open office

anyone use this? is it any good?
the netbook I've just got has ms office free trail on it, but i dont want to pay for it when it runs out so am scouting around for a free one.

[druidsam]

never tried it, i have tesco office, i dont know what it costs because i "borrowed" a disc and loaded it onto my pc.. thats not helping..is it?



........................Sam

Originally Posted by Mickie

anyone use this? is it any good?
the netbook I've just got has ms office free trail on it, but i dont want to pay for it when it runs out so am scouting around for a free one.

It doesn't seem to be compatible with Office 2003 from what we've seen. As a standalone system, it might be ok, but we have time sheets sent in electronically from the sites, and they use a form designed on Word in Office 2003. Only problem is, one of our guys has a laptop which had the trial version of Office on it and was sending ok, but now that has ended he tried using the Works word processor and it wouldn't have it. He downloaded the Open Office to try it, but that won't work either

So now we're looking at editable PDF's to make it easier for them.

Depends if you want to send/share files - like I said, it's not compatible with Office (or at least, it's not for us). If the files you create are just for your own use, it might well be worth giving it a go.

[davethemonkey]

ive got a copy of office 03 thats going free, pm me details and ill stick it in the post tomorrow

I've used Open Office. It takes a little while to work out how things are done (slightly different to MS) Otherwise it's OK. There was an issue of non interchangable files but I'm told that the latest version has dealt with the issues and OO can cope with MS files now.

Originally Posted by davethemonkey

ive got a copy of office 03 thats going free, pm me details and ill stick it in the post tomorrow

thanks for the offer Dave but my netbook has NO discdrives. any new programmes have to be downloadable

[davethemonkey]

ah yes, same as my step daughters one then, ill have a look at the file size and if its reasonable ill turn it into a torrrent file for you if you know how to deal with them? either that or stick it on rapidshare. ive got nothing against open office but im set in my ways and this is The one program that microsoft got right as far as im concerned lol!

Originally Posted by druidsam

never tried it, i have tesco office, i dont know what it costs because i "borrowed" a disc and loaded it onto my pc.. thats not helping..is it?



........................Sam

Nope

[Rerb]

The newer releases of Open Office should be fairly compatible with MS Office03, MS07 seems to cause lots of problems with everything even with MS's file convertors (In my experience).

One tip for word processing packages is to save the files in RTF (Rich Text Format) these tend to open in anything.

Must say I mainly use Note/wordpad

Originally Posted by davethemonkey

a torrrent file for you if you know how to deal with them? either that or stick it on rapidshare.

Mickie quickly looking up torrent file and rapidshare