Open Office

[Michael]

I'm looking at switching to some open source Word processor and spreadsheet product to replace MS Office on my home machine.

I'm downloading Open Office software right now... it is freeware and open source. :)

http://www.openoffice.org

I'm just wondering if anyone else out there has tried using any of these products?

Personally, I'm horrified the way Microsoft has made Word files not backwards compatible. I have a HUGE collection of data files stored on my computer, going back to the late 1980's. For the most part, I learned years ago to save my oldest files as "plain ascii text" so that I could keep accessing these files with each new generation of computer or MS Office software. I just want to get my newer text files out of ".doc" format permanently.

Any advice or suggestions?

Edited to add: 142 Mb download in just about 39 minutes. I remember when a 100 Kb download could take just as long to download! :eek:

[Donkey]

I'm content with word right now (there are also some slick ways to get around the incompatibility issues in a pinch), but when I eventually change machines I intend to get open office.

[The Drunk Guy]

I'm looking at switching to some open source Word processor and spreadsheet product to replace MS Office on my home machine.

I'm downloading Open Office software right now... it is freeware and open source. :)

http://www.openoffice.org

I'm just wondering if anyone else out there has tried using any of these products?

Personally, I'm horrified the way Microsoft has made Word files not backwards compatible. I have a HUGE collection of data files stored on my computer, going back to the late 1980's. For the most part, I learned years ago to save my oldest files as "plain ascii text" so that I could keep accessing these files with each new generation of computer or MS Office software. I just want to get my newer text files out of ".doc" format permanently.

And the save files are MSOffice compatible and I think you could even convert to Corel if needed. ;)

Any advice or suggestions?

Edited to add: 142 Mb download in just about 39 minutes. I remember when a 100 Kb download could take just as long to download! :eek:
I use Open Office at work and at home. I like it. It's not as simple as MSOffice, but it has almost all the same features. The layout isn't exactly the same, but it's still fairly intuitive. The biggest plus for me, though, is that it's pretty much a big "FUCK YOU, MICROSOFT." I like those. :D

[Americano]

I don't care which word processor I use but I'm a big Excel user and depend on it. Is Open Office's spreadsheet as good as Excel? Will it convert my current Excel files?

[The Drunk Guy]

I don't care which word processor I use but I'm a big Excel user and depend on it. Is Open Office's spreadsheet as good as Excel? Will it convert my current Excel files?
I'm no Excel expert anyway, but Open Office is a little confusing sometimes. As far as I can tell, it has all the same options and is compatible.

[Greendruid]

I use Open Office and have been using it since v1.1. The platform is similar to both MS Word and WordPerfect. I hate Excel. It does shit for me all the time that I don't want it to do and doesn't do shit for me that I want it to do. These are petty formatting or formula creation things but there are enough of them that it drives me insane to use Excel. I use SPSS for powerful spreadsheet needs and Quattro Pro (Corel) for the simple ones. Open Office's version of spreadsheet is more like Excel than like Quattro Pro.

My biggest complaint about all the Microsoft products has always been that they assume things about what I'm doing that I don't want it to assume. Chances are I want it to do the complete opposite so that now it's two steps away instead of one.

You should have no compatibility errors with Open Office whatsoever.

[Michael]

Yes, once I disabled ALL of the autocorrect, autoformat, autocomplete, autoreplace and automated help features, I found the programs to function essentially identical to that of Word and Excel. Hopefully, they will do exactly that - without copying MS bugs and problems in the process.

Overall, I'm quite pleased.

No problem opening an MS Excel file in "Calc", making changes, saving as MS Excel file format, then opening in MS Excel again. Formulas all reading perfectly.

As far as I'm concerned, any product that is at least as good as Microsoft is better than the Microsoft product by definition of not being a Microsoft product. :)

[drgoodtrips]

The conversion works well as long as you're not using extensive macros or the VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) code base that supports Microsoft Office. To my knowledge, Open Office does not yet handle those types of uses.

[Dominick]

The conversion works well as long as you're not using extensive macros or the VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) code base that supports Microsoft Office. To my knowledge, Open Office does not yet handle those types of uses.
I found that out the hard way. :crying:

[Michael]

The conversion works well as long as you're not using extensive macros or the VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) code base that supports Microsoft Office. To my knowledge, Open Office does not yet handle those types of uses.
I never use any of that stuff for my home applications. I'm a total plain vanilla user of this type of software. I just use it heavily since I tend to write a lot. :)

With word processing "find & replace" (or word-count) is the most sophisticated feature I use. With spreadsheets, simple formulas with "if...then...else" is as far as I ever need to go.

[The Drunk Guy]

I never use any of that stuff for my home applications. I'm a total plain vanilla user of this type of software. I just use it heavily since I tend to write a lot. :)

With word processing "find & replace" (or word-count) is the most sophisticated feature I use. With spreadsheets, simple formulas with "if...then...else" is as far as I ever need to go.
My spreadsheets are more likely to be a list than a formulaic layout. I've attempted to create a database a few times for work, but I usually give up after a couple hours. Basically, I love the software because it's functional and intuitive and didn't cost me a month's worth of groceries.

[Americano]

The conversion works well as long as you're not using extensive macros or the VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) code base that supports Microsoft Office. To my knowledge, Open Office does not yet handle those types of uses.

That makes sense to me. Other than some very pleasant user features the basic spreadsheet hasn't changed since DOS days when a large spreadsheet was compiled, one hit calc and took a break. MS sold Office on it doing everything anyone would need right up to very specialized, very expensive software level. Brilliant marketing.

I'm going to pass and stick with my Office 2000. I was a beta user when MS eliminated (for practical purposes) Office backward file compatibility and though I'm accustomed to being abused by MS, that was below the belt.