Openoffice anybody?

[felix.reichardt]

Something not photo related.

My MS Office 2007 trial period just ended and I have to decide whether to buy it or go with the FREE Openoffice.

I just downloaded Openoffice and was positively surprised. So far I have tested OO Writer (MS Word) and Calc (MS Excel). When I opened my company templates with Openoffice they would display and print 1:1 but when I saved it back in Word format it would screw up the formatting. After a while I figured out that that was rather caused by poor formatting from my side in Office 2007 and MS being more tolerant to that than Openoffice. What is nice is the integrated PDF functionality but MS has this also now as free download in Office.

Would be nice to hear from your experience with Openoffice. Any issues with compatibility towards MS Office? I don't see much trouble for me as I mostly hand out PDF documents to my customers.

[Lee4145]

I haven't had any trouble with it Felix. I've used it for Word, Excel and PP without any trouble.

[felix.reichardt]

Originally Posted by Lee4145

I haven't had any trouble with it Felix. I've used it for Word, Excel and PP without any trouble.

Thanks Lee, are you using Openoffice exclusively?

[Lee4145]

Now I am, yes. I run it as a portable app from a thumb drive too so I can take it with me and use it wherever I may be.

[Rense]

I use openoffice at home, both on the main pc and laptop. I also have always a version of openoffice with me as a portable app on a normal usb stick and on a U3 stick

[felix.reichardt]

Thanks for the tip with the USB stick. Have to try that have a karma guys.

[W.Smith]

The Dutch government has just announced it is crossing over to OSS starting April. The decision was widely supported in parliament.
I should imagine OpenOffice will be at the core of the application suites used, replacing M$ Office. Linux ought to be next.

[brian.austin]

OpenOffice has come a looong ways. I used it in its early versions when it didn't quite meet the "stable app" criteria. I switched to StarOffice (Sun product now) and then had to use MS Office for school (with a free license so what the heck). I switch back and forth as needed to OO and MSO now with very little difficulty.

[felix.reichardt]

I spend almost the whole day with OO Writer and its quite ok. Only issue I see is compatibility with MS Office. I had some trouble with an embedded company logo. It looked perfect on screen and in OO format with the text around it. When saved in MS Word format the text around it moved suddenly around. However the solution was quite simple and with only little effort my templates created in OO and MS look 100% the same now in whatever format saved.

I think I will stick with OO for the time being. For the money I save I can probably buy a new lens or something

I replaced Outlook with Thunderbird. Not bad either. Less polished than Outlook but I can check multiple accounts and
who uses all the functionality of Outlook anyway?

[brian.austin]

Originally Posted by felix.reichardt

I replaced Outlook with Thunderbird. Not bad either. Less polished than Outlook but I can check multiple accounts and
who uses all the functionality of Outlook anyway?

Outlook can check multiple accounts. I use more of Outlook's functionality than most average users. Thunderbird doesn't cut it for me. Not bad but the ActiveSync functionality alone is worth it in Outlook.

[Boontjiepit]

I love OpenOffice and have been using it since way back, the latest version is very different since the earlier models and packs a lot of features. Yes there is a little bit of formating that sometime goes awry when viewed with MS Office but as Felix said it is usually quite simple to correct. I also only use Thunderbird and Firefox (detest IE), with all the add-ons who needs more?

[Rense]

Boontjie,
You need a least a good photoviewer and image editor in a portable app setup.

I use the faststone in portable app format for viewing and
photoline32 for editing on my usb stick.

[Boontjiepit]

Also use faststone, came across it not so long ago while looking for a good RAW viewer. Nice and small but does the job just fine and great for organizing all the photo's.

[felix.reichardt]

Originally Posted by brian.austin

Outlook can check multiple accounts. I use more of Outlook's functionality than most average users. Thunderbird doesn't cut it for me. Not bad but the ActiveSync functionality alone is worth it in Outlook.

You are right. I am having an SonyEricsson T650 and I think there is a free software that can sync my phone (if you are talking about that) with Thunderbird but I have yet to check that. Thanks for mentioning that.

[felix.reichardt]

Originally Posted by Boontjiepit

I love OpenOffice and have been using it since way back, the latest version is very different since the earlier models and packs a lot of features. Yes there is a little bit of formating that sometime goes awry when viewed with MS Office but as Felix said it is usually quite simple to correct. I also only use Thunderbird and Firefox (detest IE), with all the add-ons who needs more?

I find the IE7 is quite ok. I started using FF but I need IE coz my stupid bank decided to use some security application that would only work with IE for internet banking.

[felix.reichardt]

Just an update in case you are interested. Thunderbird has a really nice calendar extension called Lighting which integrates quite nicely.

I found a freeware (donate if you like) called MyPhoneExplorer which lets me sync my phone address book and calendar with Thunderbird adressbook and lighting calendar. Should work with most SonyEricsson phones (I use the T650).

[Boontjiepit]

Got Lighting and it works very well, this is what I like about both Firefox and Thunderbird - the add-ons. MozBackup is a very usefull tool for backing up both Firefox and Thunderbird (do a google search for download page), great for backing up all those emails, quick and easy. Try Scrapbook in Firefox, great extension, I make extensive use of it and it is great for keeping all those interesting webpages on photography tips etc.

[felix.reichardt]

Thanks for the Scrapbook extension tip. That looks like a helpful application.

[JDArt]

Originally Posted by felix.reichardt

Something not photo related.

My MS Office 2007 trial period just ended and I have to decide whether to buy it or go with the FREE Openoffice.

I just downloaded Openoffice and was positively surprised.

I also recently tested OpenOffice and was very impressed. In fact, I see no reason for the typical user to buy the MS suite, given what's available in openoffice.

[asysin2leads]

I use Office only because I already have it. I bought my 2 oldest laptops for Christmas. I have all open source on it. Edubuntu as their OS, Open Office, Thunderbird for e-mail and FireFox for browsing. I'm about to dump all Microsoft crap and go strictly Linux. It has given me SO much fewer headaches.