Let Go On Openoffice Let go on OpenOffice

[fripay 0]

Lately, I've been working with larger sets of data in Calc and have found it to be soooo slow. It gets to be unresponsive and I just can't sit around for minutes at a time to do simple operations - it's very unproductive.
Also, I have found that adding images to Writer is a pain because I usually need to save it as .doc for school or work (my professor doesn't have open office but needs to collaborate with me). I've found that with images, I have to go crazy to get it to display consistently. I mean I can get it right if I anchor it to the page, but I open it in Word Viewer and it is on the wrong page. So I just do anchor to paragraph and it works sometimes, other times things jump around and I have to keep trying to fix it. With more pictures, things become slow, so that if I have to mess around with moving images, it can take forever. I'm on a dual core PC with 3 GB RAM (it's from last year), this shouldn't be slow.

Not only that, but whenever I go through the styles dialogs to set fonts or change other settings, there are certain panels that hang the program for several seconds (up to like 30 seconds). It's incredibly annoying when you are in a hurry or you accidentally opened it.

It gets to be such a pain, I'm about to buy Office through school ($65 isn't too bad).

I've about had it with all of these problems. I love FOSS, but I just can't use this. Anyone else had similar experiences? Is it a good idea to just give in and buy M$?

Edited August 14, 2009 by fripay (see edit history)

[Mordent 0]

My only real qualms with OpenOffice have to be Calc's annoying lack of a screen update when I try to insert a row (minimising and maximising the window seems to solve this) - which is something I certainly do regularly - and Writer's sometimes strange way of getting you to alter styles. Neither of these are by any means major, but I'd still have to confess that Microsoft Office just feels...nicer. When it comes to user-friendliness Microsoft products tend to be second-best, but I do confess to finding next to nothing wrong with MS Office in comparison to a fair few little niggles with OpenOffice. Still, what do you expect with free software compared to something you have to pay for, eh?

[rpgsearcherz 5]

Those are weird issues you guys have. I find OpenOffice to be better than any other editing program out there, whether it be for powerpoints, word, or spreadsheets.I've never had an issue with speed and I often (2-3x a month) have to type up 100-150 word documents.As for excel... I use it for in-depth calculations for various games (calculating things like stats/item costs/etc.) on a normal basis.As for PowerPoint, I often need to use it for school.And I've yet to have an issue, .It may just be your PC's. Keep in mind OpenOffice uses Java, therefore it is a ram hog.

[k_nitin_r 8]

Hi!I've noticed that Microsoft Office has been better than the open-source offerings till Office 2007. Ever since Office 2003 was phased out, I've been having problems with Word 2007 updating the screen. I finally got off the Microsoft boat and am using OpenOffice. I might switch to AbiWord for want of something more responsive and quicker.If you are sharing files with somebody who uses Microsoft Office, they wouldn't be able to view your documents correctly although OpenOffice does save in "MS Office format". The MS Office compatibility is probably not a high priority issue for the OpenOffice developers because OpenOffice is free and it is available on all major platforms, including Microsoft Windows. It isn't really that hard to download and install OpenOffice to view files that are in OpenOffice format - if somebody does tell you it is, they are just plain lazy.The format wars aren't going to make life any easier than it already is. With Microsoft trying to promote open document standards and incorporating support for OpenOffice formats, they are now working toward building a better product rather than building a stronger monopoly.Regards

[Alex Cicala 0]

If you haven't bought Microsoft Office and you want to have an alternative Office Software solution. Then OpenOffice is the best you can get. I now have made the switch from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice for many reasons. Setup of the program is ten times faster; no more looking for that serial key. The program does the same as Microsoft Office does, even if it does it differently it won't be hard to learn. And I also use it cause it's free and looks nice and cleaner in appearance. I definitely hat the look of Microsoft Office 2007, so OpenOffice is my choice.

[mahesh2k 0]

Some good points for openoffice is that it is compatible with MS office,Star office and some other office suites. Even google and zoho docs allows to save files that can be opened in openoffice.

In case, if most of you guys not noticed Ulteo. Then let me explain what it is. ulteo is online open office launcher. with this you can create office docs online and then save to any of your online file hosting service or within ulteo servers. you can choose any which you think good. Only requirement is that it needs Sun's JVM to be installed on your machine. the most recent the better. and as most of us do have the JVM installed then there is no issue with opening ulteo on web browser. They offer 1GB of free space. and the browser requirement is IE6/7 or Firefox 1.5 onwards. most recent browser the better. no idea about their support for chrome and opera, if anyone knows please let me know.


Recently i heard that US govt restricted Microsoft from distributing microsoft word cause they violated some patent. not sure about which comapnies XML patent was that, if you happen to know about that do post the news link.

[SpiderVV 0]

Yeah, OpenOffice doesn't conflict with MS Office but there's a thing I hate in it. Somehow it doesn't have dictionaries and if I write (for example) "hshsdjhds" it adds it to the known words list so I'd stick with MS.

[rpgsearcherz 5]

Yeah, OpenOffice doesn't conflict with MS Office but there's a thing I hate in it. Somehow it doesn't have dictionaries and if I write (for example) "hshsdjhds" it adds it to the known words list so I'd stick with MS.

It does have spelling dictionaries.

As for it adding things to "known words" lists, you can disable that.