VSS
|
Open OfficeThinking of trying this alongside or instead of MS Office (I have a pretty elderly version), and wondered if others have found it easy to use.
Is it really as compatible as the writers claim?
Any advice appreciated.
|
sean
|
I use it at work and it seems fine and perfectly easy to use to me. I don't do anything very complicated though and I don't think that it's got a Publisher equivalent bit if you need that.
|
Hairyloon
|
I (almost) never use anything else.
|
12Bore
|
I think the Publisher equivalent is OpenOffice.org Presentation 
I use Office at work and OpenOffice at home, prefer OpenOffice!
|
Hairyloon
|
There is one big downside to OpenOffice though: you don't get your little paperclip friend. 
|
oldish chris
|
VSS - I think you've missed something. Open Office is FREE. Try it - it won't cost a thing. If you decide that its pants, wipe it off your computer. Its not like you're contemplating committing a mortal sin and you'll be damned for life 
|
toggle
|
Re: Open Office | VSS wrote: | Thinking of trying this alongside or instead of MS Office (I have a pretty elderly version), and wondered if others have found it easy to use.
Is it really as compatible as the writers claim?
Any advice appreciated. |
it seems reasonably compatable. i've had a few issues with powerpoint, but it's more of a 5 minute fix rather than a complete rewrite.
|
Marionb
|
I've installed it recently and it seems fine - I can now open the word documents that I couldnt access before.
|
vegplot
|
OpenOffice is fine but much prefer Office 2007 as a personal preference.
|
Chez
|
I like it and I haven't had any compatibility issues with people I exchange docs with who are still with Microsoft. As OC says, it's free - you can install it and run it alongside and see how you get on. It's easy to save your docs as .doc .xls etc, so you aren't burning any bridges.
|
arvo
|
Open office totally bailed me out of the sh1t on a show once.
A client brought all their presentations in that stupid 'docx' format and the show computer was only running Office 97. Luckily my computer that I had in the car had Open office on it that opened the offending files up fine, resaved them as Office97 files and shipped them back out again. Lifesaver.
|
Fee
|
I'm another OpenOffice user, the latest versions haven't failed me yet. Give it a try, I don't think you'll be disappointed.
OpenOffice's Word Processor exporting as pdf is pretty handy if you don't have a pdf writer.
|
Emyr
|
| 12Bore wrote: | I think the Publisher equivalent is OpenOffice.org Presentation
I use Office at work and OpenOffice at home, prefer OpenOffice! |
Presentation does slideshows like powerpoint.
If you want something instead of Publisher (and are a Linux user) try Scibus.
|
BethinPA
|
| Fee wrote: | | OpenOffice's Word Processor exporting as pdf is pretty handy if you don't have a pdf writer. |
I agree with Fee on this! Excellent feature! I use OpenOffice at home, but do nothing complicated. Used to use MS stuff at work, and I don't miss it at all.
|
Barefoot Andrew
|
The OO "Calc" application seems at least as good as Excel, and seems perfectly compatible with it. Can't comment on the other OO apps as I rarely use them.
A.
|
Fee
|
| Barefoot Andrew wrote: | The OO "Calc" application seems at least as good as Excel, and seems perfectly compatible with it. Can't comment on the other OO apps as I rarely use them.
|
Good point, I only use Writer and Calc.
|
vegplot
|
You could always look at online office applications such as Google Docs
|
Calli
|
| vegplot wrote: | | You could always look at online office applications such as Google Docs |
Exactly!
Spreadsheets, presentations,forms, templates the lot!
Downloads to word or pdf and collaborative too! 
|
Hairyloon
|
| Calli wrote: | | Downloads to word or pdf and collaborative too! |
Is there any free software for adjusting pdf files?
Specifically, I'd like to be able to fill in certain forms that I've downloaded 'cos I'll wager that before too long something will change, and I'll have to fill it all in again.
|
oldish chris
|
| Hairyloon wrote: | | Calli wrote: | | Downloads to word or pdf and collaborative too! |
Is there any free software for adjusting pdf files?
Specifically, I'd like to be able to fill in certain forms that I've downloaded 'cos I'll wager that before too long something will change, and I'll have to fill it all in again. |
Both Gimp and PDF Editor.
|
Toffer
|
I use Open Office too and it's pretty good, Google docs seems impresive too, all sorts of clever tools for adding things to your documents like maps that would take ages in MS office. No good if you're not always connected though.
|
