003 ? Can they co-exist ?
http://www.openoffice.org/index.html
Sorry, I tried to find a newsgroup for the English/Windows version of
t - no luck.

 

[paulmd]

Just a quick general question... I'm downloading ithe Windows version
now and wondering if others have used it - if so how did you like it ?
Is it very compatible with Office 2003 ? Can they co-exist ?
http://www.openoffice.org/index.html
Sorry, I tried to find a newsgroup for the English/Windows version of
t - no luck.

Openoffice is a fine program. It can coexist with word.

 

[Guest]

I like it. Sometimes if you create a .doc file in OOo and then open it in
Word, the layout of tables and/or autoshapes is a little distorted, but
otherwise it works good. Plus it's free.

 

[John Winder]

It is crap for the poor person who dislikes everything MS makes! No
wonder it is free because no one will buy it. In fact some corporations
get paid to install it in their system because it is completely
rubbish!!.

 

[Kerry Brown]

Just a quick general question... I'm downloading ithe Windows version
now and wondering if others have used it - if so how did you like it ?
Is it very compatible with Office 2003 ? Can they co-exist ?
http://www.openoffice.org/index.html
Sorry, I tried to find a newsgroup for the English/Windows version of
t - no luck.

It's a reasonable alternative to Microsoft Office in a workgroup situation.
It can co-exist with Office. There are sometimes minor formatting
inconsistencies but it is rare. Personally I prefer MS Office but that's
what I learned first. I have some customers who swear by Open Office.

 

[Leythos]

It's a reasonable alternative to Microsoft Office in a workgroup situation.
It can co-exist with Office. There are sometimes minor formatting
inconsistencies but it is rare. Personally I prefer MS Office but that's
what I learned first. I have some customers who swear by Open Office.

We use OO on Nix platforms where the customer doesn't want to install
CrossOver and use Office XP, but, there are more than just rare
differences, there are a lot of formatting differences if you do
anything more than just text.

 

[Kerry Brown]

We use OO on Nix platforms where the customer doesn't want to install
CrossOver and use Office XP, but, there are more than just rare
differences, there are a lot of formatting differences if you do
anything more than just text.

I haven't seen any formatting problems myself but I don't use OO much.. When
I ask customers who are using it they say the same. Maybe the Windows
version is different from the Nix version. The difference might be because
of fonts? Are you using True Type fonts in Nix?

 

[Galen]

In - Bobb - had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

Just a quick general question... I'm downloading ithe Windows version
now and wondering if others have used it - if so how did you like it ?
Is it very compatible with Office 2003 ? Can they co-exist ?
http://www.openoffice.org/index.html
Sorry, I tried to find a newsgroup for the English/Windows version of
t - no luck.

It was ages ago - a couple years back when I last had really sat down and
tried it to give a review of it - and it was slow... Formatting - as you're
now well aware - is your major problem if you want to share the documents
with anyone who's a Microsoft Office user. Slow... SLOW... The Windows
version was slower than the version I installed on the
then-known-as-Mandrake and now-known-as-Mandriva. Either way, it was slow...

Two things... I understand it's a bit less of a resource hog. I'm not sure
and maybe someone can fill me in but was it coded in Java? (Not JavaScript
but Java?)

The second is wait... Microsoft's statements include an open XML format in
the future. Ratification is on the way I understand. That *might* help
interoperability.

--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/
http://kgiii.info/

"At present I am, as you know, fairly busy, but I propose to devote my
declining years to the composition of a textbook which shall focus the
whole art of detection into one volume." - Sherlock Holmes

 

[antioch]

It is crap for the poor person who dislikes everything MS makes!

Crap? - your opinion or fact?
Well we are not all rich AH's like yourself!
Do you have to be poor AND dislike everything MS makes or can you just be
poor to qualify. Or rich and dislike MS?

No wonder it is free because no one will buy it. In fact some
corporations get paid to install it in their system because it is
completely rubbish!!.

Which corporations would they be?
Rgds
Antioch

 

[Leythos]

I haven't seen any formatting problems myself but I don't use OO much.. When
I ask customers who are using it they say the same. Maybe the Windows
version is different from the Nix version. The difference might be because
of fonts? Are you using True Type fonts in Nix?

Not fonts, formatting is the issue - place a document with lots of
settings for paragraphs, graphics, etc.... Then use Styles, and see how
it imports.

 

[Leythos]

Well we are not all rich AH's like yourself!

Nice rant - it has nothing to do with your status, it's about being able
to move between documents generated in MS Office and OO and not have any
formatting problems.

If you use OO alone, don't interact with MS Office documents, then it's
fine, slow, but fine.

If you have to work with MS Office documents, well, just get MS Office.

 

[Kerry Brown]

Not fonts, formatting is the issue - place a document with lots of
settings for paragraphs, graphics, etc.... Then use Styles, and see
how it imports.

I'll try it later with the Windows versions and see what happens. It's
always good to know these things. I've been recommending OO to customers who
want an alternative to Office so I should know any incompatibilities.

Thanks.

 

[Leythos]

I'll try it later with the Windows versions and see what happens. It's
always good to know these things. I've been recommending OO to customers who
want an alternative to Office so I should know any incompatibilities.

For non-complex documents, it's mostly fine, few would notice any
issues. It's when you get into multi-page, multi-style, graphics, etc...
It's the formatting that's the killer.

 

[- Bobb -]

Thanks for the feedback.
It sounds like it's worth installing / playing a bit with ( to get
familiar) , so I'll give it a go.

Bobb

 

[Walterius]

As long as you keep it really simple, OO.o is OK. But all of its components
have problems with stuff that's easy in MSFT Office. E.g. The Excel TODAY()
function, vital to my spreadsheets, doesn't work in OO.o Calc.

I will say this, though. Every release of OO.o addresses more and more of
this stuff. OO.o just keeps getting better. It also has some features not
available in Office 97/XP/2003, such as ability to save to .PDF and use of
..XML as the standard file format for all OO.o components. Not to mention
that the price is right.

Keep on keeping on. One of these days MSFT Office will be in trouble. Ditto
with Linux vs. Windows. I keep on keeping on with Linux. While it's not yet
IMO a threat to Windows, it is definitely getting there. And, the price is
right. I hope to leave the cost and bloat of most MSFT software far behind,
relatively soon.

Remember, the stated goal of OO.o is to offer a good replacement for MSFT
Office. It is already that, but only for those who don't need much
sophistication in their office suite.

Walterius Oldfartus

 

[Dan Seur]

John - I think explicating these deeply-held theological beliefs, as you
have, helps us all. You are writing for the ages.

It is crap for the poor person who dislikes everything MS makes! No
wonder it is free because no one will buy it. In fact some corporations
get paid to install it in their system because it is completely
rubbish!!.








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[Al Dykes]

Openoffice is a fine program. It can coexist with word.

When you install it you get asked about file type association and IMO
the question could have a *much* verbose explaination of the
consequences of your choice, expecially for the non-computer type who
wants to try it.

I forget the wording but yIMO ou *DON'T* want to make microsoft
filetypes the defulat for OO because it makes flipping between MS WOrd
and OO a pain if you are used to clicking on a file name to start the
associated program. You might also lose some formatting, but that is
rare now.

Picking the MS filetypes also makes it hard to use the native OOo file
formats, which are the way to go for the long run.

My POV here is for the user that doesn't really know how file type
assiciations work or mean, let lonke know how to switch them.

 

[Al Dykes]

We use OO on Nix platforms where the customer doesn't want to install
CrossOver and use Office XP, but, there are more than just rare
differences, there are a lot of formatting differences if you do
anything more than just text.

What version. OOo is up to 2.0.2 now and it's *much* better than 1.x

The new database built into OOo looks like it is an ACCESS killer. It
needs better documentation. The ability to easily connect to just
about any other DB, inluding MySQL is great.

OOo has an active email list for user questions. Go to the
openoffice.org web site to subscribe. I'd prefer a public usenet
group and web forums suck.

There are a couple textbooks on OOo 2.x and more comming this summer.
IMO avoid any 1.x books.

There's lots of free onlie documentation including these videos.

http://learnopenoffice.org/tutorials.htm

and

http://openoffice.blogs.com/

 

[Gordon]

It is crap for the poor person who dislikes everything MS makes! No
wonder it is free because no one will buy it. In fact some corporations
get paid to install it in their system because it is completely
rubbish!!.

 

[Gordon]

It is crap for the poor person who dislikes everything MS makes! No
wonder it is free because no one will buy it. In fact some
corporations get paid to install it in their system because it is
completely rubbish!!.

And you obviously haven't even used it.
It will do almost EVERYTHING that MS Office XP will do (without Outlook
obviously).
It is free because that is the ethos of the writers, NOT because it's
"crap". It most certainly is NOT "crap".
Get back to sticking your head up Gate's backside. At least we can't see it
there.