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Post by loren on Oct 20, 2003 20:55:13 GMT -8
I got in on Star office when it was still free, now I found another proggy that might be even better (plus free) www.openoffice.org/product/...so here it's here for all of us that are too poor to afford MS Office or didn't have it bundled with our new over-priced super 'puter! It seems not to have a self-installer, so you have to dump it all in a system folder when you un-zip it. cheers!
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Post by goldsmith on Oct 21, 2003 8:04:31 GMT -8
Thank's for the fresh link, Loren.
I had downloaded the v1.1 RC2 a while back, but hadn't installed it yet. It looks like this is a finalized version.
I'm no 'office' expert, and have no experience with this application, but the reviews look excellent.
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Post by ed1 on Oct 21, 2003 10:42:11 GMT -8
Got it now. Thanks
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Post by goldsmith on Oct 21, 2003 11:36:44 GMT -8
Since it's a five hour download, for me, it will have to be done overnight.
I'll give it a try, perhaps tomorrow.
If it lives up to all the reviews, I've read, I'll probably install it on my new computer, when it comes home.
The corel office program I presently have on it is a bit too difficult for me to fathom.
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Post by goldsmith on Oct 22, 2003 6:36:47 GMT -8
After downloading, and saving the installer to a zip disk, I went through the install process.
The installation was easy, and included a few options, as to the type of install (full, partial, single, or multiple users, etc)
Installation instructions are included in a 'readme' as well as in adobe acrobat format.
The suite takes up a bit more than 200Mb on my hard disk.
From the fooling, and reading around I've done, so far, this is a SWEET suite!
It includes everything I could want, in an office program.
The help files are extensive, and almost every aspect, from appearance, to keyboard behaviour, are fully user configurable.
There is an online community where users can share thoughts, and ideas with the programmers, as well as discuss any problems they may be having.
I'm nobodies secretary, but I think this will be my office of choice, from now on.
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Post by ed1 on Oct 22, 2003 8:44:24 GMT -8
I'm a M$ works suite user but I fully intend to give Open Office a fair chance.
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Post by bluescout on Oct 22, 2003 15:46:33 GMT -8
I had heard somewhere that a document created in M$ Word is viewable in the word processing program from open office , but one created using open office is not viewable in M$ Word.
Can anyone confirm this ?
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Post by goldsmith on Oct 22, 2003 16:09:28 GMT -8
You can change the settings in OO, to save text documents in rtf, thereby making them viewable in ms word.
I wouldn't put it past ms to make other formats unaccessable, though. It's always been their practice.
I know from experimentation, that ms documents open in OO.
It's been a long while since I've had an office suite, back when I had the ms version, that came with my win95 PC.
I'm not really sure what incompatabilities exist between the latest versions, and open source software, such as abiword, open office, star office, and so on.
I think most of the software contains proprietary formatting, but includes workarounds, and options, to allow sharing. It's usually microsoft, that won't play well with others.
Not being any sort of office mage, I'm trying to learn as much as I can using the free stuff. I think most problems will come for folk's who have grown used to using the ms offerings, and are already up on using things like databases, spreadsheets, and presentations the microsoft way. There's bound to be differences.
If you'd like, we could try trading some sort of documents back, and forth, to see just what happens.
It could take me a while, since I'm a hunt, peck, hunt, hunt, typist, but I'd be more than happy to experiment.
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Post by ed1 on Oct 22, 2003 16:19:52 GMT -8
I'll have to try changing the settings, sure can't read the native format in Word.
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Post by goldsmith on Oct 22, 2003 16:34:21 GMT -8
I don't know if you read the several pages of instructions before you installed, but the writer suggested that you NOT make open office open all the various ms formats by default. He went on to say, that changing the file associations back would be "tedious"
Since open office is the only office program I have installed, I don't have the inconvenience of having documents that are unreadable in the ms offerings. I can just save files in the native format, and simply use open office to open and modify them.
I also don't colaborate with others (yet) so there's no problem there.
As for text editors, well, I have a few; notepad, wordpad, note tab lite, crimson editor, abiword, and stones webwriter.
All of them can open (most) of each others files, with the exception of abiword, which has a native format. Abiword will open and save in all the other formats, though.
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Post by bluescout on Oct 22, 2003 16:35:20 GMT -8
Thanks Goldie , that would be great , I have M$ Works 2002 , but I would be interested if the OO powerpoint program can be read by the M$ powerpoint viewer. When you get a chance , could you make a small powerpoint presentation with the OO program and send it to me.
I'll PM you my addy.
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Post by ed1 on Oct 22, 2003 17:34:04 GMT -8
What happens if you want to send an attachment containing a text document in the native format. No one would be able to read it unless they had Open Office
"Save as" gives you the option to save as MS Word .doc file.
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Post by goldsmith on Oct 22, 2003 17:45:50 GMT -8
If I was going to send a text attachment, I'd be sure and have it in a 'sharable' format.
I usually save stuff in plain text ie; notepad.
I haven't tried yet, but since I have all my 'editors' in my send to menu, I'll try and view some OO format stuff in a couple of them.
Several of them have opened, and allowed me to read some fairly strange files.
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Post by bluescout on Oct 22, 2003 17:46:16 GMT -8
"Save as" gives you the option to save as MS Word .doc file. Thanks Ed1
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