I am the friend / neighbor's kid / guy you know that builds everyone's
computers. When you get a computer from me it will be stable, clean, cheap,
and loaded with open source software. Sadly, I have had to add a step to my
Open Office install otherwise these less then computer literate people will
have purchased Microsoft Office within a week. I have to set the default
file formats to Microsoft standard.
I understand all the advantages of the open formats. I also understand that
these formats will never be used unless people give up the crutch that is
proprietary formats. Sadly, the only thing my elderly neighbors know is
that they wrote a letter to a friend and their friend was unable to read it.
The thing is, my neighbors are actually quite good at using their computer.
When they went to save for the first time, they informed Open Office they
wanted to use the .doc format, because it was the only one they recognized.
What scared them into switching was the very large, very confusing message
telling them that making this choice would cause them to lose data.
Some people may say, "They should spend the time to learn the difference."
but my elderly neighbors and their friends just want their grand kids to do
homework at their house. All I saw was some people born long before the
word processor getting excited about open source software. Free and just as
good as Word? Lets tell our friends. Then I came over to do some
additional installs for them and there were the Microsoft logos staring at
me.
I suggest the following. Add a screen to the install that allows you to
pick a set of formats that Open Office will use by default. Default to the
open ones, but provide a clear option for the "usual" ones. I have attached
a screen shot as an example. Thank you for your time. --
When installing OOo (using the custom option) you can specify if you
want OOo to open MS office documents by default.
You can also specify (under tools > options > load/save > general)
specify the default format to use for each type of file... eg, you can
set for all 'writer' documents to save as .doc formats by default.
Attachments do not come through the list either.
/paul
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