OpenOffice
- Thread starter flyingtart
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I don't know. I've heard that Works and Word files don't play nice together.
If Works and OO are about the same, I don't think I'll download OO after all. No sense in clogging up the harddrive with two similar programs if one isn't significantly better than the other.
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OO is
superior of Microsoft Office in nearly all ways. It isn't as bloated, but it has all of the functionality, and more.
O
rg is great!
I try to use Open Office.org instead of the Microsoft programs. I am much more accomplished with Word than with the Org writer, but that is just because I have used Word for so long. However, I use the Org spreadsheet more than I use Excel.
Why?
I believe in free programs, and Org is free and really good. The problem is just that companies continue to pay outrageous sums for Microsoft crap, and everybody keeps using it.
By the way, don't compare Org to Works. I don't know why Works continues to exist. It has always been an inferior suite of programs.
rg is great!I try to use Open Office.org instead of the Microsoft programs. I am much more accomplished with Word than with the O
rg writer, but that is just because I have used Word for so long. However, I use the Org spreadsheet more than I use Excel.Why?
I believe in free programs, and O
rg is free and really good. The problem is just that companies continue to pay outrageous sums for Microsoft crap, and everybody keeps using it.By the way, don't compare O
rg to Works. I don't know why Works continues to exist. It has always been an inferior suite of programs.
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Really? OO has ALL of the functionality of Office 2007? OneNote, Outlook, and Groove, for example? I didn't know that and it's not mentioned on their website.
Excel is also far superior to Calc. And Access is far superior to Base.
Still, I really like Writer and it meets all my personal needs.
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I never heard of Groove, but the word processing segment is superior to Word; The spreadsheet is superior to Excel, which I had used since 1991. I seldom use email clients, because they have no raison d'etre; i.e., both are useless. OO Math is loved by people who use it. OO Present is better than Powerpoint, because the commands are not anti-logical, and it works as it is supposed to work.
There are differences with each component, so some people find that the Microsoft programs are better.
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I agree with PeterL. I use OO almost exclusively to Office. And I stopped using Outlook ages ago. There are so many security issues with it. Unfortunately, OO doesn't have a mail client so I've used Eudora and Thunderbird instead.
I don't know why anyone would compare OO to Works. Works is the most useless piece of shit Microsoft ever created.
I don't know why anyone would compare OO to Works. Works is the most useless piece of shit Microsoft ever created.
That explains it. I haven't bought any of Word's newer versions. The older versions never had a draft mode, so I don't even know what that is. I much prefer seeing it as a page anyway, the way it'll appear in print.
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I don't know about all versions, but Word for Windows 1.0 and 2.0 have draft view. They stripped some things out in the mid-90's, so they might have dropped that.
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OK, thanks for clearing up your opinion of OO and Office. OO has SOME of the functionality of Office, but not ALL. Even the OO people aren't making the claims you are, but I get it -- you don't like Office.
Anti-logical commands -- that's funny. Like when I click 'insert picture' it reformats my hard drive or something. "Ok, I need to add a new textbox, so to do that I first I click 'print', followed by 'view slideshow', then add a 1/4 inch to my left margin. Pity the 'insert textbox' button does something anti-logical."
I take it you don't like Works. It's sufficient for most things I do, though I've often wondered if I need something different/better for professional writing.
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I tried Works many years ago when it came with the computer I bought and it was all I could use for Word Processing. I hated it and it's save format was incompatible with most everything out there. I was so happy when a friend game me a copy of Office 97 so I could finally do some writing.
And one feature I love about OO is the fact that it opens the document where you saved it. Word always opens at the beginning, forcing me to scroll down.
And one feature I love about OO is the fact that it opens the document where you saved it. Word always opens at the beginning, forcing me to scroll down.
...The area where Open Office isn't so great is when interacting with users who use something else. OO says it's compliant with Word, but it's not. I have to jump through all sorts of hoops to get a document I wrote in OO to open nicely in Word. Even when I think I'm safe, sometimes I'm not. When the document is opened in Word 3/4 of the words will be in ALL CAPS and half of the words might be incorrectly indented or not at all. Also, line spacing issues.
To get around that I have to keep a version of word on one of my other computers and proof everything in word prior to sending
...There's also Microsoft Works on most of my computers but I rarely open it on purpose.
Sounds like my experience. Danged .rtf messer-upper...
I've been using OpenOffice for a month or so and I love it. It goes haywire for me also when I save it as a .rtf or .txt but I mostly use to type and save it as is then whenever I want to send it to someone via attachment I just save it to Word 
I just started using Open Office a few weeks ago and was very surprised to find that I actually like it. I'd been using Appleworks for 15 years and didn't think I'd ever be able to change, but Open Office is so similar that I've actually been able to switch. I'm used to PC users not being able to open what I send them, so that won't be a problem (actually it is a problem, but the problem is on PC people's end. I have translation programs to open absolutely every file format in existence. They should have the same).
Let me ask here rather than start a new thread. I've got Word on my laptop but not on my netbook, so I downloaded OpenOffice to the netbook. I haven't had the chance yet to explore the features of OO, so I'm not sure of its capabilities.
Can I work on the same file using both Word and OpenOffice? For example, make some changes in Word on the laptop, then transfer a copy to the netbook and make more changes in OO, then transfer it back and keep working on the file in Word?
Thanks!
Can I work on the same file using both Word and OpenOffice? For example, make some changes in Word on the laptop, then transfer a copy to the netbook and make more changes in OO, then transfer it back and keep working on the file in Word?
Thanks!
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Yes, you can go back and forth, but you need to keep your files in a format that both products can open. You can use .doc or .rtf, but I've found that Oo has some issues properly creating a .doc file with the right formats. I got sick of fixing my format every time I opened the .doc file. On the other hand, some people have said they had similar issues with .rtf files. I believe the problems come with page formats. For example, if you put in a hard form feed followed by a page reformat (first page of chapter format), it is likely not to be correct.
If you just stick to basic fonts and keep all your pages in the same format, you should be okay.
If you just stick to basic fonts and keep all your pages in the same format, you should be okay.
Thanks, Christine! Right now I'm not using any fancy formatting. I'm working on a revision and don't want to be constrained by what machine to use. I'll do some experiments to see if the technique will work.
I downloaded OO to my laptop a few days ago. That's when I found out there's not enough room on my harddrive for it.
*sigh*
Back to MS Works.
*sigh*
Back to MS Works.
Strange, the opposite is true for me.
There's also Microsoft Works on most of my computers but I rarely open it on purpose.
This. Works does not work well with Word (especially for editing and track changes)
I will take OO over Works any day!
My personal beef with OO is the track changes and limited special characters. I'm doing my WIP in OO, and for that it's fine. For editing, though, Word is much better.
Good question and great answers to Open Office and Word (using Word on one computer, then OO on the other). Very helpful, since I'm getting a (yay!) netbook soon.
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The reason you think the characters are limited in OO is because of the format you are using (this is due to .odt using less by default so the compression is more optimized).
The easy way to avoid this is just to save as a .doc
Open Office can do just about everything word does, but even more with plug-ins. The reason why it seems like OO does less is because MO has multiple ways to do things because it keeps the old way so the user base stays happy. This is stupid from a program architecture point of view, but smart for keeping the not-so-bright people using their software.
Apple Works is pretty good if you've used the latest version, but I haven't done any serious work with it (plus I think it's Mac only). It's a lot less clunkier than OO though (probably because it's not based on Java).
The easy way to avoid this is just to save as a .doc
Open Office can do just about everything word does, but even more with plug-ins. The reason why it seems like OO does less is because MO has multiple ways to do things because it keeps the old way so the user base stays happy. This is stupid from a program architecture point of view, but smart for keeping the not-so-bright people using their software.
Apple Works is pretty good if you've used the latest version, but I haven't done any serious work with it (plus I think it's Mac only). It's a lot less clunkier than OO though (probably because it's not based on Java).