Switch from MS Office to Open Office (PDF)

[Cyrus_the_virus]

Even the test is flawed. The guy is comparing the UI of OpenOffice.org latest version with Office 2003 . WTH.....Office 2007 UI makes everything much easier, no more need to dig through all the menus.

Not only that, he compares Office 2003 but says "Office 2007 document format will not open in old computers"...ever heard about Office 2007 compatibility pack for office 2003?

Now, if this isn't plain FUD & advertising...I don't know how else to define it.

Dude, get a life, this is not a review or a head to head comparison to anything, this is just an article for helping anyone make the switch. Stop your cr@p whining at once before it's reported and try somewhere else to start a fight.

no, im not trying to provoke u, but only trying to bring to attention the fact that u chose to nitpick a word i used which was a general term and u know as good as i do that in the context i used it, it was directed at no 1, on the other hand u having read infra's reply and recommending others to read infra's reply did not even mention or do what infra suggested and chose to blindly ignore the provocative title that has been used insipite of knowing how things happen here. Oh damn i just turned to the left of my screen and noticed ur avatar

'nuff said

@imeov, Mods are supposed to be respected and not your sarcastic puppets. @kalpik is no less important that any other mods here, so if you think that just because he is part of OSS, he's any different, then you'll see what comes next and please stop your sarcastic cr@p.

 

[infra_red_dude]

All those fighting here.. temme frankly how many of you actually read the pdf?

The author has simply ruined the whole thing! After page 4 or so there is no mention of "switch from MSO" etc. All the next 9 pages highlight the features of OOo. It'd haf been better if he'd titled it "OOo features".

Ther interface hasn't been compared. The author says that anyone familiar with MSO inteface can get his/her way thru in OOo (obviously MSO has retained the same interface since years and only now made a switch).

SO BEFORE FIGHTING HERE LIKE FOOLS, ITS BETTER IF YOU ALL GO THRU WHATS BEEN POSTED.

Sure MS Office can't be replaced where VBA is put to use (thanks to Charan for reminding abut VBA) but at least small firms' HR/Admin dept. shouldn't find much of a problem in switching. Nobody needs a full blown office for typing letters. So what I think is that switch should be made where it can. But using assertive words, showing the rival product in bad light and then preaching about the product is folly and being shameless.

I hate the 'badvista' (FSF) and 'linux is cancer'(MS) campaigns. It just shows how cheap those ******* are!

 

[iMav]

@imeov, Mods are supposed to be respected and not your sarcastic puppets. @kalpik is no less important that any other mods here, so if you think that just because he is part of OSS, he's any different, then you'll see what comes next and please stop your sarcastic cr@p.

how about going thru the article before posting it here and then giving it an appropriate title and then posting it

 

[infra_red_dude]

^^^ I dont' think thats appropriate. Changing original titles is a bad practice. I was not pointing about Cyrus, but was referring to the original author of the document.

 

[iMav]

o cmon ani there are ways of posting,give an appropriate title acc. to u as u are not quoting some life changing or an influential individual's post. if 1 actually needs to do things ethically, politically and morally correct then the original title should be given in the beginning of the post with as a link to the original text and followed by an excerpt of the article in quote because now u are quoting an individual

 

[din]

I didn't go through the pdf at all !! But I use Open Office in all PCs in my office and in my laptop and I am quite satisfied with it.

There may be things which Open Office can't do or things which are only in MS office, but for common man, Open Office is quite adequate. I have a wide variety of friends (form Civil Engineer to an Ice cream manufacturer) who use Open Office more than me and they never had any problems using that.

What my point is, a lot of people can switch to OO as it will be enough for their needs. For people who really need to use MS Office because of certain features (like Infra said - the VB features as example), do not go for OO (of course not majority considering Indian scenario) plus those who support MS and love to use MS products always - use MS office happily !

@kalpik

IMav is one of my great friends. And I know he is one of the most immature guy in this forum whos an expert in provoking others too !!! He was warned / suspended many times because of that but he continues. Best way is to ignore him in most cases and yes I know as you are a mod, you can't ignore everything, was just telling though.

Back to the topic - Do not follow something blindly. Use your brains. Use all products that we come across. If OO is quite adequate for you, use that (instead of using pirated MS Office of other commercial stuff). If it is not ok for you, go for other products, do not blindly rely on any review or any company. As simple as it.

 

[kalpik]

no, im not trying to provoke u, but only trying to bring to attention the fact that u chose to nitpick a word i used which was a general term and u know as good as i do that in the context i used it, it was directed at no 1, on the other hand u having read infra's reply and recommending others to read infra's reply did not even mention or do what infra suggested and chose to blindly ignore the provocative title that has been used insipite of knowing how things happen here. Oh damn i just turned to the left of my screen and noticed ur avatar

'nuff said

I was not nitpicking on the word you used. I was nitpicking at the sentence you used after that word (*this is chit chat, and i can do whatever the hell i want here*). iMav, try to learn to respect other users on this forum.

You have earned yourself an infarction.

@kalpik

IMav is one of my great friends. And I know he is one of the most immature guy in this forum whos an expert in provoking others too !!! He was warned / suspended many times because of that but he continues. Best way is to ignore him in most cases and yes I know as you are a mod, you can't ignore everything, was just telling though.

Din, I know that very well. That is exactly the reason why im not banning him again I have nothing against ANYONE on this forum. But he's gotta learn how to behave on public forums. Maybe you can help him?

For the records, i do use OpenOffice on linux, but yeah in office an all we use MS Office only.

P.S.: My resume doesnt open properly in OpenOffice

 

[MetalheadGautham]

@kalpik: remember my PM ? you should have moderated looooooong back, copied the contents of the pdf to the first post(to let ppl kno whats in da pdf), removed offending stuff and put this in tutorials.

how the hell can a simple guide cause an OS flame war ?

 

[din]

But he's gotta learn how to behave on public forums. Maybe you can help him?

Oh noooooooo !!!!!

If you ask me to count the stars, I will do it, but advising iMav ? I gave up that long back, now who said "Nothing is impossible", I just found something that is impossible lol.

 

[FilledVoid]

@kalpik: remember my PM ? you should have moderated looooooong back, copied the contents of the pdf to the first post(to let ppl kno whats in da pdf), removed offending stuff and put this in tutorials.

I hope you do understand theres a fine line between a persons life and the time he spends on this forum. Not to mention I think hes doing a good job of moderating considering he just joined the list of new mods. If I posted a link to a 100 page document would you expect him to go read all 100 pages and then edit it to fit a thread. Be realistic hes a mod not Flash (the super hero).

 

[gxsaurav]

Dude, get a life, this is not a review or a head to head comparison to anything, this is just an article for helping anyone make the switch. Stop your cr@p whining at once before it's reported and try somewhere else to start a fight.

It is a flawed & unfair article telling you to switch to latest version of OpenOffice.org from 5 years old version of Office. Why didn't he compare Office 2007 with OpenOffice if he wanted to talk about Ease of Use, features etc. Does OpenOffice has an online library of more powerpoint effects, word tamplates etc?

All those fighting here.. temme frankly how many of you actually read the pdf?

I have.

OpenOffice is good, if you are in 1995. If you are a single user in a home & hardly need word processing applications other then writing letters or Resume once in a while then yeah, OpenOffice or even Abiword is enough along with Word/PowerPoint/Excel 2007 viewer.

 

[din]

OpenOffice is good, if you are in 1995.

I have no clue on what basis you are talking this !! Do you go out of your home / office to see what others use ? I go and what I wrote is from what I see.

Open office is good in 2008 and it wil lbe even better in the coming years. A lot of people / offices / institutions in India use open office and that is quite adequate for them.

Please remember, majority of the office softwares are NOT tech gurus or even in the IT field ! Yes, I mean it, any doubts ? ?

The huge majority who use office suite use it for not-very-complicated stuff which may be available only in MS Office or other commercial product. As I mentioned already, there are two types of people - one, who need MS office as it is has things like VBA and second, blind followers of MS. These does not means the majority.

And most users use MS office because it is "free" for them installed by the hardware guy and secondly they think office suit = MS office (before it was computer = windows lol).

When you get a a chance, go out of the office or home, go to super markets, govt offices, institutions and places where office suits are used more and using an un-biased analysis (give it a try !) you can very easily find out OO is best suited for that section of the society which is majority.

Open eyes sometimes, it does not hurt

 

[legolas]

.... and hopefully make a switch if they feel like.

Personally, I don't have any difference in opinion regarding the content of this thread. However, I realize your title "Switch from M$ to OOo" has made all the difference. You better knew about Chit Chat section and its difference from Fight Club. It is not difficult to know this title definitely seeks combatting replies. It simply is.

However, again, as I have quoted your post, it doesn't insist or advertise and is written by not villifying any. I therefore only think that the intended title of the post is only an honest mistake.
I read the pdf and honestly am not impressed. It doesn't even discuss 10% of the humongous potential M$ has. Which misleads me to the possibility of an advertisement, but then its sick of the original author to have posted so... Taking on M$ office by telling that OOo has more potential features is funny... while they must insist on sufficient features for amateur users as Din pointed above and exploit it being open source...

Take it easy guys!!

 

[lywyre]

I am still convinced that all features in O2007 (not the GUI) are backward compatible in 02003. I just think it as an effort by MS to stop the advance of OO, as OO is capable of handling .doc, .xls, .ppt etc, well enough. They have just changed the UI, skewed the features a bit and gave an extra character to the file extension.

On the other hand, I am convinced with the features of OO, but I would like to be much faster than it is now. Also, I feel it is getting as bloated as MS Office suites are getting.

In my opinion, Office 2000 is more than enough for most office works.

P.S: I use Office 2007, because I have share documents of other people who use Office 2007. I always save my files in .doc and also .rtf whenever possible.

 

[gxsaurav]

Please remember, majority of the office softwares are NOT tech gurus or even in the IT field ! Yes, I mean it, any doubts ? ?

Wait, who told you that u need to be a tech guru to master or use Office 2007??

When you get a a chance, go out of the office or home, go to super markets, govt offices, institutions and places where office suits are used more and using an un-biased analysis (give it a try !) you can very easily find out OO is best suited for that section of the society which is majority.

I see them using Office 2003/2007 flawlessly.

gave an extra character to the file extension.

Lolz....do u know about the benefits of the new XML based file format of Office 2007

 

[vish786]

with 35 bull$hit replies... Did anyone cared to click on link... its not even working...

@cyrus.... upload it on rapidshare or somewhere else if you have the copy.

 

[din]

Wait, who told you that u need to be a tech guru to master or use Office 2007??

Oh no !! Not the iMav syndrome, please no.

All others got what I meant. What I meant is (assuming you are not into iMavism much) the huge majority of office suit users, use it not for any hi-fi things. Do I need to explain again and again and again ? ? I never meant to say someone has to be a tech guru to learn Office 2007 lol, if I say that it will be a nice joke, you know it very well.

I see them using Office 2003/2007 flawlessly.

I also see a lot of people who will be using Office 2007 / 2008 flawlessly, but I categorise them into 4 now (yes small change - lol)

1. MVPs who get things free

2. Blind supporters of MS

3. Those who get the "free" version from computer hardware guys

4. Those who really need MS office to do their work (may be less then 10% ? )

Now how many offices / institutes you see people using MS Office very happily after paying for it ? Please type in the number (it will not take much space to type that number ) I am eagerly waiting for it.

It may sound rude, but as I mentioned before, it is pretty easy sitting in the office chair and typing things by assuming everything, again, give it one more try to open your eyes, give it one more try to go out, to see what people use, why they use it, what they really need, how much they need to spend for it and try to analyze un-biased.

@Others, I am sorry, but couldn't resist lol.

 

[nish_higher]

Making the leap: Microsoft Word to OpenOffice.org Writer
*www.linux.com/articles/44314

The pdf link posted in this thread does not work but i think the article would be similar.this article posted in 2008 compares Office 2k3 and OO (no i m not saying MS rocks-so stay quiet!) and yea what Din mentioned is totally true.and its worth shifting to OO rather than living life of a thief

 

[din]

and yea what Din mentioned is totally true.and its worth shifting to OO rather than living life of a thief

Oh, thanks a lot for the support man, and I see there is "country for old men"

 

[infra_red_dude]

o cmon ani there are ways of posting,give an appropriate title acc. to u as u are not quoting some life changing or an influential individual's post. if 1 actually needs to do things ethically, politically and morally correct then the original title should be given in the beginning of the post with as a link to the original text and followed by an excerpt of the article in quote because now u are quoting an individual

What happens when users are given freedom to change the title according to what they wish?? Fanboy wars!!! MS users will give a title: FOSS software sux and post an article about Linux/BSD; FOSS guys will say: MS are a bunch of ******* and post something bad about MS/Products. See the implications of allowing users to choose their titles? Aren't we hafing enuf of it already?

It is a flawed & unfair article telling you to switch to latest version of OpenOffice.org from 5 years old version of Office.

Why didn't he compare Office 2007 with OpenOffice if he wanted to talk about Ease of Use, features etc.

I have [read].

Clearly states you are lying! You haf just scrolled thru the screenshots and I'm 100% sure of it (tho I haf no means to prove it!).

The author has shamelessly asked people to Switch from MS Office in the first 3 pages. In the next 12 pages or so he says that UI of OOo is similar to what UI of MSO was (again, what UI we see in MSO 2k7 wasn't an eternal one. They've just made a switch to ribbons). Hence people would not find it difficult to get many things done in OOo. He's not comparing features of OOo in those pages but suggesting things on how to make lives earier for those who are used to OOo. Comparing is one thing and suggesting changes is another!

Does OpenOffice has an online library of more powerpoint effects, word tamplates etc?

If you'd not blatantly lied but really read the article then you'd haf noticed that the author has mentioned exactly what you said. OOo doesn't haf the huge cache of templates/online library.

OpenOffice is good, if you are in 1995. If you are a single user in a home & hardly need word processing applications other then writing letters or Resume once in a while then yeah, OpenOffice or even Abiword is enough along with Word/PowerPoint/Excel 2007 viewer.

Temme what features does an admin/HR dept. of a company need from an Office suite?

People just don't get it and argue just for the sake of it. Do you know there are companies which earn their bread and butter by making VBA modules for MSO???? What would happen if they switched to OOo? They'd go bankrupt! On the other hand what would happen if home users/small offices/admin depts. etc. switch to OOo? They would save a lot of cash.

So before blindly supporting OOo or MSO just use your rusted brainz a bit!