The Gang of Five
Howdy, everyone!

As you know, the forum has been fighting spammers and bots for years. We have seen our fair share of "Custom Kitchens UK", scammy Internet hosting companies, and bots trying to send us to a business's homepage. But after fighting the tidal wave of spam for so many years, the admins had a persistent thought: what if the spammers are right? Not in terms of posting nonsense links and trying to scam our users, but in trying to make money through our unique platform?

Well, thanks to the helpful counsel of Taunt, we have finally decided to move the forum in a new direction. Please see his important post on the matter in this topic

Open Office?

Malte279 · 5 · 1852
« previous next »
Pages: 1

Malte279

  • The Circle
  • The Gang of Five
  • *
    • Posts: 15598
    • View Profile
    • http://www.ineinemlandvorunsererzeit.de.vu
on: February 12, 2011, 09:47:19 AM
Hi,
I'm wondering if anyone here has any experience with the use of open office products as a free alternative to the Office Programs (Word, Powerpoint, Excel etc.). Can anyone tell me about notable differences, advantages, or disadvantages?

DarkHououmon

  • Member+
  • Littlefoot
  • *
    • Posts: 7069
    • View Profile
    • http://bluedramon.deviantart.com
Reply #1 on: February 12, 2011, 10:59:42 AM
I use it, but I don't know about advantages and disadvantages. I don't really compare OpenOffice with Microsoft Office that much.

ChaoticMistress

  • Petrie
  • *
    • Posts: 542
    • View Profile
Reply #2 on: February 12, 2011, 01:35:35 PM
I have Open Office, and have found no problems from it. No viruses nothing! However it depends where you download it, because there have been times where the fake programs. Tried to trick people into downloading 'bad' things, thinking that you actually download the real thing.
If you go to FF.Net you can download the software with no worries.

2007excalibur2007

  • Member+
  • Petrie
  • *
    • Posts: 710
    • View Profile
Reply #3 on: February 12, 2011, 02:52:31 PM
^
He was asking about its advantages/disadvantages, not if it has any viruses or not. :p

Petrie.

  • Hatchling
  • *
    • Posts: 0
  • It's good to be the king!
    • View Profile
Reply #4 on: February 12, 2011, 06:38:16 PM
I've tried using OpenOffice before.  If you write basic word documents and powerpoints, there is no difference.  Some excel spreadsheets don't work properly (if you don't use Excel, no worries here).  I've found documents where I used specific formatting (e.g. with tables or tabs) that OpenOffice Writer would sometimes not be able to work with the formatting.  Now do understand this was with old Word documents with the .doc format.  I don't know if compatibility has improved with the newer .docx format.  I have Office 2010 so no need to really go and find out.

Final thoughts: for the average user, OpenOffice will probably be just fine.  For anyone who does more advanced stuff with the office trio from Microsoft, you'll probably want to get the real deal to maintain functions and have no compatibility issues.

Pages: 1