Jim Smith wrote:
I have used OpenOffice in the past when it claimed to be 100%
compatible with MS Word.  Unfortunately, I discovered that it was not.
When graphics such as drawings made with Word, pictures, or imported
clip art were used, the formatting and display of these would break
down.

If I fixed them, a tedious and time-consuming process, they would
appear OK, until they were re-opened in Word, then they would be wrong
again.  This means they could not be exchanged with Word users.  As a
professional writer who submits most things in electronic format, this
was unacceptable.

Has new versions of OpenOffice addressed this incompatibility?  Also,
is there a utility to convert documents to and from Adobe .pdf format?
Is there a way to test these things without first going to
OpenOffice?

Thanks,

James Smith
João Pessoa, Brazil


Hello James,

I feel your pain. FWIW, you will run into the same issues between different versions of Word so it isn't just a OpenOffice issue. I have seen my wife scream over this issue when trying to combine multiple documents created on different versions of Word into a single document.

I have never seen OpenOffice announce 100% compatibility and if I try to save in a non-open standard, I am warned about this problem. Don't you get the warnings as well?

One thing that one of my co-workers told me is that working with graphics in Word can be a real pain as the auto-formatting will move things on it's own. He now uses OpenOffice as he can control the graphics much better. This is after Word reformatted a report that he had been working on all weekend and wouldn't undo.

If formatting is an issue, then make sure all people are using OpenOffice or the same version of Word for the best compatibility. At least OpenOffice doesn't cost any money.

--
Robin Laing

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