There are still many Word 2003 users as 2007 did not offer many
spectacular advances (especially for the price so many businesses,
educational and nonprofit orgs, gov't, etc. did not "upgrade" to the
ribbons.
I found the ribbons at work not to be a problem as others did but
there are plenty of 2003 Word users who still will not be upgrade into
2010, 2013, etc. because many have found it's diminishing returns. It
costs a lot of time (training, classes, tutorials, trial and error)
and money (training, money lost while being trained) to "re-learn"
Word with each upgrade and the returns have been found by many to be
minimal in comparison to the costs.
Here's my bold proposal, s'il vous plaît?
How about if we (end users) on this list all contribute our shortcuts
we've learned transitioning from Word (2003, 2007) to Libre Office?
We could create on our own a chart with column headings ...
Ex.
Function Libre Writer Word 2003 Word 2007
Set default font ????? xxxxx xxxxx
.... much like WordPerfect did many years ago where you can look at
the chart for a function (e.g. changing the default font for all
documents created) and next to that have the method used in Libre
Writer and next to that the method the method used in Word 2003 and
next that Word 2007.
Along the way we can all contribute to each of those columns what we
have learned.
Many Word and WordPerfect users I speak with won't use Libre Writer
because of the learning curve. They already spent a lot of time (and
often aggravation) leaning Word 2003, 2007 and/or the latest WP
development their attitude is - "Oh, no! Not another one!"
But, if they could get up to speed quickly with a "cheat sheet" with
at least the most often used features/functions of a word processor
like Libre Writer then they would be more apt to use it and more
likely not feel they have to buy another Word version.
There was a time when users were afraid of Open Source software. Early
versions may have been too complicated, too many bugs or they would
hear of the apocryphal (often unfounded) tales of the horrors of Open
Source software.
That's no longer true. Users learned over time the world would not end
if they didn't use Internet Explorer to browse the web - that Firefox
and Opera actually worked just fine and attracted less badware.
They they tried Thunderbird, pdf995 and Audacity and lo and behold
they not only worked well and easier their friends and family still
loved them...as much as they ever did or could.
So, as users became more educated about Open Source software they
realized they could use it, it wouldn't make their heads explode and
they enjoyed pocketing all their savings.
They also learned there were some great forums on the net where you
could reach out to other users and they would share their workable
solutions.
So, what do you say?!
Shall we start on that chart and slowly but surely fill it in along
the way and educate others about how Libre Writer can be their
wordoprocessor of choice?
Or we could just eat dark chocolate.
It's all good.
Charles.
Subject: Re: [libreoffice-users] Word 2003 to Libre Writer - Comparison
Chart
From: webmaster-Kracked_P_P <webmaster@krackedpress.com>
Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2012 09:33:25 -0500
To: users@global.libreoffice.org
WE do need to have some document comparing MSO [2003, 2007, 2010, and
2013] with LibreOffice as part of a Marketing Tool. We need to be
able to show our users that what they are using MSO for, they can use
LO to do the same.
There are many advantages in using LO instead of MSO, besides the
price of the software, and we need to have some "official"
list/document from LO/TDF that describes these advantages.
YES - I would like to see a chart comparing features with MSO. The
last one I used was MSO2003, but we need to have LO compared to MSO
2010/13 as well. 2010 is the current version and we need to compare
LO with MS's current package. It would be nice to get a MSO2013 beta
and see how LO compares with that package.
I know that there are differences in the UI, but the functions are the
important part. Import/Export filters. MSO does not have a Draw
style package, as far as I remember. Things like that.