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
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