[libreoffice-users] Re: Writer and Word compatibility question

On 5/27/16 6:40 PM, Tim---Kracked_P_P---webmaster wrote:
> I have been using LibreOffice since its first version.
>
> I do not use many of its options either.
>
>
> Why save the file to .odt instead of .doc or .docx?

I'm looking for ways to have people be inclusive rather than exclusive. 
IOW,  you can have people be able to share files, and not force anyone 
to use a particular word processor.  If you want LO, Mary wants Word, 
Sam wants Word Perfect, Joe wants Pages, Esther wants Nisus (Mac), 
everyone can work on the project yet each use the word processor of 
their choice.

This can be done if you're willing to work with PDF files, but people 
seem to dislike the idea.  I'm beginning to suspect people don't know 
how to annotate a PDF file rather than directly editing the file.

> I deal with many folks that use MS Office - state agencies require it.
> So you can make LibreOffice default to the Word file formats.  I would
> prefer the .doc format, since each version of MS Office since 2007 were
> using a different version of the .docx format and not comply compatible
> with each other.

That compatibility issue is what I'm talking about, and want to avoid.

3 or 4 years ago, a friend of mine had a new job, and initially had to 
use her own computer.  All she had was Open Office XXXX.  But she would 
save them either .doc or .docx format.  I would open them in Word 2007, 
and it wasn't right.  I would fix them in 2007 and send them back.  And 
as you probably expect, OOo wouldn't open them correctly.

The company has now provided a company owned computer with 2010 so that 
issue no longer exists.

She still has OOo on her personal computer.  I've tried with no success 
to get her to try LO, but with no success.  For that matter, I haven't 
been able to get her to try anything else either.

Myself, I like Softmaker Office Free, and am considering purchasing the 
paid version.

Being free is simply not the best reason to chose a piece of software.

> Actually, the last version of MS Office [not trial] I used was MSO 2003.

2007, here, which I'm using for a document at work.  A coworker things 
Word is the greatest thing since sliced bread.  We're using the tracking 
and changes features of Word, and I'm beginning to remember why I hated 
the feature.  I tried to get him to do it using PDF, but that was a no 
go.  My suspicion is the only way he knows to deal with PDFs is with a 
browser.

> I started using OpenOffice.org since before it was able to read/write
> the .doc format.  Then I switched to LO after I waited over a year for a
> new version of OOo.  I have not gone back.  When I had to use MSO 2007
> on a computer center system, I did not like all of the changes to the
> interface or all the newer options.  I do remember in the 1990 era of MS
> Office where I read an advertisement touting that MS added over 500 new
> functions and options added to the new version over the previous one.
> Back then is seemed to me that MS wanted Word to be both a word
> processor and a spreadsheet package, along with other non word
> processing options.  Back in the early/mid 2000's software companies
> started to require a gig of disk space for default installation on the
> "new affordable" hard drive sizes more than 20 gig of storage. All of
> the added options/functions of MS Office and Adobe packages started to
> need more than 40% of the free space after a fresh MS Windows XP install.
>
> Still MS Office keeps adding more and more functions/options to each
> package, like World or Excel, where you need to be a "advanced
> specialist" to know how to use even half of all of the functions/options
> in Word or Excel alone, let alone of the whole Office suite.

Way too many options for most people.  I think it's an effort to be 
everything to everybody.  As a result, lots of features are just 
mediocre.  My philosophy is do a few things well, let someone else do 
the other things.

My friend I mentioned above had to do some wall displays/posters and 
tried to do them in OOo.  I kept telling her she needed a page layout 
program.  "Oh, no, OOo will do it."  Serif had a sale on PagePlus X6 
just before they released X7.  $25/copy.  I bought us each a copy, and 
once she started using it, she now won't use anything else.  It is 
terribly easy to use.

Almost every word processor offers compatibility, but ability to follow 
through varies.  But if you use PDF, there shouldn't be any problem.

> LibreOffice does add new options/functions but not as many as MSO does
> for each version/line.

And those plethora of features can be daunting, some people are totally 
baffled by all of them in any program.  I met a senior citizen who 
wanted to write a book and had a really nice Windows laptop.  Every one 
told her she needed Word, yet she hardly knew how to the mouse.  :-(  I 
turned her on to WordPad, and she was off and running.  I told her when 
she discovered there were things she wanted to do that WordPad couldn't 
do, get with me and we'd get her a next level up word processor.

> On 05/27/2016 03:53 PM, Ken Springer wrote:
> > I've not use LO for a long time.  Quite frankly, it's way too
> > sophisticated for my uses.  Read that as too many features I have no
> > use for.
> >
> > The same applies for Word.
> >
> > Regarding the .odt file format...
> >
> > If you are working in Word, and have a lot of tracking changes going
> > on, and you save the file in Word as an .odt file, are those tracking
> > changes and such carried over when you open the file in LO?


--
Ken
Mac OS X 10.8.5
Firefox 44.0
Thunderbird 38.0.1
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
     and it's gone!"


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