Re: [users] What is it?

[James Knott]

Jon Murphy wrote: I have had an Open Office icon in my tray for some time, but I don't know how it got there. I suspect it was when I had a crash and a local vendor "ghosted" my old drive as well as some of his own drive (a problem with the SATA made him use some of his loads). I have just explored it for the first time tonight. My brief exploration indicates that this is a useful form of text originator, and perhaps might even allow me the equations I need to use for a book I'm writing. Is Open Office a full substitute for MS notepad, wordpad and the purchasable Word? I love open source, and in my younger days as a former Assembler programmer would have had some contributions to make. Here's to Tim Berners-Lee and to hell with Bill Gates. I sometimes get messages from the newly empowered in Power Point format, I can't read them. If I make Open Office my default will I be better able to handle the various formats (don't really need the Power Point, don't need to talk to the arrogant who assume all can afford what they have). I guess my question is basic, should I forget the proprietary products and use Open Office - and what can I use it for? OpenOffice is a full office suite, comparable to Microsoft Office and even has a couple of features not included in Microsoft Office, including a Draw program and PDF creation.  It is also very compatible with Microsoft Office.  So, bottom line, you'd use it in place of Word.  You didn't mention what version you have, but the latest is v2.3, available for free from www.openoffice.org Please respond only to the mail list (users@openoffice.org) and not directly to me. --