Open Office

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A comment, not a question:

Just switched after many years of Word 2000 to Open Office 3, and I’m happy as a bug. When I’m forced to switch to Win 7 down the road, I won’t have to worry about compatibility issues or paying for another bloated Word with all of MS’s security issues. By then, I expect all my other programs will be open-source too.

OO converts most Word docs perfectly without even hitting a button, and has an add-on converter for the new docx format. Likewise, converters for the other MS Office apps. I can also save new docs in .doc format. There are also loads of other add-ons, a la Firefox and Thunderbird, and easy-to-follow tutorials at their website. What else could you want? (That is if you don’t need MS Office for work. Those folks need not apply.)

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Sadly, OO’s compatability with MSO is only superficial.

Do you need vba and/or anything more than the simplest field coding? If so, forget OO. To see it’s limitations with field coding, simply download any of my tutorials on the subject and try to get the field codes to Word in OO. And, while OO has it’s own macro language with claimed vba support, the reality is that OO doesn’t do vba. In the words of fellow MS Word MVP, Gerry Knight

I am running OO 3.2 and sorry it simply is not credible to even remotely imply that its scripting is compatible with VBA. The syntax is different; the object model is different.
Does OO have good scripting? Yes. Can you “convert” existing VBA procedures? Ummmm, sort of, not really, kind of….no.

It’s not all negative, though. If all you need to do is to create & edit basic documents, OO is just fine.

As for the security issues, don’t kid yourself into believing OO doesn’t have them. The only likely difference between in and MSO is the size of the target. If OO ever gets to be as big a target for virus writers as MSO is (ie having a similar installed base), then you can count on its flaws being a much more popular exploit.

Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

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I don’t know anything about VBA or coding. The quote in the green box is not mine, might be from another thread. I was telling how satisfied I was, and you’re chiming in with all sorts of bad news unrelated to me.

I’m not having any problems with just creating docs and reading old docs, and I can read everything that people send me in Word format. Don’t know about the other Office apps, as I don’t use them.

As for security, I’m 64, and if OO ever becomes mainstream, which I doubt, I’m not going to worry about it. It’s not an investment in money or time. That was also said about Firefox, it’s become mainstream, and they’ve kept up very nicely with exploits.

My point was, for the majority of users who just type out letters and let their kids do their homework on it, it’s fine. But MSO always WAS overkill for us. I never used 7/8 of Word features, and the other apps not at all.

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Macropod was not trying to offend. Using VBA is very common among Office users. Not knowing your situation, he is just trying make you aware that all is not rosy in the compatability side of things.

Joe

--Joe

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I started producing documents in the times of DOS 3.3, that is some time before MS Office. Then, I switched to Word (and Excel) and enjoyed them for several more years. Finally, I changed again to OO and after some time of trials (and doubts too) I’m most happy with it. I’m not saying it’s better or worst than Word (but I prefer it). It’s got some different approaches and it’s only a question of time and a flexible mind.
And I use it for more than “basic” writing, including texts over 200 pages to be published.

I’d say that the best application is the one you know the best.

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