Is Oo Really Just as Good as Microsoft Office?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mike
  • Start date Start date
Mike said:
A question for those who have used both:

Tell the truth.

If you could use only one,

and Bill Gates gave you a free copy of the latest Microsoft Office,

which would you use:

Open Office or Microsoft Office?
Click to expand...

I would use Microsoft Office, though if I was going to get a free copy,
I would prefer Office 2000 or even Office 97 over the latest version.
There is too much extra crap in the newer versions. If you are looking
for basic word processing and a spreadsheet application, Office 97 works
really well.

I'm not dismissing Open Office out of hand. I installed it and tried to
use it, and found it unusable for my needs. It couldn't properly render
even simple Word documents. As an example, if you load in a document
with bullet lists, it displays the bullets, but wouldn't print them
properly. It also really sucks for setting up styles. Styles are
essential for creating consistently formatted documents, and Open Office
makes it extremely difficult to get it work properly.
 
Daniel Solomon schreef:
It also really sucks for setting up styles. Styles are
essential for creating consistently formatted documents, and Open Office
makes it extremely difficult to get it work properly.
Click to expand...

OOo styles are more powerful & more flexible than MSO styles, but you need
to get used to the different way to handle them...
 
JanC said:
Mark Carter schreef:




OOo 2 should start & work faster (the release is scheduled for somewhere
in 2005).




For many things OOo has better scripting support than MSO, but it's not
compatible with Microsoft's VBA.




OOo 2 will have OOo Base.




Yeah, the Windows version of Abiword wasn't very stable last time I tried.
Click to expand...
Jan -

Can you? Where? Our IT dept has been looking, everyone want to sell
you the whole kit or nothing.

John Hood
Web Site www.jhoodsoft.org
"The best home and business free software, no ads, no time limits, no
fluff."
"No kidding."
 
JanC said:
Dekaritae schreef:




You can always get Access separately (and OOo 2 will have OOo Base).
Click to expand...

Aye, good to know. Actually, Access 2003 is the only component of
Microsoft Office I have installed right. I use OOo and AbiWord for
everything else I need.
 
I agree with the last post: OOo is a killer appliaction, but getting
used to the way it implements styles take some getting used to for me,
after years of using WordPerfect.

best,
xtort
[http://xtort.net]
 
John Hood said:
The guy with the 200 page doc that wouldn't open in OOo? He's lucky it
opens in Word.
Click to expand...

I keep OOo around on my work machine, because three times now I have
been emailed Word or Excel documents that won't open in MSO, and I
have been able to open and save them in OOo and send them back to the
originator. I have seen Word documents that don't work as expected in
OOo, but I have never yet failed to open a document in OOo that
crashes MSO.

Phil.
 
A question for those who have used both:

Tell the truth.

If you could use only one,

and Bill Gates gave you a free copy of the latest Microsoft Office,

which would you use:

Open Office or Microsoft Office?
Click to expand...


I have always used MS and am very comfortable with it (political stuff
aside). In the past I have been exposed to OO where I worked and it
felt just "too strange" to me. Now, mind you, I have used WordPerfect
and some other word processing programs (AmiPro, etc.) which I really
liked and felt comfortable with, but OO just felt weird. I can't
explain it.

I'd stick with MS, which thanks to always managing to snag a copy of
"someplace" I haven't yet had to pay for (knock wood).

Em
currently using MS Office XP
Be careful what you wish for....
 
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