Mike Leone on 24 Nov 2009 17:57:40 -0800


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Re: [PLUG] Netbooks for High school


Edmond Rodriguez had this to say:

> I am almost an exclusive OpenOffice user, but if I submit something I
> created in OO for Word that needs to be virtually identical in every
way, when viewed in MS, such that the person receiving it and opening it
with MS gets exactly what I saw in OO,


MS offers free viewers for Word, Excel and Powerpoint, all of which run 
under WINE. So no need to run a trial of MS Office in read only mode.

I tried, every year for so, for 3-4 years running, to use OO instead of 
Word at my old firm, at least for some users. But it invariably got the 
formatting "wrong" (i.e., different, requiring user intervention). On a 
regular memo, that wouldn't be a problem. On a presentation to the Board 
of Directors, not a chance. Bullet points would not be aligned, 
paragraph indentations would not always be as expected, etc.

Using OO would have to be completely transparent, a non-intrusive, 
drop-in replacement for Word. And it wasn't, not for me. (may still not 
be, I don't know; I don't do end user support any more). It's difficult 
to tell a VP or the CEO that the presentation they spent so much time 
developing in OO, doesn't appear as intended, because the other BOD 
members use Word and not OO ... Makes for a very unprofessional 
impression, as if they hadn't proof-read it.

Perhaps OO is better now ..


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