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I wanted to know if anyone uses Open Office? I downloaded it and I really can't tell any difference between Microsoft Word. The templates actually look better than Word and the document and spreadsheet program is identical. They also claim it is compatible with Word and reads PDF files just the same. The part I like is that it's free. I couldn't afford to purchase Word when my trial subscription ran out.
Comments
yep
Been using it about a year now. I have an old version of Word and just thought I'd try OO. It seems to do everything that Word does and a few things it doesn't. Plus from my experience posting I seem to do less layout/line tweaking with Open Office. It is a little different in the page and internal layout settings and stuff but that's minor and easily get used-to-able. Overall I like it.
Kristina
Love it.
And it doesn't have that crazy tabbed interface that the newer versions of Word have either. I can't find ANYTHING on that thing, and I have to use it at work :(
Melanie E.
I refuse to pay MS any more money ...
.... I have already paid for Office so many times, but then get a new computer and find that Office is included in the price and can't be taken out. Drives me nuts. So I use OPenOffice - free and fully compatible (except, I can't get the latest update to load)
"The Cost of Living Does Not Appear To Have Affected Its Popularity"
in most, but not all, instances
Open Office
Yes, I use 'Open Office' (and am now trying it's twin / sibling 'Libreoffice' - it seems that Oracle and the developers had a disagreement, and they started up the new suite to get out from under them.). It is almost 90% compatable with M$ Office - it just cannot handle some macros that Office does, and uses the older menu system instead of the "Ribbon Bar".
A bit of history: Sun Microsystems came out with 'Star Office', and allowed the developers to release a free older / less capable version called 'Open Office'. 'Star Office' was shelved and the developers continued upgrading 'Open Office'. Oracle bought out Sun (who was still partially bankrolling 'Open Office') and started insisting on more control over the popular software suite. This created the schism that is now ongoing. So you now have 'Open Office' ver. 3.3.1 and the new startup / twin 'Libreoffice' ver. 3.3. Both are free (currently) and both claim some superiority over their twin.
I use both Open Office and MS Word
I have no trouble using one to open and alter the other's files.
Itinerant uses Open Office alot, my long suffering proofer/editor.
I use MS Word mostly because we use it at the bank and I bought MS Office 2002(?) and later Small Office 2009(?) with new systems where you get a huge price break.
I learned on PC Write over 20 years ago and was a big fan of WordPerfect. My sister, the Evil BlondeTM still uses Word Perfect for doing newsletters for clubs she belongs to.
John in Wauwatosa
John in Wauwatosa
Using OpenOffice
I have been using OpenOffice for almost five years now. Initially on the Windows OS, but after switching to Linux it was a no-brainer for me to continue with OpenOffice. The transition from MS-Office to OpenOffice was virtually painless, since all my documents where rather straight-forward and converted with almost no problem. And the switch from Win to Linux was completely transparent as far as OpenOffice is concerned. The only problem I have had is with Master-Documents. But since I have been using that feature so seldom, I have been able to work around it.
OO is able to read a lot more different file formats than MS, as well as save-as and export as well. I use the native "Print to PDF" feature a lot, and it is one of the most used features for me.
Also living and working in a multilingual environment, the free access to a host of different language spell checkers is a big bonus. And mixing different languages in the same document - or even sentence - is just so easy. The lack of a grammar checker is not really a minus for me, though there are some grammar and language tool plug-ins available on the net.
With kind regards,
Jessica
yes
I've used openoffice for writing a lot in the past - tellingly when I was actually producing stories for this site. I've since switched to plaintext and now i'm worried that's the cause of my writing block. ;-)
Certainly openoffice is up to the task though, and libreoffice now of course.
Another thing
MS Office has been, is, and will always be a primary target for those who seek to exploit your computer as "slave labour" and those who simply get their jollies by hurting people. By staying away from the "mainstream" office products, you decrease your vulnerability.
I own MS Office (mostly for MS Word) because many publishers demand Word files. Most of them supply a large bundle of "macros" so as to make the author do most of the work of formatting the story for publication.
MS Word is *not* a publication tool as such, so the publishers have special tools that convert these macros into QuarkXPress, Adobe PageMaker, or dedicated systems that cost buckets of money. For the publishers, it doesn't make economic sense to try to arrange translations for multiple source documents, so everyone is stuffed into the same Procrustean bed, almost always a specific edition of MS Word.
Fiction publishers sometimes allow a little more flexibility, because most fiction doesn't include tables, author-supplied illustrations, examples set in different fonts, indices, footnotes, endnotes, boxed "pull quotes," and the like, but even then most publishers will be happiest if you supply an MS-Word file.
For non-professional use, the increased security of OpenOffice (or LibreOffice) far outweighs the slight advantage of having a file that one can send off to one's publisher without hassle, and MS Word (and the rest of Office) is so bloated with "features," each with their own peculiar history, that it can be extremely frustrating in actual use.
No "Word Processor" is perfect, and they all involve compromises, but both of the "free" versions can do almost anything one really needs to do, and in some cases, and for some purposes, are easier to use.
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
Open Office
I use it and love it and yes you can save files in Word. I do my stories in and love it, I also think it is easier to use than Word.
I use Open Orifice when I'm writing pornography
Sorry. Awful joke...
Never heard of Open Office, and it's so rare to see an almost universal consensus like this
in the comments for any blog that's computer related that I'm pretty well sold. This is a timely
blog for me because I'm off to BEST BUY or somewhere (President's Day Sale) to get a new computer
soon as I post this + it's good to know I won't have to shell out for WINDOWS OFFICE.
Now all I gotta worry about is what kind of anti-virus protection to get.
Anything but NORTON, which in my experience has all the efficacy
of a screen door on a submarine...
~~~hugs, Laika
What borders on stupidity?
Canada and Mexico.
.
AVG Antivirus
The free version is perfectly serviceable and, well... free.
Also, Malwarebytes works pretty well. The two together make as good a frontline team against infection as you're likely to get in the swiss cheese that is Windows security.
Melanie E.
Antivirus
The best antivirus I ever found was Linux...
It took me a while to wean myself off Windows but I have found I'm not missing very much at all now. It takes me 35 seconds to go from power switch to login prompt and 12 seconds from hitting the login OK button to full desktop. None of this "I've logged in, now I'll go make a coffee while Windows loads the entire universe" crap.
Disclosure, I used to be a highly-paid Windows Developer before the first dot.com crash.
Other operating systems can be difficult to adjust to if you only know one thing, but it's no different to learning to drive a truck, say, after only driving compact cars. Once you've learned, you're good to go.
Linux, like Mac OS and other OS's is not entirely free from malware attacks but since most concentrate on Microsoft products we are relatively safe. I run no anti-virus software at all, only an anal-retentive firewall box, and that's easily enough.
</digression>
Penny
I've considered switching myself
More due to resource-usage than because of security. The main reason I don't, though, is I like my games a bit too much to go through the hassle of having to deal with all the config stuff for Linux :P Sure, I've heard Wine works pretty good for emulation, but I have enough trouble configuring DOSbox!
Melanie E.
Games
I understand your problem. There are games for linux but most of them are pretty lame. As it is I have no time these days for games, but I used to play, back in the day when I had a job :(
There is a compromise and that is to dual-boot. That way you can keep a basic Windows partition just for gaming and run Linux for serious business (like coming to BCTS).
I believe a dual-boot system is one option you get offered if you pick Ubuntu. Likely other distros offer that as well. I wouldn't know, I build all my boxen from scratch and install just what I need.
Penny
I'll never go back to Office myself...
At work, I downloaded Open Office even though we had Office available to us. Now that I've been using it for years, I actually refuse to use Office, even though my boss keeps offering it to me and all my other co-workers use it. It's a much better program for spreadsheet type work for me.
Another nice thing about OO
Open Office seems, in my experience, to support more file types than Office2007. I often have users come to me with a document (usually MS Works) that they received and cannot open with Word. Never (yet) had a document format that OO couldn't open. I expect to move to Libre soon as I'm not big fan of Oracle having spent way too much time fighting with their applications and paying through the nose for their licenses.
Slightly off subject, but if you want to avoid Adobe entanglements, try Foxit for reading PDFs. It uses fewer resources to run. I find it somehow, wrong, to load a 60MB program to open a 10K file.
J
Guess it's what you're used to
I've tried OO a few times and always stuck with MS Word.
The other day, I was using a friend's machine which only had OO and couldn't find how to turn on Grammar Checker, and i didn't seem able to drag selected text. Are these possible in OO?
tis different
Drag and such is much the same as Word. You probably need to play about in the settings, Language or Options in Auto Correct. I know grammar stuff shows on mine and I'm a dummy, don't ask me about macro's and such... shrug. Just takes a bit of playing about.
Oh Jamie, I agree about Foxit too, now if I could get rid of that bloody Shockwave plugin for Firefox I'd be Adobe free.... a noble ambition I think.
Kris