On 4/9/05, Databug <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hello all, > I've been interested in Open Office for some time now. But I'm used to > M$ office. Since Open Office 2 I have decided to give it a place on my > HD. Partly because I like the improved GUI. I hated the old dos style > toolbar icons. Most of the differences I'm sure I will just learn as I > go along.
Isn't nice to have a full office suite that takes up so little HD space? :) > 1. Approximately how compatible are Word <-> OpenOffice docs? I > notice that not all formatting translates correctly. I know these are > only superficial but it's fairly important as a lot of swapping from > OO.o to M$ Office is going to happen. Well, many will tell you that MS products aren't even compatible in between themselves. Somtimes opening a Word 97 doc in Word XP can be quite an experience. OOo is as close to compatible with MS docs as possible, considering that MS doesn't tell anyone what there file formate is. I can't think of many problems I have had. The few I have had these: 1) Achoring of graphics isn't always perfect, but I haven't tried in a while. 2) When you save a spreadhseet to Excel with date formats, it treats those date formats as custom formats instead of using the same Excel format. Only way I notice this is that I sync Excel files with my PDA and it had some issues there. > 2. Layouts in Writer. I use M$ Word mostly as a basic DP prog. So I do > a lot of complex layout like a text box here some text flowing round > it then a text box with 2 columns etc. How is this kind of layout > done in OO.o. Does it all have to be done with tables like a website? I don't know. I am sure it can be done, but this is the kind of area where exporting and importing can be troublesome. The best way to check, I think, would be to make a back up copy of the doc you are working on and then open it in OOo and see how it imports. Then test it. > 3. Slight criticism over Impress. Powerpoint is a fairly easy to get > to grips with package I've found. I made my first simple slideshow > within about an hour and got stuck on virtually nothing the first time > I ever used it. I tried to make a similar slideshow in Impress and got > stuck on the first thing making a gradient backdrop using colors that > I choose. First it wasn't straightforward to even find how to set > backdrops. When I found it there were only preset gradients. I'm aware > that you can make your own but would it not be better to be able to > choose a preset gradient and then have a choice over what colours go > into that gradient within the same window? That would seem more > intuitive to me. Well, Impress 2.0 is leaps and bounds better than Impress 1.1.x. Gradients in Impress can only by 2 colors when you make a custom one as well. I can't even find where you make a custom gradient background (although I didn't look too hard.) > But all in all I like the look feel and power of Open Office and hope > to be using it for some time to come. Anything that competes and wipes > the floor with M$ gets points in my book. > I wish to see some sort of calendar app for OO.o on par with Outlook. > I hate Outlook as a mailer but quite like it as a notebook, addressbook > and calender. I have as yet never found a program that I like as much > for these components. So I can't fully get rid of M$ office until I > find a replacement for that. Have you tried TB for e-mail and address? It works fairly well and avoids the annoyance of MS doing unexpected things. There is also a calendar component that is underworks for TB called Sunfire (I think that is the name). There are many PIM apps, not all free though, that can work like Outlook. Check out www.downloads.com and see if you can find anything you like. If nothing else, Yahoo has a decent web based PIM system. HTH, Peter Kupfer --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
