[James_F]

Well, my hard drive crashed last week and on boot up, couldn't load NTLDR. Not a good thing. So I rebuilt the whole thing and got ready to load my software back up. I got to Office XP and stopped. I've never liked Office XP and since it came with my computer, which was the only version of Office that I have. Well I had used OpenOffice.org off and on to convert some files from older versions of PowerPoint 95 (which XP didn't seem to like), and was very happy with it. So for the past week I've been using OpenOffice 1.0.1 as my primary word processing/spreadsheet/presentation program.

It has no trouble reading Office XP, 2000, 97, 95 and older versions of documents, loads quickly and best of all doesn't cost a dime. I'm not a huge fan of Open Source software, but this is great. There is a little difference between the GUI and Office XP, but anyone who has ever used Office will quickly pick it up. The menus are about the same and the right click function does everything Office does. I have not had any issues with conversion of files from Office XP yet either.

I would encourage anyone out there to try this software (it's based on StarOffice 6.0 which costs $70, but has tech support) and seems to be bug free. Microsoft Office is great for business uses (I have it at work), but is way to much overkill for home. Give this software a try and you'll be happy you did.

http://www.openoffice.org/

 

[James_F]

Heck even MSNBC likes it!

http://stacks.msnbc.com/news/788759.asp?cp1=1

 

[Richard King]

Well, this looks like something I would like to play with, but after downloading it twice with no luck in getting the install program to start, I guess I am out of luck. I will give it one more shot before I give up. Glad I have a high speed connection.

 

[Richard King]

Strike three. They're out.

 

[James_F]

Too bad, its a great program. Thats the problem with free software, you get what you pay for. Give it a try again some other day, I'm sure you'd like it.

 

[Richard King]

I gave them another strike and it worked. Now to play with it. I have been using Lotus in the past (WordPro, 123, etc.) and they don't seem to have an import for Wordpro files. I'll give it a shot creating files on it and see what happens. I just spent a few minutes playing with the draw program. That looks interesting, although I don't have much of an opportunity to work with that kind of program. On to the presentation program.

 

[gcutler]

Lotus Smartsuite has lost so much market share over the years, that there may not be enough demand for importing anything but Office

 

[James_F]

Exactly.... I don't think it imports WordPerfect files either, but with OpenSource, its only a matter of time for someone to write the module to fix that. Remember, its free!

 

[Richard King]

Lotus Smartsuite has lost so much market share over the years, that there may not be enough demand for importing anything but Office

And it is a real shame. I have been using Lotus products for many years, before that I used Frameworks by Ashton Tate (DOS days). Lotus works well for me and having used it so long I am very used to it AND it's not made by Microsoft. I had a feeling though that after IBM bought them that they would fade away and that they have.

 

[gcutler]

Originally posted by Rking401
I had a feeling though that after IBM bought them that they would fade away and that they have.

IBM bought Lotus just for the Lotus Notes/Domino and other groupware technology, it was a forgone conclusion that Smartsuite would wither on the vine. Unlike Novell with selling Wordperfect Suite to Corel, IBM just will never bother to sell off the smartsuite product. Working at a True-Blue shop (IBM servers, IBM Notebooks, AS/400s, Lotus Notes, etc) it was a big deal when we phased out Smartsuite for Office. Until a year ago I worked at consulting companies that had Business Partner access to all IBM/Lotus/Tivoli SW via web site, and finding the Smartsuite SW was not as easy as it should have been. And they hadn't upgraded the SW since Y2K (I believe) But 10% market share and shrinking is not acceptable for IBM...

 

[Richard King]

I still use Smartsuite version 97 and haven't done the latest upgrade and probably never will. What's the feeling on the WordPerfect suite compared to SmartSuite or MS Office?

 

[gcutler]

I think the marketshare on Wordperfect Suite is even smaller than Lotus Smartsuite, Novell like IBM had let the product run into the ground before selling it to Corel. Corel looks like it is keeping the product alive so switching over to Wordperfect suite may be good if you want to get updates and patches. I don't hear of people running to WP Suite. Probably the only people using it are those who hate Office or got a free copy when they bought a computer.

Wordperfect Office Std
http://www3.corel.com/cgi-bin/gx.cg...t/Highlight&id=CC1MSNDMYJC&highlight=inthebox

Wordperfect Office Pro
http://www3.corel.com/cgi-bin/gx.cg...t/Highlight&id=CC1RKIKAEKC&highlight=inthebox

Looking at their Pro Suite, WP, Quattro Pro, Paradox, etc, these were all products I used in the past and were very fond of them. But to be honest, the level at which I use them, it really dosen't make a difference if I use Office or WP Suite, as I'm probably using the features implemented in 95 and have no need for any new features (except getting them to work on XP...)

 

[James_F]

Originally posted by Rking401

And it is a real shame. I have been using Lotus products for many years, before that I used Frameworks by Ashton Tate (DOS days). Lotus works well for me and having used it so long I am very used to it AND it's not made by Microsoft. I had a feeling though that after IBM bought them that they would fade away and that they have.

I think there is a rule against using the words Ashton Tate on the internet! :lol:

 

[Richard King]

Frameworks was actually quite a good program in it's day. It was an integrated program with WP, Database, Spreadsheet and a couple other applications all in a DOS program. It was about the best thing out there before Windows arrived on the scene. It was almost like having Windows because of the integration.

 

[James_F]

Yea, but still

At least you didn't bring up WordStar!

 

[gcutler]

Now remember Wordstar was the first PC based word processing "Star" because the touch typists loved the ability to use the "Ctrl" commands. Wordperfect freaked them out because they had to use the function keys

But I guess with Windows the touch typist was left in the dust by everyone else who hunts and pecks

 

[Steve Mehs]

I like Corel WP Office, I like Presentations much better then PPT, and WordPerfect better then Word. I never used Quattro Pro or Corel Central, but from playing around, I like Outlook better then Central. But I'm not using Corel Office anymore since I have upgraded from MS Office 97 to XP. Oddly enough lately, I've been using Visio and Publisher more then any of the main office programs. I'm really into desktop publishing and sometimes even get paid for making banners and posters for my mom's friends.

 

[Richard King]

I use Corel Draw to do my advertisements for my Dish business. It seems to work quite well for what I do, which is fairly basic. I rarely have the need for any presentation product at any time other than a very basic slide show that I do once a year for a local charity fund raiser. Other than curiosity I have no real reason to switch to something other than what I use. Then again, I have bought software just for curiosity.

 

[MarkA]

I used to love StarOffice - then they decided to charge for it. I'll have to try OpenOffice - so off I go to download it. I may post a review soon if I get time!

 

[gcutler]

StarOffice, was that the one that IBM had their hands in??? I remember there was a German product (sounded like Star Office) that IBM was going to push, until they bought Lotus and helped nail Smartsuite's coffin shut (althought I guess it isn't fair to blame it all on IBM, Smartsuites decline started before IBM came into the picture)