Open Office 1.0.1 - Poll

[Sixpac_XP]

Is anyone who has used Microsoft Office (any version) at home or at work considering to change to Open Office 1.0.1?

As a long time user of Microsoft Office (XP currently) at work I have used a purchased copy of MS Office at home to do some minor word processing and spreadsheets.

I am also considering to make a presentation to my work management as for a cost cutting measure to introduce Open Office to our users instead of paying the high cost of Microsoft licenses.

Just looking for some input or experiences from anyone who has used it.

Thanks.

A current review of Open Office 1.0.1 can be found HERE

[e980238]

I switched to open office and dont regret a thing

[samwichse]

I've used MS Word a bit (I think it was 97), then Corel, then StarOffice 5.2, and now OpenOffice.org 1.0.1, and frankly it does everything beautifully compared to Word or Corel. Plus, because the layout's so similar, the learning curve was pretty shallow for me. It also does conversions of Word files pretty darned well... although if you switch company-wide, it shouldn't be much of an issue at all... just make sure you don't get a bunch of users saving their files in MS Word format anyway after the switch. It's funny what social inertia makes us do sometimes...

Sam

[MDdan]

I've ran into compatability problems with openoffice and .doc files. Especially when creating a document and bouncing it back and forth between Office and Open Office.

I personally wouldn't make that pitch to management. I've actually switched back to Office on my home PCs. On Linux, I use open office, but heck, it's linux, I don't expect everything to be 100% right.

A non-profit on a shoestring budget might want to go with Open Office. But I wouldn't dream of dropping the industry standard, just to end up increasing compatibility issues and support calls.

Hey, I hate Microsoft and I'm rooting for the Open Office thing. But I wouldn't go with it just yet.

My .02 cents

[Praetorian]

Open Office rocks. I can start a document, presentation, graph, etc at work, and easily transfer it to my home comp to work on it without a problem. I don't see any big differences between it and MS Office and Star Office. You should have no problems using it.

[blubomber]

I am currently in the experimental stage for converting over to Open Office. I am testing to try and get it deployed at my work. We are still using office 97 which is fine. The only problem i have right now is that open office has no problem opening doc files and they still look like they did in Word. But after making adjustments in Open Office then saving the file as a .doc, opening it back up in Word, it doesnt look the same. I dont know if that is because Office 97 isn't really too familiar with xml stuff or what. Maybe office 2000 and XP are better at it than office 97. I am saying this because from what i understand, Open Office is based mostly on xml like office 11 is supposed to be.

But i do like Open Office. i just hope that they come out with an Access equivelant soon.

[dunbar]

Discovered Star Office 5.1 at one employer who refused to buy M$ Office for me; I was being forced into incompatibility by the lack of upgrade, so I went for a freeware shopping spree on the internet. I bought a CD of StarOffice 5.1 just so I could install it on any PC. Later that year, I bought an eMachines and 5.2 was on it, then got a second eMachines and a second SO5.2. My son did his powerpoint presentation in SO5.2, and it played flawlessly at school under Powerpoint2000. Right now, I just cannot seem to see why people have any problems with the conversions. I've converted Excel5.0/97 back and forth with SO many times. OpenOffice 1.0.0 is on the Linux Box, and if I had my way, there wouldn't be a single M$ product in the house.
IMO, there is simply no reason to buy Microsoft anything.

[DVNT1]

I'm have a similar concern and desire. I would like to save hundreds of thousands of dollars by eliminating MS Office and using Open Office. My biggest issue is the potential compatability problems too. Our major customers and suppliers all use MS Office and a few related techs have tried to use Open Office but reported compatibility problems. Next concern was the support and learnig curve for the users. I don't know the problem details but I hope to try it out myself sometime earlier next year.


Oh, and a lack of MS Access is a big issue for me as well.

[e980238]

Quote:

Originally posted by dunbar

IMO, there is simply no reason to buy Microsoft anything.

agreed 100%
also I convert things back and forth many times (Office in windows to Open Office in Linux) and have never had a problem.

[pbharris]

open office here at home, office 2k at work. i open work docs here at home w/o issue