[ubuntu-za] Transition crisis for users of Microsoft Word

William Walter Kinghorn williamk at dut.ac.za
Tue Nov 17 14:22:29 GMT 2009


Hi David,

you might want to look at go-oo,  http://www.go-oo.org/

on the home page

"Better interoperability

Go-oo has built in OpenXML import filters and it will import your Microsoft Works files. Compared with up-stream OO.o, it has better Microsoft binary file support (with eg. fields support), and it will import WordPerfect graphics beautifully. If you are reliant on Excel VBA macros - then Go-oo offers the best macro fidelity too. If you expect your spreadsheets to calculate compatibly, or you get embedded Visio diagrams in your documents, you'll want Go-oo. "

William
________________________________________
From: ubuntu-za-bounces at lists.ubuntu.com [ubuntu-za-bounces at lists.ubuntu.com] On Behalf Of David Robert Lewis (ethnopunk) [ethnopunk at telkomsa.net]
Sent: 17 November 2009 15:55
To: Ubuntu South African Local Community
Subject: Re: [ubuntu-za] Transition crisis for users of Microsoft Word

Rudi Ahlers wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 17, 2009 at 2:46 PM, David Robert Lewis (ethnopunk)
> <ethnopunk at telkomsa.net> wrote:
>
>> I recently installed Hardy on an old machine (700mhz celeron) for a
>> friend's daughter, and a week after installation, her own XP machine
>> fails right during the middle of an editing deadline for a report for
>> Provincial Parliament.
>>
>> Her crisis was whether to continue editing the document on OpenOffice or
>> to use an Internet Cafe with exactly the same Office 2003 installed.
>>
>> As one can imagine, the Hardy Office is relatively old and only supports
>> MS Word 2000/97 so she was forced to use the cafe.
>>
>> Should I upgrade her to the latest OpenOffice to solve problem in the
>> future? Will this solve the problem of some images not displaying and
>> also formatting problems?
>>
>> Was also wondering if there was any attempt within Ubuntu Community to
>> come-up with a NeoOffice version of OpenOffice, that might have a
>> better, more user-friendly interface built on the same chassis?
>>
>> Regards
>>
>> DRL
>>
>> --
>> ubuntu-za mailing list
>> ubuntu-za at lists.ubuntu.com
>> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-za
>>
>>
>
> The new OpenOffice can open any MS Office 2003, and even MS Office
> 2007 documents. So upgrade her to the latest Open Office  :)
>
>
>

Definitely, but from my own experience, even new OpenOffice may be too
Spartan for her tastes. I've found myself having to move documents back
over to MS Word on occasion, either because formatting features were
absent, or the document layout  wasn't accurate enough. It would be
interesting to take a look at the NeoOffice Suite, since it runs on Unix
and is aimed at high-brow Apple users. Mayber Ubuntu could come up with
its own version, or apply user-friendly human design principles to
OpenOffice?

Just my thoughts,

DRL

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