OpenOffice V Microsoft Office

f1charlie

I haven't used OpenOffice, but from what I have read, the answer is yes to all your questions. Just remember in OpenOffice to save your file as a Word format and not OpenOffice format, or it won't be able to be opened in Word.

chunter

If you're used to 2003, 2007 has a bit of a learning curve to it.
Took me 5 minutes trying to figure out how to print something.

I suppose it's the future, but hey, on the night of Armistice Day,
it's a free country and I exercise my right to grumble !!

Jakg

IMO 2007 has a way way way better Ui than 2003 and OpenOffice, but you do pay a premium for it.

Yeah you have to "get used it to it" but now I have I wouldn't go back.

silvercar

Can you install 2007 on top of 2003 or do you have to delete 2003 and start from scratch?

toby_puppy

I wasn't too keen on open office - someone installed it in work for us, but after using MS Office for so long it just didn't seem as good as the original.
I just went on Ebay and bought Office 2007 (Home and Student version) for £30 so that was quite reasonable.

fayraz

chunter wrote: »

If you're used to 2003, 2007 has a bit of a learning curve to it.
Took me 5 minutes trying to figure out how to print something.

I suppose it's the future, but hey, on the night of Armistice Day,
it's a free country and I exercise my right to grumble !!

When I upgraded from 2003 to 2007 it was a bit of a mission to get familiar with everything using the new ribbon interface. I have been using it for about 6 months and still sometimes struggle to find things.

DatabaseError

jostenning wrote: »

I just went on Ebay and bought Office 2007 (Home and Student version) for £30 so that was quite reasonable.

if that was for a genuine ms disk + unused license key than it's a steal! More likely it really was a steal!

toby_puppy

tonyhague wrote: »

if that was for a genuine ms disk + unused license key than it's a steal! More likely it really was a steal!

Yep, they had it as a gift but weren't impressed, so they put it on a buy it now - still unopended when I bought it! :T

Andy_L

rmg1 wrote: »

It ain't broke but apparently OpenOffice is smaller, faster, better, etc.
Anyone any comments on that bit?

I find Calc, the spreadsheet, worse than excel to use. I suspect that's because I've been using excel for years & the fact calc does things differently slows me down to much (eg using backspace instead of delete, dragging blocks of data is done differently as is filling series of number, highlighting formulas hides adjacient cells & can make debugging formulas difficult).

Idiophreak

silvercar wrote: »

Can you install 2007 on top of 2003 or do you have to delete 2003 and start from scratch?

I upgraded my work machine a couple of days ago. No uninstall needed.

Have to say, functionally, there's really not a lot of difference from 2003 - although the GUI is different (don't honestly have a strong feeling either way on it) - and I think most companies are still working with 2003, so if it's working, I'd stick with that.

I know people say OO is "faster" - but I never find myself waiting for office, so I guess it's a "theoretical" faster, rather than a "noticeable" faster?