BS: Experience w/ Apache OpenOffice?

Subject: BS: Experience w/ Apache OpenOffice?
From: gnu
Date: 16 May 13 - 08:35 AM

Comments?

Subject: RE: BS: Experience w/ Apache OpenOffice?
From: Bill D
Date: 16 May 13 - 12:42 PM

I tried it briefly, but didn't use it much.

In the freeware group I frequent, it is generally believed to have been surpassed by www.libreoffice.org/

Subject: RE: BS: Experience w/ Apache OpenOffice?
From: gnu
Date: 16 May 13 - 03:48 PM

Thanks, Bill. I'll put a man on that right away.

Subject: RE: BS: Experience w/ Apache OpenOffice?
From: Penny S.
Date: 16 May 13 - 04:26 PM

I use it most of the time except for printing envelopes. Writer and Calc, at anyrate. The envelopes are the only problems I've found - it is an old version, pre Apache.

Penny

Subject: RE: BS: Experience w/ Apache OpenOffice?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 May 13 - 04:31 PM

I've used the Java version, and have it set up for my next door neighbor. And it's what Art Thieme's son Chris installed on his new laptop for his word processing, etc. I think it works just fine.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Experience w/ Apache OpenOffice?
From: gnu
Date: 16 May 13 - 05:10 PM

Difficult to tel the diff between the two cited above but just after a few minutes, Bill may be onto something. I ONLY say this because of the way the save as options appear. In any case, Either appear far better than shelling out BIG BUCKS for M$ Office. You can get M$ Office Home and Student for $140 one-time buy for one PC (MS Outlook not included) but I have 2 PCs that need it and it only works with W7+. Bought it for the W8 laptop but can't use it with with XP or Vista.

Subject: RE: BS: Experience w/ Apache OpenOffice?
From: GUEST,Peter
Date: 16 May 13 - 05:29 PM

I use Calc, Writer and Base all the time and have no problems. I have been told that mail merge and pivot tables are difficult and poorly documented but have never used them.

One nice feature is the export to PDF facility.

Subject: RE: BS: Experience w/ Apache OpenOffice?
From: Newport Boy
Date: 16 May 13 - 05:32 PM

I used OpenOffice for a number of years (mainly on Windows) when it was a Sun product. Changed ownership led to the alternative LibreOffice, which has now had much more development than OpenOffice.

I've used LibreOffice on Linux exclusively since it appeared and find it does more than I need. Most MS Office documents are readable and LO reliably writes Word & Excel documents. MS documents containing macros are a problem - the macros are proprietary MS language. Word documents with complex graphics or tables are often difficult, but since the problem is not universal, I suspect the original is poorly constructed (I still see many Word documents where layout is achieved with loads of tabs and spaces).

The database element still needs work (I found form editing buggy) but in my experience there are few database users - most are content with spreadsheet solutions.

Phil

Subject: RE: BS: Experience w/ Apache OpenOffice?
From: Newport Boy
Date: 16 May 13 - 05:37 PM

Thanks, GUEST,Peter. I forgot export to PDF, although I use it all the time. Does MS Office have this yet? - I know it was missing.

I have used mailmerge once - it is poorly documented and I found the options for layout too restrictive. I usually go for a database solution.

Phil

Subject: RE: BS: Experience w/ Apache OpenOffice?
From: Greg F.
Date: 16 May 13 - 06:00 PM

Gnu: You might try picking up an outdated copy of Microsoft Office 2000 for next to nothing. I bet it'll do everything you need; MicroSpawnOfSatanSoft also has a download "patch" to enable it to read later .docx & etc files.

The versions of Office after 2000 are so loaded down with useless crap as to be almost compleely unuseable. I think John in Kansas might concur....

Subject: RE: BS: Experience w/ Apache OpenOffice?
From: ranger1
Date: 16 May 13 - 06:30 PM

I'm still using OpenOffice, and I like it. But I pretty much only use basic word processing and databases, anyway.

Subject: RE: BS: Experience w/ Apache OpenOffice?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 16 May 13 - 09:53 PM

I've got an old Office on one computer, but the version wouldn't work on the other, so I insalled Open Office (and I don't like the moderm Office anyway). I've found that Open Office is always very slow to start up, though it works fine once it's up and running. I'll have to try Bill D's suggestion to see if it's quicker.

Subject: RE: BS: Experience w/ Apache OpenOffice?
From: GUEST
Date: 16 May 13 - 11:33 PM

We have it on one of our laptops. Unfortunately, it is not as compatible with various "odd" formats as earlier versions were so we end up downloading more freeware to make up for its inadequacies.

Subject: RE: BS: Experience w/ Apache OpenOffice?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 17 May 13 - 12:58 AM

The online programs available through Microsoft's SkyDrive (www.outlook.com) and Google Drive (drive.google.com) are quite good. The Google program allows you to export documents in various formats, including PDF. The Microsoft program exports word processing documents in *.docx.

I made a PowerPoint presentation with Google's presentation software, and it worked quite well.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: Experience w/ Apache OpenOffice?
From: GUEST,Peter
Date: 17 May 13 - 05:58 AM

Thanks, GUEST,Peter. I forgot export to PDF, although I use it all the time. Does MS Office have this yet? - I know it was missing.

I have used mailmerge once - it is poorly documented and I found the options for layout too restrictive. I usually go for a database solution.
As an old database hand I tend to use databases as the default option for anything complex.

I have to deal with files from clients and those who send MS formats aren't aware of any option to create PDFs. Since giving up a full time day job I no longer have access to MS Office so don't know what the latest version looks like.

A couple of things still catch me out with Calc.
1. There is no keyboard shortcut for "fill down". I have almost got out of the habit of hitting CTRL+F and wondering why nothing happened.

2. Formulae use semi colons instead of commas as separators. If I haven't written one for a while I still revert to the MS format.

Subject: RE: BS: Experience w/ Apache OpenOffice?
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 17 May 13 - 06:44 AM

OpenSuse, the Linux distribution I use, went with LibreOffice so I've not tried OpenOffice in a while...

An alternative office suite that I think shows promise is Calligra

Subject: RE: BS: Experience w/ Apache OpenOffice?
From: gnu
Date: 18 May 13 - 05:35 AM

Great info! Thanks.

Subject: RE: BS: Experience w/ Apache OpenOffice?
From: Penny S.
Date: 18 May 13 - 07:22 AM

I forgot about the PDF export. Also, I use OpenOffice to read .docx files I get sent since my MS versions don't read them.

Penny

Subject: RE: BS: Experience w/ Apache OpenOffice?
From: Greg F.
Date: 18 May 13 - 08:59 AM

Penny: RE: .docx files, check this out:

Click Here

Subject: RE: BS: Experience w/ Apache OpenOffice?
From: Tootler
Date: 18 May 13 - 05:04 PM

I have been using Open Office and Libre Office for almost 10 years now. I started using it a couple of years before I retired as I knew I would lose free updates of M$ Office once I left the University I was working for at the time, so gave myself time to get used to it. At the time, OO was pretty similar to M$O so it didn't take too long to get used to it.

It does everything I need and the print to PDF is very useful. I found a useful add in that let's you print to odf, ( LO's native format), PDF and M$ Office (should you wish) simultaneously which is very useful. I agree, the mail merge is clunky & poorly documented. I use it to print mailing labels for a U3A newsletter I edit and I found a very useful blog which has good explanations for many things OO including setting up mail merge. Not being a database person, I have my address list on a spreadsheet and you have to link that to a database - a bit convoluted, IMO but once done it updates automatically. I can't remember the link for the blog but I think I have it bookmarked on my PC (I'm doing this on my iPad). If I remember, I'll check & post a link.