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In a message dated 1/6/05 2:46:41 PM Eastern Standard Time,
tdoyle@MUHSD.K12.CA.US writes:
Is anyone using Open Office as an alternative to MS Office?
I've used it in my computers for awhile now since there is no site license
covering the library. So far as compatibility, it works fine for the most part,
although I have seen some interesting results from MS templates. The same
computers also have Claris4 and MS Works, and I've noticed students prefer using
them over Open Office, mostly because they are more familiar. We had a program
to give computers to students and Open Office was included with no reported
problems. Problems I've found: no clipart or templates, copying from web pages
often makes for unreadable documents unless the user knows to select "Plain
text" in the pasting operation (I believe this has something to do with tables in
web pages and how Open Office interprets them), graphics copied into
documents are often only visible as an outline except through Print Preview, and 
weak
presentation software (as of 1.0.0). I often have to coach users on which
application to use (ie, use text, not html), and explain that the picture really
is there even though you can't see it. Another caveat- Open Office must be set
to save in MS format in preferences for each application or it will save in
its proprietary Star/Open Office format that will be unusable elsewhere. Yes, it
is a viable alternative provided the user doesn't want frills, or things like
MS Access or Publisher as these are not supported. Hope this helps.


E. Williams
University City HS
Philadelphia, PA 19104

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