I have XP Home in which I am using an old version of Word 97 which I loaded
from an old disk. It works fine still, but I have a couple of questions --

1) Would I find much benefit in buying the latest Word?

2) If so, is this site selling genuine copies?
http://1bj.biz.allsofte.com/ They keep on emailing me!

3) or would it be safer to buy from the MS site?


Many thanks

+Jackson+
.................

"Jackson" wrote in message
...

I have XP Home in which I am using an old version of Word 97 which I
loaded
from an old disk. It works fine still, but I have a couple of questions --

1) Would I find much benefit in buying the latest Word?

2) If so, is this site selling genuine copies?
http://1bj.biz.allsofte.com/ They keep on emailing me!

3) or would it be safer to buy from the MS site?


Many thanks

+Jackson+
................

Buy from your local store!

If you are satisfied with Word 97, there is no good reason to upgrade to
Word 2002 or 2003, but see
http://www.microsoft.com/office/edit...o/compare.mspx. I would be
leery of buying from any site that sends spam. Instead, research for
yourself using Google and buy from a reputable site or (as Chuck suggests)
from a local source such as BestBuy, Office Depot, etc.

FWIW, if you don't need any other Office apps, the most economical way to
acquire Word (2002) is as part of Works Suite 2005 (see
http://www.microsoft.com/products/wo...s.aspx?pid=001), which
you can get for as little as $70 (possibly even less) after the mail-in
rebate.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"Jackson" wrote in message
...

I have XP Home in which I am using an old version of Word 97 which I
loaded
from an old disk. It works fine still, but I have a couple of questions --

1) Would I find much benefit in buying the latest Word?

2) If so, is this site selling genuine copies?
http://1bj.biz.allsofte.com/ They keep on emailing me!

3) or would it be safer to buy from the MS site?


Many thanks

+Jackson+
................

Jackson

Your IP address suggests that you are in the UK, possibly in or around the
Sheffield area, and maybe even using Force9 ISP assuming they still exist..
there is a PC World computer store at the following address..

Meadowhall Retail Park
Attercliffe Common
SHEFFIELD
South Yorkshire
S9 2YZ
Tel: 0870 2420444


or go to this site for the store finder in the event that I have your
location all wrong (most likely)..

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/

If price is a first consideration, you may also want to look at WordPerfect
Office and Lotus Smartsuite.. as I remember, PC World stock all of them..
well, certainly five years ago.. :-)


--
Mike Hall
MVP - Windows Shell/User


"Jackson" wrote in message
...

I have XP Home in which I am using an old version of Word 97 which I
loaded
from an old disk. It works fine still, but I have a couple of questions --

1) Would I find much benefit in buying the latest Word?

2) If so, is this site selling genuine copies?
http://1bj.biz.allsofte.com/ They keep on emailing me!

3) or would it be safer to buy from the MS site?


Many thanks

+Jackson+
................

Wow. I can tell you're not a WORD mvp...
Methinks www.openoffice.org is better than WordPerfect!
*******************
~Anne Troy

www.OfficeArticles.com


"Mike Hall (MS-MVP)" wrote in message
...
Jackson

Your IP address suggests that you are in the UK, possibly in or around the
Sheffield area, and maybe even using Force9 ISP assuming they still
exist..
there is a PC World computer store at the following address..

Meadowhall Retail Park
Attercliffe Common
SHEFFIELD
South Yorkshire
S9 2YZ
Tel: 0870 2420444


or go to this site for the store finder in the event that I have your
location all wrong (most likely)..

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/

If price is a first consideration, you may also want to look at
WordPerfect
Office and Lotus Smartsuite.. as I remember, PC World stock all of them..
well, certainly five years ago.. :-)


--
Mike Hall
MVP - Windows Shell/User


"Jackson" wrote in message
...

I have XP Home in which I am using an old version of Word 97 which I
loaded
from an old disk. It works fine still, but I have a couple of
questions --

1) Would I find much benefit in buying the latest Word?

2) If so, is this site selling genuine copies?
http://1bj.biz.allsofte.com/ They keep on emailing me!

3) or would it be safer to buy from the MS site?


Many thanks

+Jackson+
................

Anne Troy shared this with us in microsoft.public.word.newusers:

Wow. I can tell you're not a WORD mvp...

Simple!
Show all headers (CTRL+F11 in XanaNews) reveals this:
NNTP-Posting-Host: southcourt.plus.com 81.174.137.93
Geobytes does the rest. (or similar tools)
And Google for the other UI.

Methinks www.openoffice.org is better than WordPerfect!

ACK all the way.

--
Amedee Van Gasse using XanaNews 1.17.5.7
If it has an "X" in the name, it must be Linux?

Anne

I did like WP 7 but later versions of WP are not as good, and I have used
Lotus Smartsuite (9.7) in the past for its compatibility with almost
everything.. however, I lost the LS CD and WP7 doesn't like XP..

Having just trawled the net a little, I can only find LS version 9.7 and 9.8
and both can be bought for peanuts.. have IBM finally killed Lotus
Smartsuite off as a public offering?..

I now use MS Office 2003 Pro exclusively, but the price will put some off
buying it, regardless of how good the product may be..

To the OP..

Maybe buying Lotus Smartsuite (too old) and WP (too arcane) is not such a
good idea.. I have heard less than favourable reports for OpenOffice, so if
funds allow, buy Office 2003 or stick with what you have..


--
Mike Hall
MVP - Windows Shell/User


"Anne Troy" wrote in message
...
Wow. I can tell you're not a WORD mvp...
Methinks www.openoffice.org is better than WordPerfect!
*******************
~Anne Troy

www.OfficeArticles.com


"Mike Hall (MS-MVP)" wrote in message
...
Jackson

Your IP address suggests that you are in the UK, possibly in or around
the
Sheffield area, and maybe even using Force9 ISP assuming they still
exist..
there is a PC World computer store at the following address..

Meadowhall Retail Park
Attercliffe Common
SHEFFIELD
South Yorkshire
S9 2YZ
Tel: 0870 2420444


or go to this site for the store finder in the event that I have your
location all wrong (most likely)..

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/

If price is a first consideration, you may also want to look at
WordPerfect
Office and Lotus Smartsuite.. as I remember, PC World stock all of them..
well, certainly five years ago.. :-)


--
Mike Hall
MVP - Windows Shell/User


"Jackson" wrote in message
...

I have XP Home in which I am using an old version of Word 97 which I
loaded
from an old disk. It works fine still, but I have a couple of
questions --

1) Would I find much benefit in buying the latest Word?

2) If so, is this site selling genuine copies?
http://1bj.biz.allsofte.com/ They keep on emailing me!

3) or would it be safer to buy from the MS site?


Many thanks

+Jackson+
................

"Mike Hall (MS-MVP)"
wrote in message
...
Anne

I did like WP 7 but later versions of WP are not as
good, and ...
To the OP..

Maybe buying Lotus Smartsuite (too old) and WP (too
arcane) is not such a good idea.. I have heard less
than favourable reports for OpenOffice, so if funds
allow, buy Office 2003 or stick with what you have..
....

From the peanut gallery:
OpenOffice is "good" for a Word intermediate user,
poor for advanced, but "good to great" for less than
intermediate users. IMO at least. I consider myself
intermediate but not quite advanced. The MVP tests
seem to agree with me (I'm -not- an MVP).

It's definitely a ymmv for many, with cost being the
driving factor of course. I made a pretty good effort
at using OpenOffice, and was impressed, and still do
use it occasionally for specific tasks it's useful for,
like saving to a PDF file, speed for simple things, and
fast open/close times. But, that said it's not ready
for "MY" prime time yet. I don't speak for others.
So, though I keept it installed, and use it for a
few various things now and then, some more often, I am
still with Office in a big way. It's not free, but it
does what I need it to do and, being so well versed in
it, I do have some set ways and enough experience to
know that quite a few things I do in Word are harder or
even less intuitive to accomplish in OpenOffice (Write
et al). That's not a cut against OO, just an
observation; often the "intuition" factor in OO beats
MS right out of the water, but, again IMO, it's just
not able to do everything I want to do yet in the ways
I need to do them.
So if I had to give one up, I'd have to give up OO
at the moment.
I tried OO for web authoring too, with all its bells
and whistles, some of which I really liked, but ...
though it's more intended for writing web pages than
Word is, it still didn't make it. Old Word97, albeit a
simplistic authoring tool, did better IMO, when
combined with FP and a little HTML knowledge. I was
finally able to wean myself from WD97 et al when I
discovered N|VU and now use neither MS or OO for web
authoring. (nvu.org if you care).

I guess, all in all, if you could almost but not quite
use Wordpad for all your needs, you're a great
candidate to check out OO. If you actually use a lot
of Word's features though you may not be so happy with
OO. And, if you're interested in downloading OO, be
aware; it's a huge download but at least it's free and
very functional.

My two cents

Pop

I'm finding, and it's *really* annoying, that my "intuition" is so tuned to
how Word does things that I have to work a lot harder to use anything
else....

But like you say, "best" software all depends on what the person who has to
use it needs to do and prefers to work with.

On 7/25/05 9:32 AM, "PopS" wrote:


it, I do have some set ways and enough experience to
know that quite a few things I do in Word are harder or
even less intuitive to accomplish in OpenOffice (Write
et al). That's not a cut against OO, just an
observation; often the "intuition" factor in OO beats
MS right out of the water, but, again IMO, it's just
not able to do everything I want to do yet in the ways
I need to do them.

Yup. I have a terrible time with some features in Publisher because they
work differently from Word, and I'm still not entirely comfortable composing
in FrontPage (tend to write in Word and then paste into FP bit by bit).

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"Daiya Mitchell" wrote in message
.. .
I'm finding, and it's *really* annoying, that my "intuition" is so tuned
to
how Word does things that I have to work a lot harder to use anything
else....

But like you say, "best" software all depends on what the person who has
to
use it needs to do and prefers to work with.

On 7/25/05 9:32 AM, "PopS" wrote:


it, I do have some set ways and enough experience to
know that quite a few things I do in Word are harder or
even less intuitive to accomplish in OpenOffice (Write
et al). That's not a cut against OO, just an
observation; often the "intuition" factor in OO beats
MS right out of the water, but, again IMO, it's just
not able to do everything I want to do yet in the ways
I need to do them.

I liked your 2 cents, PopS. I keep OO installed only for recovering Word
files, really. But I agree with your "level of user" and the suitability of
OO as an alternative.

If I could only have one version of Office, I'd keep my Office 2000 Premium
with its FrontPage, Publisher, and PhotoDraw; and without its suck-ass
(pardon my french) new Mail merge methods.
*******************
~Anne Troy

www.OfficeArticles.com


"PopS" wrote in message
...

"Mike Hall (MS-MVP)"
wrote in message
...
Anne

I did like WP 7 but later versions of WP are not as
good, and ...
To the OP..

Maybe buying Lotus Smartsuite (too old) and WP (too
arcane) is not such a good idea.. I have heard less
than favourable reports for OpenOffice, so if funds
allow, buy Office 2003 or stick with what you have..
...

From the peanut gallery:
OpenOffice is "good" for a Word intermediate user,
poor for advanced, but "good to great" for less than
intermediate users. IMO at least. I consider myself
intermediate but not quite advanced. The MVP tests
seem to agree with me (I'm -not- an MVP).

It's definitely a ymmv for many, with cost being the
driving factor of course. I made a pretty good effort
at using OpenOffice, and was impressed, and still do
use it occasionally for specific tasks it's useful for,
like saving to a PDF file, speed for simple things, and
fast open/close times. But, that said it's not ready
for "MY" prime time yet. I don't speak for others.
So, though I keept it installed, and use it for a
few various things now and then, some more often, I am
still with Office in a big way. It's not free, but it
does what I need it to do and, being so well versed in
it, I do have some set ways and enough experience to
know that quite a few things I do in Word are harder or
even less intuitive to accomplish in OpenOffice (Write
et al). That's not a cut against OO, just an
observation; often the "intuition" factor in OO beats
MS right out of the water, but, again IMO, it's just
not able to do everything I want to do yet in the ways
I need to do them.
So if I had to give one up, I'd have to give up OO
at the moment.
I tried OO for web authoring too, with all its bells
and whistles, some of which I really liked, but ...
though it's more intended for writing web pages than
Word is, it still didn't make it. Old Word97, albeit a
simplistic authoring tool, did better IMO, when
combined with FP and a little HTML knowledge. I was
finally able to wean myself from WD97 et al when I
discovered N|VU and now use neither MS or OO for web
authoring. (nvu.org if you care).

I guess, all in all, if you could almost but not quite
use Wordpad for all your needs, you're a great
candidate to check out OO. If you actually use a lot
of Word's features though you may not be so happy with
OO. And, if you're interested in downloading OO, be
aware; it's a huge download but at least it's free and
very functional.

My two cents

Pop

Mike Hall (MS-MVP) shared this with us in
microsoft.public.word.newusers:

I have heard less than favourable reports for OpenOffice,

Could you explain? OpenOffice NEEDS user feedback to improve. Also, is
this first hand experience or only hearsay?

--
Amedee Van Gasse

PopS shared this with us in microsoft.public.word.newusers:

From the peanut gallery:

Reply from a nutcase:

OpenOffice is "good" for a Word intermediate user, poor for advanced,
but "good to great" for less than intermediate users. IMO at least.
I consider myself intermediate but not quite advanced. The MVP tests
seem to agree with me (I'm -not- an MVP).

Please explain why OpenOffice is poor for advanced users. When I follow
the discussions on Gmane (like news:gmane.comp.openoffice.questions) I
don't get that impression.

I'm not asking this because I disagree (or agree) with you. I'm just
asking this because OOo /needs/ user feedback to get better. Only if
advanced users point out the weak spots something can be done about it.

It's definitely a ymmv for many, with cost being the driving factor
of course.

I disagree on the cost argument. Money is an obsolete argument if you
see that Microsoft is almost giving away software with volume licenses
or student licenses or OEM licenses.

I made a pretty good effort at using OpenOffice, and was
impressed, and still do use it occasionally for specific tasks it's
useful for, like saving to a PDF file, speed for simple things, and
fast open/close times. But, that said it's not ready for "MY" prime
time yet.

What issues hinder you from it becoming "YOUR" prime time?

I don't speak for others. So, though I keept it
installed, and use it for a few various things now and then, some
more often, I am still with Office in a big way. It's not free,

It's not free(gratis) but more important it's not Free(libre) and even
more important it's not Open - I mean not only the software but also
the file format. Here in Europe I see a lot of movement towards open
file formats becoming mandatory by law. For example the Belgian
Department of Justice starts using open file formats because legal
documents made today should be readable in a few years without
acrobatics (I don't mean Adobe). I don't see a lot of interesting
reaction from Redmont...

but it does what I need it to do and, being so well versed in it, I do
have some set ways and enough experience to know that quite a few
things I do in Word are harder or even less intuitive to accomplish
in OpenOffice (Write et al). That's not a cut against OO, just an
observation; often the "intuition" factor in OO beats MS right out of
the water, but, again IMO, it's just not able to do everything I want
to do yet in the ways I need to do them.

That's not intuition, that's how you learned to use Word. You forgot
the initial problems you had when you switched from WordStar to
WordPerfect, or from WP DOS to WP Win, or from WP to MS Word,...

So if I had to give one up, I'd have to give up OO at the moment.

It's a good thing you don't have to.

I tried OO for web authoring too, with all its bells and whistles,
some of which I really liked, but... though it's more intended for
writing web pages than Word is, it still didn't make it. Old Word97,
albeit a simplistic authoring tool, did better IMO, when combined with
FP and a little HTML knowledge. I was finally able to wean myself
from WD97 et al when I discovered N|VU and now use neither MS or OO
for web authoring. (nvu.org if you care).

Neither MS Word nor OpenWrite are web authoring tools. You can't expect
a program that does something "on the side" to excel (no pun intended)
in that feature.
FWIW, you found the better tool with nvu.

I guess, all in all, if you could almost but not quite use Wordpad
for all your needs, you're a great candidate to check out OO. If you
actually use a lot of Word's features though you may not be so happy
with OO.

What exact features are you talking about?

And, if you're interested in downloading OO, be aware; it's
a huge download but at least it's free and very functional.

I don't call 80 MB a huge download - but then again, I'm on broadband.
80MB is rather small compared to the 640MB for an MS Office ISO file
(in Belgium there is a special website where students and teachers can
download student licenses of selected MS Software)

Often OpenOffice also comes on the CD or DVD cover disk you get with
computer magazines. So you can buy it for about 5€ (6$).

My two cents

Mine two (pun intended)

Pop

--
Amedee Van Gasse

"Amedee Van Gasse" wrote
in message
...
PopS shared this with us in
microsoft.public.word.newusers:

From the peanut gallery:

Reply from a nutcase:
=== You're rather an enigma, aren't you? Here you're
almost insulting, and also in a couple of other places,
but in the overall it doesn't appear to be your intent
to name-call or be rude. Since you could easily think
the same of me I suppose, it's attributable to a
difference in cultures for the moment. Best to never
dwell on emotions anyway g.

OpenOffice is "good" for a Word intermediate user,
poor for advanced,
but "good to great" for less than intermediate
users. IMO at least.
I consider myself intermediate but not quite
advanced. The MVP tests
seem to agree with me (I'm -not- an MVP).

Please explain why OpenOffice is poor for advanced
users. When I follow
the discussions on Gmane (like
news:gmane.comp.openoffice.questions) I
don't get that impression.
=== I believe you, and I also had the same experience.
That's one of the reasons I decided to try OO, as a
matter of fact.
If you think I don't support OO, you are wrong. It's
a great suite of apps and does a formidable job of
succeeding for the most part. In fact, I still follow
the project, and even offer a penny's thought here and
there, though now it's less than I used to do.

I'm not asking this because I disagree (or agree)
with you. I'm just
asking this because OOo /needs/ user feedback to get
better. Only if
advanced users point out the weak spots something can
be done about it.
=== I agree, but 1., this is not the forum for it, and
2., I have already done so at the forums for a few of
my major concerns. Many others were already talked
about, so the most I could do there was offer a
"confirm" if I had a detail or two to add.
At this point I'd be a poor reference since my use
of OO and/or its components is now rather "specialized"
so my memories aren't going to be terribly accurate
without either going thru my past communications about
it, or better yet, going thru the issues manually, one
at a time. For me, that is not productive and also I
don't think this is the forum for that.
IMO, instead of asking people to be specific here,
you should be encouraging them to post their
issues/concerns at a particular address rather than
writing a long mail about it on a point by point basis.
Also realize of course, that you're going to get a fair
amount of blathering should you do that because non-OO
lovers are also going to respond.

It's definitely a ymmv for many, with cost being the
driving factor
of course.

I disagree on the cost argument. Money is an obsolete
argument if you
see that Microsoft is almost giving away software
with volume licenses
or student licenses or OEM licenses.
===
1. No, it's not obsolete, nor even moot. It's also
not "given away" by MS: The software IS paid for in
the price of the machines. Else you wouldn't have
machines with less supplied applicaitons selling for
less cost than the pre-installed machines. Anyplace
that allows you to customize your purchase adds or
subtracts from the bottom line on the receipt based on
the software and hardware you've chosen. The fact that
default items are shown as $0.00 dollars simply means
it's included in the cost of the machine.

2. Especially in the case of an upgrade, it's still
pretty expensive where OO is only the cost of the
download time.


I made a pretty good effort at using OpenOffice, and
was
impressed, and still do use it occasionally for
specific tasks it's
useful for, like saving to a PDF file, speed for
simple things, and
fast open/close times. But, that said it's not
ready for "MY" prime
time yet.

What issues hinder you from it becoming "YOUR" prime
time?
=== See my references above.

I don't speak for others. So, though I keept it
installed, and use it for a few various things now
and then, some
more often, I am still with Office in a big way.
It's not free,

It's not free(gratis) but more important it's not
Free(libre) and even
more important it's not Open - I mean not only the
software but also
the file format.
=== I'm sorry, but in my world it IS free. I paid
nothing for it. I used my internet connection, but
that minimal cost is overhead and would have been paid
had I downloaded OO or not. So the OO was free.
If you'll look at http://www.openoffice.org/ you'll
see that it is indeed not only a no-charge item, but
also that is is open sourced. It's open source to
ANYONE that wants it, and it's easy to become part of
their project if you wish to.

Here in Europe I see a lot of movement towards open
file formats becoming mandatory by law. For example
the Belgian
Department of Justice starts using open file formats
because legal
documents made today should be readable in a few
years without
acrobatics (I don't mean Adobe). I don't see a lot of
interesting
reaction from Redmont...
=== I've no idea what you're getting at there.
Nothing seems relevant to the subject at hand.

but it does what I need it to do and, being so well
versed in it, I do
have some set ways and enough experience to know
that quite a few
things I do in Word are harder or even less
intuitive to accomplish
in OpenOffice (Write et al). That's not a cut
against OO, just an
observation; often the "intuition" factor in OO
beats MS right out of
the water, but, again IMO, it's just not able to do
everything I want
to do yet in the ways I need to do them.

That's not intuition,
=== If you look again, you'll note the quotes I used:
Or is that a language problem between our cultures? I
said the same thing you seem to want to explain.
that's how you learned to use Word. You forgot
the initial problems you had when you switched from
WordStar to
WordPerfect, or from WP DOS to WP Win, or from WP to
MS Word,...
=== Ahhh, Wordstar: I recently had the "fun" of
getting some old WS files off my long ago forgotten and
archived floppies and re-rendering them to something
useful. But the floppy recovery/refreshing turned out
to be the easy part - surprisingly, I found a large
Wordstar community still existing out there! I still
think they had the right idea with their key triangles.

So if I had to give one up, I'd have to give up OO
at the moment.

It's a good thing you don't have to.
=== No, not really. OO just makes it more convenient
by having the "other" things I need easily accessible
in one wrapper as opposed to a few different apps from
different places. Which is what I had prior to OO.

I tried OO for web authoring too, with all its bells
and whistles,
some of which I really liked, but... though it's
more intended for
writing web pages than Word is, it still didn't make
it. Old Word97,
albeit a simplistic authoring tool, did better IMO,
when combined with
FP and a little HTML knowledge. I was finally able
to wean myself
from WD97 et al when I discovered N|VU and now use
neither MS or OO
for web authoring. (nvu.org if you care).

Neither MS Word nor OpenWrite are web authoring
tools. You can't expect
a program that does something "on the side" to excel
(no pun intended)
in that feature.
FWIW, you found the better tool with nvu.
=== Definitely NVU is good. But I did very well with
the combo of word97, FP and some HTML knowledge for a
long time. WD97 was in fact a decent web authoring
tool and wrote decent html code. At the time I used
it, it was a valid, useful tool. Once I learned enough
HTML I was able to graduate to NoteTAB, then PSPAD, and
finally N|VU. N|VU still has a long way

I guess, all in all, if you could almost but not
quite use Wordpad
for all your needs, you're a great candidate to
check out OO. If you
actually use a lot of Word's features though you may
not be so happy
with OO.

What exact features are you talking about?

And, if you're interested in downloading OO, be
aware; it's
a huge download but at least it's free and very
functional.

I don't call 80 MB a huge download - but then again,
I'm on broadband.
80MB is rather small compared to the 640MB for an MS
Office ISO file
(in Belgium there is a special website where students
and teachers can
download student licenses of selected MS Software)

Often OpenOffice also comes on the CD or DVD cover
disk you get with
computer magazines. So you can buy it for about 5?
(6$).

My two cents

Mine two (pun intended)

Pop

--
Amedee Van Gasse

PS - OOPS! There I go, typing with my palms again! I
WISH I could figure out what keys I press to send my
mail unexpectedly like that!
"PopS" wrote in message
...

"Amedee Van Gasse"
wrote in message
...
PopS shared this with us in
microsoft.public.word.newusers:

From the peanut gallery:

Reply from a nutcase:...

Anyway, all I had left to say was that we seemed to be
on the same line of thought for the most part. I would
and do recommend OO to some people and they've been
quite happy.

Now here's something you can carry back to the groups
if you want to, though it's not very constructive
criticism:
The folks I've turned onto OO have been varying
expertise levels. The more advanced users basically
have stuck with it, while the more newbie users all
migrated back to MS, interestingly enough.
As near as I can tell, it's because they feel the
attention MS wants them to feel, and OO leaves them
alone. MS flies in their face and keeps telling them
how happy they are with MS products.
IMO, that puts it back to an education level. As
well known as OO is in some circles, it's a total myth
to most, even including some fairly advanced users who
just aren't net savvy.

OH, and one last thing: Anyone that can say 80 Meg is
a small number, well, they should feel sorry for those
of us stuck here in the toolies with only analog phone
lines available. There isn't even any cable connection
available here and satellite? Well only if you're
rich! G

Regards,

Pop

Amadee

I have heard directly from people who have downloaded and used it.. I
haven't done so personally, and I am not likely to do so as I have no desire
presently to get used to the ways of another Office Suite..

All programs need feedback to improve.. having said that, if OpenOffice want
to directly compete with all versions of MS Office, the authors have only to
look at what MS Office can do in its various guises..

Re. 'hearsay'.. I object to the use of that word.. presently, I have only
your word (surely hearsay) that Open Office is worth a look..

And if you think that I am a Microsoft user through and through, then get
this.. I would still be using Corel WordPerfect 7 if it worked with XP.. it
was in my opinion the best version of WP to present day.. it didn't have all
of the features that MS Word had or has, but it was excellent for letter
templates, labels, envelopes et al.. I always secretly hoped that MS (mainly
because they have the funds) would bring out an Office Suite that embodied
the best parts from WP and also Lotus WordPro.. they didn't, of course..
they released Office 2003 instead.. :-)

So, Amadee, how would OpenOffice work for me?.. I use the majority of
features available in Office over the course of time.. would I have to keep
switching back and forth?.. if the answer to that is a yes, then forget it..
I have a legal and full version of MS Office 2003 Pro running on this
system, and I am not about to waste my time messing with something else that
does not cut it the way I would like it to do..



--
Mike Hall
MVP - Windows Shell/User


"Amedee Van Gasse" wrote in message
...
Mike Hall (MS-MVP) shared this with us in
microsoft.public.word.newusers:

I have heard less than favourable reports for OpenOffice,

Could you explain? OpenOffice NEEDS user feedback to improve. Also, is
this first hand experience or only hearsay?

--
Amedee Van Gasse

"Mike Hall (MS-MVP)" wrote in message
...
Amadee

I have heard directly from people who have downloaded and used it.. I
haven't done so personally, and I am not likely to do so as I have no
desire presently to get used to the ways of another Office Suite..

All programs need feedback to improve.. having said that, if OpenOffice
want to directly compete with all versions of MS Office, the authors have
only to look at what MS Office can do in its various guises..

Re. 'hearsay'.. I object to the use of that word.. presently, I have only
your word (surely hearsay) that Open Office is worth a look..

And if you think that I am a Microsoft user through and through, then get
this.. I would still be using Corel WordPerfect 7 if it worked with XP..
it was in my opinion the best version of WP to present day.. it didn't
have all of the features that MS Word had or has, but it was excellent for
letter templates, labels, envelopes et al.. I always secretly hoped that
MS (mainly because they have the funds) would bring out an Office Suite
that embodied the best parts from WP and also Lotus WordPro.. they didn't,
of course.. they released Office 2003 instead.. :-)

So, Amadee, how would OpenOffice work for me?.. I use the majority of
features available in Office over the course of time.. would I have to
keep switching back and forth?.. if the answer to that is a yes, then
forget it.. I have a legal and full version of MS Office 2003 Pro running
on this system, and I am not about to waste my time messing with something
else that does not cut it the way I would like it to do..



--
Mike Hall
MVP - Windows Shell/User


"Amedee Van Gasse" wrote in message
...
Mike Hall (MS-MVP) shared this with us in
microsoft.public.word.newusers:

I have heard less than favourable reports for OpenOffice,

Could you explain? OpenOffice NEEDS user feedback to improve. Also, is
this first hand experience or only hearsay?

--
Amedee Van Gasse

Can't you order a CD for OO. I have one for OpenOffice.org 1.1

Chuck

I have no idea, and don't really care anyway.. :-)

--
Mike Hall
MVP - Windows Shell/User


"Chuck Davis" newsgroup at anthemwebs dot com wrote in message
...

"Mike Hall (MS-MVP)" wrote in message
...
Amadee

I have heard directly from people who have downloaded and used it.. I
haven't done so personally, and I am not likely to do so as I have no
desire presently to get used to the ways of another Office Suite..

All programs need feedback to improve.. having said that, if OpenOffice
want to directly compete with all versions of MS Office, the authors have
only to look at what MS Office can do in its various guises..

Re. 'hearsay'.. I object to the use of that word.. presently, I have only
your word (surely hearsay) that Open Office is worth a look..

And if you think that I am a Microsoft user through and through, then get
this.. I would still be using Corel WordPerfect 7 if it worked with XP..
it was in my opinion the best version of WP to present day.. it didn't
have all of the features that MS Word had or has, but it was excellent
for letter templates, labels, envelopes et al.. I always secretly hoped
that MS (mainly because they have the funds) would bring out an Office
Suite that embodied the best parts from WP and also Lotus WordPro.. they
didn't, of course.. they released Office 2003 instead.. :-)

So, Amadee, how would OpenOffice work for me?.. I use the majority of
features available in Office over the course of time.. would I have to
keep switching back and forth?.. if the answer to that is a yes, then
forget it.. I have a legal and full version of MS Office 2003 Pro running
on this system, and I am not about to waste my time messing with
something else that does not cut it the way I would like it to do..



--
Mike Hall
MVP - Windows Shell/User


"Amedee Van Gasse" wrote in message
...
Mike Hall (MS-MVP) shared this with us in
microsoft.public.word.newusers:

I have heard less than favourable reports for OpenOffice,

Could you explain? OpenOffice NEEDS user feedback to improve. Also, is
this first hand experience or only hearsay?

--
Amedee Van Gasse

Can't you order a CD for OO. I have one for OpenOffice.org 1.1

Mike Hall (MS-MVP) shared this with us in
microsoft.public.word.newusers:

Amadee

I object to the misspelling of my first name.

I have heard directly from people who have downloaded and used it.. I
haven't done so personally, and I am not likely to do so as I have no
desire presently to get used to the ways of another Office Suite..

Excellent. I respect your choice, knowing that you are aware there is a
choice.

Re. 'hearsay'.. I object to the use of that word..

Cultural/language differences?

And if you think that I am a Microsoft user through and through, then
get this.. I would still be using Corel WordPerfect 7 if it worked
with XP.. it was in my opinion the best version of WP to present
day.. it didn't have all of the features that MS Word had or has, but
it was excellent for letter templates, labels, envelopes et al.. I
always secretly hoped that MS (mainly because they have the funds)
would bring out an Office Suite that embodied the best parts from WP
and also Lotus WordPro.. they didn't, of course.. they released
Office 2003 instead.. :-)

I know *exactly* what you mean because I have also used Corel WP and
Lotus Smartsuite. I could do stunning things with envelopes (in Lotus
WordPro) that are now almost impossible.

I have a legal and full version of MS Office 2003 Pro running on this
system

Good for you. Really. No sarcasm.
At work I have Office 2000, and at home my wife has Office 2003. All
full and legal. I do more work in Excel (or OpenCalc) than Word (or
OpenWriter) but I know my way.

There are a lot of people "out there" and even "in here" who don't have
a legal version of MS Office. These people have 3 options:
1) buy a proper version (most of them will never do that untill a
Microsoft landshark comes knocking at their door.)
2) keep on using an illegal version, thus increasing the market share
of Microsoft but at the same time decreasing its profit. I have no
other word than theft for describing this.
3) use "something else" that doesn't have legal issues.

Option 1 is of course the best option that I will always defend. If
option 1 isn't chosen for whatever reason, I think it's immoral do
defend option 2.

--
Amedee Van Gasse

Amedee

I use the short version of my name because most seem unable to spell
'Michael' correctly.. it happens..

I can assure you that my objection to the term 'hearsay' is not down to any
cultural or language difference.. the word 'hearsay' suggests unverified
rumour or idle uninformed gossip.. a term used to denigrate the view of
another as in 'oh well, that is just hearsay, of course'.. in the UK, one
would liken it to tittle-tattle or idle gossip..


--
Mike Hall
MVP - Windows Shell/User


"Amedee Van Gasse" wrote in message
...
Mike Hall (MS-MVP) shared this with us in
microsoft.public.word.newusers:

Amadee

I object to the misspelling of my first name.

I have heard directly from people who have downloaded and used it.. I
haven't done so personally, and I am not likely to do so as I have no
desire presently to get used to the ways of another Office Suite..

Excellent. I respect your choice, knowing that you are aware there is a
choice.

Re. 'hearsay'.. I object to the use of that word..

Cultural/language differences?

And if you think that I am a Microsoft user through and through, then
get this.. I would still be using Corel WordPerfect 7 if it worked
with XP.. it was in my opinion the best version of WP to present
day.. it didn't have all of the features that MS Word had or has, but
it was excellent for letter templates, labels, envelopes et al.. I
always secretly hoped that MS (mainly because they have the funds)
would bring out an Office Suite that embodied the best parts from WP
and also Lotus WordPro.. they didn't, of course.. they released
Office 2003 instead.. :-)

I know *exactly* what you mean because I have also used Corel WP and
Lotus Smartsuite. I could do stunning things with envelopes (in Lotus
WordPro) that are now almost impossible.

I have a legal and full version of MS Office 2003 Pro running on this
system

Good for you. Really. No sarcasm.
At work I have Office 2000, and at home my wife has Office 2003. All
full and legal. I do more work in Excel (or OpenCalc) than Word (or
OpenWriter) but I know my way.

There are a lot of people "out there" and even "in here" who don't have
a legal version of MS Office. These people have 3 options:
1) buy a proper version (most of them will never do that untill a
Microsoft landshark comes knocking at their door.)
2) keep on using an illegal version, thus increasing the market share
of Microsoft but at the same time decreasing its profit. I have no
other word than theft for describing this.
3) use "something else" that doesn't have legal issues.

Option 1 is of course the best option that I will always defend. If
option 1 isn't chosen for whatever reason, I think it's immoral do
defend option 2.

--
Amedee Van Gasse