office publisher 2003 v open office drawing

firbyfred

I downloaded openoffice for my sons onto their computer (not connected to the internet) which seems to work okay.
at school they have been using office publisher 2003 to do work and say that openoffice drawing does not have a lot or do they same things as the publisher 2003,
is there any way that I can get a free download that is more like publisher.
thanks

skr00ge

Before the rant I should have asked. What is your son trying to produce?

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So the software is more important than the finished piece or the work/learning of the student?

The school should be able to accept the work in Open Office format unless the object of the exercise was to create work in MS formats specifically(ICT maybe).

The staff can check the work by a free download of OpenOffice. The objectives can be checked. Staff can help "review" work.

Buying software specifically for homework use would not be supported by any educational system.

A quick note to the head and the LEA should clarify matters.

It is more important your child develops rounded skills and is able to use different types of software to achieve a goal than just to use MS publisher because the teacher has no experience of other software.

e.g. Media/film departments will often use Apple Macs but most students will have windows at home. The end result, a DVD, can be viewed independently of the method of production.

It shouldn't matter what software is used as long as the work produced is suitable and the effort can be demonstrated and rewarded.

Cheers

firbyfred

It wasn't so much for doing homework, they are only 10, but they say that it does not have (I can't think of a better word) extras that publisher has.

skr00ge

Oh well. Publisher may have more features but most people will not use all the features anyway. Most tasks the majority of people do with publisher could also be done in a word processor.

There was a link for Quark for a few quid a few weeks back. Next time ask "whoever" would it be best to have Publisher or Quark. It depends on who you are and what you're doing. Quark is the publishing industry standard not publisher. You could say publisher is not compatible with quark and lacks many of its features (and the price tag too).

Compatibility is only an issue if you are swapping files or using two computers. Publisher is for publishing and once published it doesn't matter what was used to create the document/item.

If you have the money buy it and when your child is old enough to use 10% of the features you'll need Publisher 2010 or the like for another £100.

If you haven't the money, use your word processor or find a copy of quark.

Now where's my glue stick? and I'll get on doing that newsletter I was pasting together.