So I'm going to get my new laptop tomorrow and I can't find my MS Office CD anywhere, and I was wondering if I'd have to pay some ridiculous fee to get a MS Office CD & key, when lo and behold, I stumbled across the miracle that is OpenOffice.org.

Does anyone use OpenOffice.org (OOo) here? As far as I have read, it's everything MS Office is, and more, minus the price tag.

So, basically, if I get OOo, I can completely forget about MS Office? (My OS will be Vista, by the way)

I read somewhere that I shouldn't try to print labels with it.

I am looking for reassurances that OOo is what it says on the tin :-)

Also, why don't more people know about this and promote it? All this time that I've been looking for a laptop, every laptop company has said "add MS Office for x pounds". Why don't they say install OpenOffice.org? Is there some kind of commission in it for them, maybe?

I didn't even come across OpenOffice.org before I came across Opal Office (which, by the way, is exactly like OpenOffice.org but with a small price tag: one should not be fooled by it and pay for it, or so I read). Someone called it a scam, and someone else said it wasn't.


I'm putting this in debate because, I don't know, maybe some of you have really strong feelings about OpenOffice.org, and Microsoft, and indeed, Opal Office.


Oh dear, didn't mean for it to be this long!

Edit:
OpenOffice.org / OOoforum
Opal Office

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They have OpenOffice at my uni on the Linux computers.
I found it relatively easy to use, except CTRL+V pasting doesn't work, which is slightly annoying.
You have to save screenshots to the computer and insert them as pictures.
I haven't used it excessively, only a couple of times in fact, but it seems OK to use.
I wasn't aware that it was available on Windows as well.

Edit: I haven't heard of the other (cheaper) version.

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I found openoffice on some college computers but i haven't dared use it yet :s I heard that its Spreadsheet program doesn't offer as many features as Excel does but haven't played around with it myself

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I'll experiment a bit more with OpenOffice at uni if you like.

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You mean like, you have to save a picture (e.g. off the web) before you can put it into your doc? Oh, that is a bit annoying...ah well, maybe they'll add it to the latest version!

You mean on Vista? It's not default. I'm thinking of downloading it off the OOo site.

That's OK, you're not missing much! Although going by the comments on their website, you'd think they were the next big thing... far too much eagerness led me to doubt their product Opal Office is ~$11 though, OpenOffice.org is free.

Thanks.

And Sparrow, I heard that its version of Excel (Calc) is better... just going by OOoforum chat though.

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I've only tried with a direct screenshot not a web picture. I haven't used OpenOffice in a long while, so maybe the latest version does find an alternative way of accomplishing this.

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Version 3 of OpenOffice has only just (past few days) been released.

Each version gets better - well durrr!

Version 3, also now runs natively on Mac's for the 1st time.

Never used it in anger, but then again I've never used Word/Excel in anger either, so I'm sure it will do what it needs to for 95% of cases.

Another alternative is Googles Documents & Spreadsheets, which I do use, as it means it's backed up, accessible anywhere, and is very simple to use.

:-)

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I use OpenOffice on Vista cause stupid Microsoft broke compatibility between Vista and Office 2000 (typical promise breaking by Microsoft)

It works well enough for me, I dont have great needs but it meets every one I have, even managed to get my older sister using it too.

MOD: moving thread to General Discussion.

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Thanks for all the replies.

I'm going to get OpenOffice.org now. Such a well-kept little secret.

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I use OpenOffice as an easy way of making .pdf documents.

I haven't used it that much as a stand alone word processor, but if all you're using it for is typing and printing then it should be fine. You can view all files made in MS Office in Open Office, and you can also save documents as .doc files that can be read by MS Office, if you need to transfer them etc.

BTW: I've just tried using ctrl+v and it worked for me with both pictures and text.

So, I've had ooo for about a week now.

What bothers me a little bit is that I have fun formatting my documents, then when I save it, it has to be .doc if it's for uni and that takes out all the formatting, so I have to reformat. ooo writer doesn't have a thesaurus either.

And ooo spreadsheet doesn't have a comment box option: I miss that.

Apart from all that though, it works just fine.

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That wouldn't bother most people.

Hehehe.. sorry, I just had to. :P

Glad it worked out for you :) Hubby uses OOo as well, and says it pretty much rocks.

[spam]
Lol. My fave is: Woman, without her man, is nothing. vs. Woman! Without her, man is nothing.
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What do you use on a Mac, by the way? Does Apple make it's own word processing and spreadsheet programmes?

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Loving your spam XD

I just use TextEdit that comes on the mac, lol. Mostly because I don't need to use all those things. Originally I bought the Mac for all my graphics work, 'cause I used to do designing. That, and it was hassle free while doing my final year at uni (Whoo! No viruses or stupida error messages, urgh!). I did use Excel for mac a few times (made by Microsoft). But now I just use TextEdit which comes with the mac, to do documents. If I needed spreadsheets and stuffs, then I would go back to that, or use OOo eventually.

Now going into teaching, I only ever use the 'puter to browse, shop, play games *cough*visit.isketch.forum*cough*, create the odd document, and a bit of design work when I'm in the mood (which is never), and stuff like that.

I'm pretty demanding when it comes to my text processor and spreadsheet programmes, and I found OpenOffice not distinct enough from Word and Excel to keep it. I found some additional mini-frustrations on top of that, but maybe they've been fixed now -- it was a year or two ago since I tried it.

If I were to get a computer without MS Office installed, I'd certainly not buy it and choose for OpenOffice instead. Word can frustrate me to no end too, because it has this attitude of "I KNOW WHAT YOU WANT! YOU WANT THE FORMATTING TO CHANGE TO bold and italic and Times New Roman NOW JUST BECAUSE YOU PRESSED ENTER AND I THINK THAT IS WHAT YOU WANT ISN'T THAT RIGHT HAHAHAHA"

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I'm finding OpenOffice.org difficult to deal with as I start using it more and more for essays and spreadsheets.

I used a lot of features in MS Word and Excel and I find it frustrating to have to look around for the same features on ooo, and either I have to click more buttons to get something done, or the feature just isn't there.

I am glad, however, that I opted out of buying a Mac. If I can't even deal with ooo, I don't think I would've settled for a Mac's (probably more limited) features!

PCs ftw I guess. Shame, because Macs have the looks but not the brains as far as I'm concerned.

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