I would have to both agree and disagree with Terry on this one.
There have been huge improvements in OpenOffice since I first
discovered the program around 1.1.4 when I went to Uni and all the
machines ran linux. Back then it was a bit of a novelty that anything
existed as a free alternative to MSOffice, and one that was
compatible at that. Now for OpenOffice to compete it has to be more
than just a novelty free version and in my humble opinion this is
happening.
I do however agree with the sentiment that whoever is in charge seems
not to have a clue, but only to a certain extent. It was my belief
that this being an OpenSource community project, we are somewhat in
charge...
Can anyone name me a complex piece of software that does not have new
bugs with each release (anybody heard of Windows? MSOffice? Linux? I
do believe that all these have regular updates to fix bugs old and
new) as new functionality is added?
There are also many examples of bugs being left in software, such as
the leap year date bug in MSOffice I have read about on this forum.
Hopefully the bug filing problems will be sorted at some point and we
can all help OpenOffice.org become a better program, it is a
community project after all and we would all benefit.
To Pierre:
Microsoft formats are closed. As I understand it this requires a
certain amount of reverse engineering for OpenOffice's programmers
and so is not a precise art. My best advice would be to keep the file
in the native ODF format until you need to share it with somebody who
does not have OpenOffice. If the file contains complex elements they
may not translate perfectly in Word format. If the person you are
sharing the file with is willing, then they can install a plug-in on
their computer that will enable them to read ODF files <http://
sourceforge.net/projects/odf-converter>
There is also a tool within that which allows you to convert a number
of files at one time (batch). The conversion may or may not be better
that OpenOffice's attempt.
Finally with the prevalence of broadband and increasing capabilities
of computer hardware, I would not be too concerned about the size of
your PDF. You may be able to change some settings in the dialogue you
get such as reducing the quality of the pictures.
Sorry to go on and on, but I hope some of this has been of use
Tom
On 27 Feb 2007, at 05:50, Kenn Goutal wrote:
TerryJ wrote:
It is no news that the software is not improving overall with new
releases. Since 2.0.3, it seems that the releases have become
increasingly
experimental and unreliable. Bugs remain unfixed and new bugs are
created. Whoever is in charge (if anyone is) seems not to have a
clue.
Hmmm. This is not good news. It is *not* what we need to be able
to tell people
when we encourage them to abandon M$, especially in an office
environment.
As it happens, I'm using just plain v2.0, not v2.0.2,
and it does seem to be an improvement over v1.n.
However, it does still seem to have some limitations and awkwardnesses
that I had hoped were being addressed.
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