I decided to check out OpenOffice finally, since I have a computer that can run it. Initially this looks pretty promising. The most confusing thing is that it has a different concept of sections than Word, and when importing a document that used a style with frames, it isn't too bright about how to handle those frames. However, once I got past that I found it's pretty nifty.
Writer will be great for working on any project that requires blocks of code, since it can put the code together with a shaded background and border, but can still split across pages--which as far as I know, Word can't do. It's also got a nifty feature where it can export directly to PDF format and embeds fonts automatically; in Word I use a program called PDFCreator for that, which acts as a printer driver.
The only major down side I've seen so far is that it has no equivalent to the STYLEREF field code used by Word. Instead, if you want to use something like that to, say, put the chapter's name in the header, you need to set a variable manually. This isn't so hard to figure out, but it does add a layer of extra work. Headers and footers seem to be a smidge more flexible in Writer though.
I have yet to check out the rest of this suite, but so far it seems pretty promising.
ID:12801
 May 24 2006, 11:21 am
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Word has some really nice automation features I'll miss when working with books, but so far OpenOffice seems to have a lot of the same functionality available, just usually not as intuitively. I don't relish setting up an index or TOC with Writer, for example, though it's probably doable and in the end will probably allow me more flexibility. I hope.
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I've known about OpenOffice for a while, but havn't decided to try it yet. Keep posting your thoughts, and I may go for it.
Word is the original program to use DOC files, right? I'm not much of a fan for things that deviate from plain and laid out guidelines (such as how each web browser uses thier own CSS attributes and object variables), which is why I havn't tried OO yet. | |
I think part of the point is that DOC is not plain and laid out. Supposedly, Microsoft kept changing the format so that other things could not read it. Open Office supposedly tries to stick with open formats which anything should be able to read or at least get a plugin to read.
I use Open Office because it's free, but I still find it a pain to create envelopes with. Sadly, that's one of the main things my house uses it for. | |
Yota, doc is a Microsoft "Closed Standard". It is not plain or laided out. They actually try to make it hard for other companys to use. OpenOffice.org uses a standard, not made by them, but rather a 3rd party who does things like make standards and clearly publishes them, so that anyone can create a program to open and edit their documents.
The people working on OO.org have worked hard to make sure that there is nearly 100% .doc support, both importing and exporting. And that whole webbrowser thing is not true, only Microsoft's IE uses it's own CSS attributes. Most other browsers adhear to standards that where set be a 3rd party, rather than an internal one. | |
Lummox JR wrote:
I don't relish setting up an index or TOC with Writer, for example, though it's probably doable and in the end will probably allow me more flexibility. I hope. You could look at something totally crazy, like Lyx. Rather than What You See Is What You Get, it's What You See Is What You Mean. Rather than take care of indentation, spacing, and creation of tables of contents or bibliographies yourself, you create things in the appropriate containers(Section title is in "section", citations are in "citation") and let Lyx handle it for you. It has some limitations, but it's something cool to try. You can even make reference to another sentence somewhere in your document, showing the page number. If the text ever gets moved, the page number will be updated automatically. | |
I've used OpenOffice for a couple years now (particularly for the Calc (spreadsheet) program, which is top notch). I have few complaints.
"What You See Is What You Mean"? Sounds kinda like the Do As We Say festival... =) | |
"What You See Is What You Mean"? Sounds kinda like the Do As We Say festival... =) Hey, at least it's better than the "Do What You Feel" festival. Less random deaths. :) | |
LyX looks interesting. It's TeX-based, I see. I tried LaTeX at one point but it was too hard to work with. It's hard to tell if LyX would be configurable enough to work.
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I use LyX for maths assignments. It has excellent support for maths, though it takes some time to learn how to use the keyboard for all the mathematical stuff. (Though I believe there's a newer version out which apparently has a better interface - I haven't tried it yet.)
It's highly configurable, judging by the large variations in the document classes that come with it, but I've never actually figured out how to create my own document class. I'm pretty sure you have to mess with LaTeX files though. | |
I was actually just reading some info on Microsoft Office and OpenOffice representatives going at it, more or less. I also read a statistic that a company with 50,000 computers would cost (With cost of system upgrades and training) over 3 times more for Microsoft 2k7 than OO.org. I still can't figure out how it is that much, because as they said, if you need to train for one, you probably need to train for the other, but how much should that cost? Does it really cost 1/3 of the upgrade cost? That is the only cost from OO.org (They excluded install time and wages of tech support to install).
My guess is that, for the average small office and home, the cost is somewhere around 300 times more for Office 2k7, assuming you burnt OO.org onto a CD.