Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/07/01
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Hi Peter, You have several good replies already. I used Open Office on Windows back in 2004, partly to try it and partly because I needed a Polish word processor for a project and did not want to shell out the money for a MS-Office language pack. I found that OO worked well and compatibility with MS-Office was pretty good, except for some of Excel's more advanced features, and some formatting in Word or Powerpoint (for example, bullets in a Word document sometimes would come across as bullets, but with a different character used for the bullet). When I added a Mac to my computing environment a couple of months ago, I faced a similar dillema as you--my MS Office licenses are all Windows, so I tried using Open Office on the Powerbook at first. Again, it worked OK but the issues I mentioned above and the fact that it was quite slow (I read a technical explanation for this somewhere), I decided to get MS Office 2004 for OSX in the end. It helps that their licensing policy for the educational license (which you can get if you have any school-going children in the household) is pretty liberal--I could install the package on 2 other computers in the house (a moot point for me, since I only have this one Mac). Also, the MS-Office is unexpectedly nice on the Mac (and fast). As others have said, try downloading a copy of Open Office and see how well it works for you. It may be just fine, and it is always good to try out alternatives to M$ products. Nathan 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 > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > > -- Nathan Wajsman Almere, The Netherlands SUPPORT FREEDOM OF SPEECH, BUY DANISH PRODUCTS! General photography: http://www.nathanfoto.com Picture-A-Week: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws Seville photography: http://www.fotosevilla.com Stock photography: http://www.alamy.com/search-results.asp?qt=wajsman http://myloupe.com/home/found_photographer.php?photographer=507 Prints for sale: http://www.photodeluge.com Blog: http://www.fotocycle.dk/blog