Openoffice Software

[Kurly]

Do any of you folks use this software, it is suppose be able to read Microsoft Office Data Files. There web site is OpenOffice.org

Thanks

Kurly

[Uncle]

Do any of you folks use this software, it is suppose be able to read Microsoft Office Data Files. There web site is OpenOffice.org

Thanks

Kurly

I have used it in all my offices for several years. I regard it as superior to Microsoft Office. Files can be read or saved in Office format.

[David1980]

If I need to interact with others who use MS office on a daily basis then it's a no brainer to me that I need MS office. The reason is that documents can end up formatted slightly different in OO.o versus MS office. If I only occasionally need to exchange documents then it becomes no big deal. It's "good enough" and the formatting differences when they do occur really aren't enough to be an issue.

One thing that OO.o is weak on is all the macros that you have in MS excel. Complex excel spreadsheets often just don't work right in OO.o.

[erchess]

Question for Dave

Are you saying that if a complex spreadsheet prepared in Excel is loaded into OO it might not look right on the screen, that it might not print correctly, or only that I might not be able to manipulate it in OO? The reason I ask is that I often receive spreadsheets but being NOT AN ACCOUNTANT I would never ever ever change one. I don't even do that many Entity Returns because if there are reconciliations between tax and book values to be done my practice is to make my client or his bookeeper do them and my engagement letter specifically disclaims any responsibility. Most clients run the other way if they have Entities.

[David1980]

The excel file may have calculated fields and graphs in it that work fine in MS excel but do not work in openoffice. The problem would occur if the document included MS' scripting language or functions that are not supported by openoffice.

However, if you only need to be able to view the excel, Microsoft has a free MS excel viewer. You just can't make any changes with it.

[Roberts]

I have Microsoft Office 2000 loaded on all my computers because I have the disks and at that point MSFT didn't limit how many computers you could load it on. I also have Openoffice because with Vista, my Office programs don't always open properly if the computer hasn't been rebooted lately. I've never found a real problem with Open Office and the newer version is pretty darn close to the MSFT Office 2000 version I have. There are cosmetic differences and there may be calculation problems as David mentions but I've never seen them. I've tested my more extensive spreadsheets for financial planning and analysis and everything rolled over perfectly.

I guess what I'm saying is that if I didn't have Office 2000, I would trust Open Office to do the job and save myself the money. I would not trust Google's programs though. I've tried loading some programs into that and they always get hung and the program crashes. Plus I don't trust Google's security on those programs.

[DaveO]

I have MS Office and use it for all my self created work. I also have OO and use it to import files created by older and more obscure programs. MS Office has import filters but you have to install them fromthe disk which is a hassle.