[Leica] OT: OpenOffice Suite

[douglas.sharp at gmx.de (Douglas Sharp)]

Peter,
I  used to use OpenOffice/StarOffice quite a lot - there are very minor 
differences and incompatibilities (sometimes the formatting or font 
styling goes awry  when you open OO .txt or doc  files in MSW - forget 
.sxw MS just won't read it). Anyway, enough differences that I couldn't 
use it in my translation work, it's just not "industry standard".
Where the comparison really screws up is in PowerPoint - totally 
different colours, text effects, font sizes when editing one on the 
other - although I find OOPPT
easier to use when creating ppt..
Most new PCs or laptops have MSWorks (including Word) as a part of the 
bundle - wouldn't that be enough for you?
Douglas

Peter Klein wrote:

> Off-Topic Question, but I'm sure I'll get the answer here:
>
> We're becoming a two-computer household.  Per my company's agreement 
> with MS, we may buy Office 2003 from the "work at home" program for a 
> nominal fee. But we are only allowed to use it on one computer, or one 
> desktop and one portable.
>
> Well, I've now got two desktops.  They will be on a simple home 
> network with Internet access.  I really don't relish shelling out 
> another $200 (employee purchase) for another copy of the Office suite. 
> Since I wish to be legal here, I'm considering several alternatives:
>
> 1.  Switch to Sun's OpenOffice suite, which is free, and can 
> supposedly read and write documents in Office's formats. My wife can 
> use the Office Suite.
> 2.  I have an old licensed copy of Word 97 I could use (but it's old).
> 3.  Buy a standalone copy of Word upgrade for $110. She uses that, I 
> use the Office suite.
>
> Complications:  My wife needs to stick with current MS stuff, as 
> that's what they use at her job.  I don't think she needs anything but 
> the word processor, and some multi-lingual capabilities provided 
> through the OS (she's a translator).
>
> I don't do a lot of document work at home.  I mostly write letters, 
> plus the occasional article, and I mess with the occasional 
> spreadsheet. I'm not sure I want to get involved with something whose 
> user interface is very different from the standard MS stuff, since 
> that's what I support at work. But free is nice, and I don't like The 
> Monopoly and their retail prices.
>
> Thoughts, anyone?  I'm particularly interested in people who used 
> OpenOffice for themselves when they use MS-Office at work, or 
> collaborate with people who do.  Is this practical?
>
> --Peter
>
>
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