OpenOffice.org preferred over Word

**OwlHoot** · 2 January 2010, 14:28

If it's a college I'm surprised they don't prefer LaTeX.

Far better than Word once you get the hang of it, although I'd concede there's a heck of a learning curve (which alas I haven't fully scaled) to use it to its full extent. Also, some claim the syntax is a bit long in the tooth, as it's basically a writearound of Donald Knuth's 1970s TeX package.

edit: Hang on, when are we supposed to change our avatars back? It hasn't been 12 days since Christmas yet, but there's hardly a Christmassy avatar left.

**Sysman** · 2 January 2010, 15:00

Originally posted by OwlHoot View Post

If it's a college I'm surprised they don't prefer LaTeX.

It probably depends on the course. Unless it's a course that uses mathematical symbols, the lecturers themselves have probably never heard of LaTeX.

Well done RC's Missus!

**Paddy** · 2 January 2010, 15:29

Originally posted by RichardCranium View Post

The Missus is working on one of her college essays. She has been doing it in OpenOffice.org quite happily.

Having realised they are supposed to be handed in in Word format, she copy 'n' pasted the text into Word and has spent an hour working on it in Word. The document is now shagged and the Missus a seriously unhappy bunny. The footnotes and formatting has been screwed and muggins here will have to fix it.

(She has been told that in future to do a Save As and choose Word 95 format to get from OO.o to .DOC so that is OK.)

What amused me is that she is not getting along with Word at all. She does not like the interface, the menus, the way formatting works, that things suddenly change font size or bold for no apparent reason, etc. Basically, she has forgotten the 743 little niggles we all memorise over time to get Word to work properly.

Well done, OpenOffice.org - my Missus is now a 200% convert: 100% for switching to OO.o and another 100% for not going back!

Why not set the options on OO to default save as a Word Doc?

**Tarquin Farquhar** · 2 January 2010, 15:33

I had the same problem because pimps know only Word, insofar as they know anything. Unknown to me, parts of my CV were unreadable in certain versions of Word, even after I had saved it in Word format. Open Office can't guarantee to save properly in Word format, since MS won't let anyone know what that is: after all it's the MS dream, to establish a standard that is closed and secret. Pimps had said nothing of course, just binned my CV.

Pity, I like some things about OOO, e.g. the way you can format a cell in a table to have the text a given distance from all the borders. In Word you have to format Left indent, Right indent, Space Before first para, space before last para ..... and if you add a new first or last para, it keeps that spacing in what is now not the first or last para. What do you think of it so far? Rubbish!

**Paddy** · 2 January 2010, 15:53

[QUOTE=Tarquin Farquhar;1036390] Unknown to me, parts of my CV were unreadable in certain versions of Word, even after I had saved it in Word format. Open Office can't guarantee to save properly in Word format, QUOTE]

I think it works out different when you save as a Word Doc than creating the original document with Word as the default.

I have tried both ways and if the document starts out as an OO then it is saved as; some formatting is lost. I had no problems when it was a Word DOC in OO start to finish.

**threaded** · 2 January 2010, 15:59

The Open University want Word 97. I have a Windows virtual machine with Word, just for the finishing off stage.

**RichardCranium** · 2 January 2010, 17:28

Originally posted by zeitghost

We have enough trouble getting the omega symbol to come out correctly on handouts

Is it resisting your attempts? Are you using current versions?

**Solent** · 2 January 2010, 20:29

I have had several people submit information to me from OpenOffice and I found the easiest way was to download the odt filter / converter for Word. Therefore they can continue to edit in OpenOffice and I can save etc as Word Format

**wobbegong** · 2 January 2010, 21:06

Originally posted by Paddy View Post

Why not set the options on OO to default save as a Word Doc?

. . . and the default open in OpenOffice too. In addition v3 now opens/saves ".docx" format.

Great software, they do however, need to put some hours in on the database component if it's ever to be a credible rival to Access.

OpenOffice.org preferred over Word