anybody using open office as an alternative to MS office?

[Santuzzo]

How good is open office?
Could it really replace MS Office? Is it a serious alternative?

And most important: is it compatible with MS office programs: can I open a word.doc with open offce and vice versa? how about excel, etc?

I would be interested in open office, but I need to know if it's possibe to save open office documents in a format that can be opened in the corresponding MS office program.
can you save for instance a file in open office in such a format that it can be opened in the corresponding MS program? Like a calc file could be saved in such a format to allow to be opene in MS excel? or a write file could be saved in such a format so it can be opene in MS Word?

Thanks,
Lars

 

[Yami]

I use OpenOffice at home, and at school they have Word, and everything works fine, in the exact manner you say. Just always remember to save stuff in OO as the needed file type - I once forgot to, and made handing in my coursework already a day late a little difficult (since I take it to school on a memory stick).

OO can do pretty everything MSO can do, it just doesn't look as good. It's also rather bloated in comparison, but I'm not really bothered by that.

 

[Santuzzo]

I use OpenOffice at home, and at school they have Word, and everything works fine, in the exact manner you say. Just always remember to save stuff in OO as the needed file type - I once forgot to, and made handing in my coursework already a day late a little difficult (since I take it to school on a memory stick).

OO can do pretty everything MSO can do, it just doesn't look as good. It's also rather bloated in comparison, but I'm not really bothered by that.

Thanks !

How exactly does it not look as good as MS Office?
And you mean bloated as in taking up a lot of HD space?

Just to make sure: it is compatible BOTH ways?
I can open MS files in OO and I cna open OO files in MS Office (provided they were saved in the right format witihn OO)?

I am making double sure, because I am about to order software for my new PC (remember my thread on the hardware forum? ), and I am getting XP home, so I was looking for which MS office version to get. The only one I thought had a good price would be office 2007 home&student version, but it says you're not allowed to use that it commercially. But I do use word and excel/MS spreadsheet to make invoices for customers (I'm self-employed). So I'd have a conflict right there.

 

[Yami]

MSO can open files saved in OO, provided they're saved in the right file format.
For example, OpenOffice Writer can use .odt files (ODF text Document), and can also use .doc files. MS Office Word can only open .doc files.
Therefore, provided that you save what you're writing in a file format that MS Office can understand, you'll be able to use OpenOffice.

On the subject of looks - it's just a bit utilitarian is all, rather bland. Bloated as in HD space, yes - which means it can take a while to download.

 

[Santuzzo]

MSO can open files saved in OO, provided they're saved in the right file format.
For example, OpenOffice Writer can use .odt files (ODF text Document), and can also use .doc files. MS Office Word can only open .doc files.
Therefore, provided that you save what you're writing in a file format that MS Office can understand, you'll be able to use OpenOffice.

On the subject of looks - it's just a bit utilitarian is all, rather bland. Bloated as in HD space, yes - which means it can take a while to download.

Thanks ! This sounds great!

So, what you are describing for word also goes for excel/calc, right?

Man, I might be saving some $ this time and use Open Office instead of buying MS Office

 

[Yami]

So, what you are describing for word also goes for excel/calc, right?

Man, I might be saving some $ this time and use Open Office instead of buying MS Office

Indeed it does

 

[Santuzzo]

Indeed it does

AWESOME !

Thank you very much !

Tried to rep you, but it didn't let me, since I already rep'd you from my other thread (on the i7 build).

 

[Yami]

Tried to rep you, but it didn't let me, since I already rep'd you from my other thread (on the i7 build).

LOL glad to be too helpful :laughing: