Re: [centres] Re: [Fsfe-uk] feedback: Open Office 2 WAS Free Libre Open Source Software

[ian]

On Mon, 2004-01-12 at 09:33, Joe Fortey wrote:
> Phil Hunt wrote:
> 
> > Far from being flakey, OpenOffice 1.1.0 enjoys virtually perfect
> > compatibility with MS Office formats (Access excepted as that's not
> > supported by the OOo product) with virtually none of the problems of
> MS
> > Office. The learning curve for those who know how to use MS Office is
> > minimal (there are a couple of really minor differences) and those
> > coming in, it's going to be the same.
> 
> You saying it is so don't necessarily make it so, but perhaps the most
> recent OO version is better.... I will reserve my judgement.

Do so based on experience rather than prejudice please. The filters are
not perfect, but they are far from flakey with 1.1 the best so far.
Further improvements will be made but with proprietary formats it will
never be possible to make them absolutely 100% which is probably a good
enough reason to reject proprietary formats.

In the context of school use, I can't see more than a very small
percentage of pupils work files causing any problems at all with file
transfer between MS Office and OO.o 1.1. So just install OO.o 1.1 and
try it. Provide choice and let the pupils decide what they want to use.
Let them take a CD home and install at home too if they want to. 

Regards,
-- 
ian <address@hidden>

Education Lead OpenOffice.org Community