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OpenOffice ready for world tour | |
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| Time: 09:21 EST/14:21 GMT | News Source: CNET | Posted By: Robert Stein | ||
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The organization behind OpenOffice on Wednesday released a trial version of one of the first major updates to the free open-source office software. A beta release of version 1.1 of OpenOffice is available now from OpenOffice.org. OpenOffice is the open-source sibling of Sun Microsystems' StarOffice, a software package that includes a word processor, spreadsheet application and other software tools. The package competes with Microsoft's dominant Office but can open and save files in Office formats. | ||
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| #1 By 37 (66.82.20.150) at 3/27/2003 10:44:00 AM |
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but can open and save files in Office formats.
While technically correct, they FAILED to mention that the formatting loss is astonishing. You lose WAY to much formatting to actually have the docs etc. useful after the conversion. Any document opened in OpenOffice from MS Office is useless unless it's a VERY basic letter. SPIN in advertising I see. |
| #2 By 7754 (216.160.8.41) at 3/27/2003 2:17:13 PM |
| Just like WordPad can open .doc files... nevermind that you'll lose footnotes, bookmarks, links, etc. etc. etc.... I have been saying this all along about Open Office, as well as other word processors that claim compatibility with Word--document conversion never works, and best of luck in preserving your formatting. Most secretaries where I work just end up retyping the documents--for them, it's just as fast as going through a converted document and correcting the formatting problems. |
| #3 By 2459 (24.170.151.19) at 3/27/2003 4:18:11 PM |
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I'm guessing it's the former. Again, why is it so hard for others to do to MS what MS did to WordPerfect and Lotus? The format hasn't changed since 1997 (96 if you count the betas).
It will be fun to see if the competition will have any luck reading/writing WordML files. MS gives people an open format. Let's see how long it takes the competition to get it right. They could be working on it now if they can scrounge up enough money to attain a CPP copy, or beg their local MS branch for a copy. They'll probably just pirate a copy though :-) Whatever they do, it doesn't seem like they have much confidence in even attaining compatability with an open format judging by the recent FUD coming from Sun, OpenOffice, etc. |
| #4 By 2459 (24.170.151.19) at 3/27/2003 5:13:11 PM |
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WordPerfect had it's share of ubiquity. Government contractors/workers were required to use WordPerfect and Lotus formats at one time. This is one of the major reasons they had such a strong foothold, and one of the last areas to switch.
Perfect format conversion is only one issue that the competition needs to overcome. Feature compatability and use familiarity is the other issue. This is the other way MS beat WP (and Lotus), by mimmicing the control scheme/UI for those that didn't want to learn a different way. WordPerfect's reluctance in moving to Windows also helped. |
| #5 By 2459 (24.170.151.19) at 3/27/2003 5:21:43 PM |
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Still, the competition has had around 6 years to try and gain compatability. I mean, come on, 6 years. Imagine if it took the US/Brits that long to crack Germany's ciphers. Heck, imagine if it took Compaq that long to crack IBM's BIOS.
After the 70s/80s, most companies just lost their drive. |
| #6 By 37 (66.168.16.248) at 3/27/2003 9:36:51 PM |
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#4 - My problem is with their advertising that they can open MS Office files, yet the never make light of the fact that there will be quite a bit of time spent fixing the file. Not to mention, no support for many of the MS Word features that should be carried over.
#3 - Word has no problems opening Works formatted files including formatting. Please do your research. #6 - I'm not sure what you are importing, but Word has some excellent import filters. Secondly, they don't brag about the ability to open other file formats, let alone keep formatting...unlike OpenOffice supposedly THINKING the public won't notice. They WILL notice the first time they import any documents that are set up for Review, Headers, Footers, Macros, Watermarks, Table of Contents, Index, etc. #9 - There are plenty of utilities (including free) that allow you to write *.pdf from Word. Secondly, I will be happy using the open XML standards format along with my InfoPath. This post was edited by Brian_MS_MVP on Thursday, March 27, 2003 at 21:45. |
| #7 By 2459 (24.170.151.19) at 3/27/2003 10:55:42 PM |
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# 10 - Why should Word import SO docs? Star Office is the wannabe competitor. It's their job to implement the popular vendor's format. It isn't worth the time or money for MS to make import filters for Star Office. Star Office barely has any market. MS shouldn't have to help Star Office attain compatibility just because SO cannot attain Office compatability.
Again, I wait, amused at the thought of how long it will take SO/OO to correctly implement WordML. |
| #8 By 37 (66.82.20.150) at 3/28/2003 8:17:51 AM |
| Great points n4cer. |
| #9 By 37 (66.82.20.150) at 3/28/2003 11:10:51 AM |
| I'm sure OpenOffice is a great product behind the scenes if you don't rely on MS Office compatibility. I think the interface is horrible in OpenOffice (and Star Office). |
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