Openoffice

Conor_3

OpenOffice for the most part is fine. The problem comes when you start using more of the advanced functions of MS Office.

Also, the OOo community only aim to provide compatibility with MS Office 2003 and earlier functionality, not MSO 2007 which DOES have different formatting criteria. I've converted MSO2003 Word documents to MSO2007 and they've had noticable formatting changes.

If the Uni uses MSO and you're not paying £300 for it, use it. It's a lot easier than trying to fight a losing battle and losing marks because the lecturer opens your "compatible" document only to find it looking a right mess - something you're not going to find out until you get your marks. Add on to that the plethora of templates and clip-art available from MS Office downloads and you have to ask if it's worth saving that £40.

Simon_B_2

Conor wrote: »

OpenOffice for the most part is fine. The problem comes when you start using more of the advanced functions of MS Office.

Also, the OOo community only aim to provide compatibility with MS Office 2003 and earlier functionality, not MSO 2007 which DOES have different formatting criteria. I've converted MSO2003 Word documents to MSO2007 and they've had noticable formatting changes.

If the Uni uses MSO and you're not paying £300 for it, use it. It's a lot easier than trying to fight a losing battle and losing marks because the lecturer opens your "compatible" document only to find it looking a right mess - something you're not going to find out until you get your marks. Add on to that the plethora of templates and clip-art available from MS Office downloads and you have to ask if it's worth saving that £40.

Hi
I won't be saving £40 but hundreds as i'm doing a part time degree and have less than 15hours contact time so will have to pay full price though i do, do more than 15 hours a week work on it.

Conor_3

Are you sure you'd have to pay the full price? Do you have any kids who are in school? You'd still qualify....

C_Ronaldo

I have a similar problem with my college, on theyre computers in the IT rooms and the library they use office 2003 and i have 2003 at home but i sometimes do work in office 07 and the college for some reason wont get office 07 installed on the computers so i ahve to select the correct save format so the file can be opened by lecturers or if i need to open up a file so i can work on it there

toasterman

Ronaldo.

Just go into word/excel menu, options, save. You can select it so it always saves in Office 2003 formats. I'm doing it with every computer I set up with Office 2007, or I get phone calls a week later asking why nothing they create can be readable by anyone else.
Somehow .docx files still show up on pcs as MS Office documents, whether the user has the functionality to open them or not. Excel is even worse - new format, but same .xls extension.

There is also an update for office 2003 that lets you read office 2007 formats.
See -> http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA100444731033.aspx

I don't have the use for it really, but you can get Office 2007 home/student edition (word, excel and powerpoint) - for under £80. No weird conditions on that so far as I'm aware - although it does say not to use it for "commercial use", the whole time you have it open.

superscaper

toasterman wrote: »

I don't have the use for it really, but you can get Office 2007 home/student edition (word, excel and powerpoint) - for under £80. No weird conditions on that so far as I'm aware - although it does say not to use it for "commercial use", the whole time you have it open.

Although if you're a student you're probably better off going for Office Ultimate from www.theultimatesteal.co.uk.

toasterman

Thats a point worth mentioning. There's discounts to be had for students - but Simon said he wasn't eligible.

buglawton

I love ASAP utilities https://www.asap-utilities.com - is there any similar plugin for OpenOffice?