Why use Open Office? I already am familiar with the standard MS products. What are the compelling reasons to use Open Office? Are there advantages over the usual programs? I downloaded the program but i am now asking myself why should i install it when i already have no issues with the existing programs, etc....
Don
Thanks for your reply! (Email address is PRIVATE!)
I will address your question below, but a better question sometimes, is why NOT install it? What do you have to lose? It is free, it word processes and you don't have to wonder what it is doing as it is open source.
The only compelling reason not to install it, is HD space, but it only takes up less than 200 MB with all components installed, so it isn't very much.
_Benefits_
The easiest one to perhaps sell you on is that it makes PDF files. PDF files and great for document exchange and usually you have to buy Adobe to make them. You can't make all of the forms and such that Adobe can, but with one click you document becomes a PDF.
More over, OOo can do almost everything that MS can do, and for the most part the use of OOo parallels MS Office. If you do basic things, I doubt you would even notice much a difference. OOo opens and saves MS files as well as in the preferable open format Oasis.
Why is this better? In short, Oasis is better because it is an open format.
What does this mean? That means that everyone that wants to, can know what the Oasis fomat does. The MS formats are hidden and secret. Furthermore, the MS formats are consistent between releases of MS Office. Word 97 uses a different format than Word XP which is differnt than Word 2003. This can lead to internal compatibility issues with MS products, this won't happen with the open format, because people can see what is happening and understand.
As for OOo & MS compatibility, it is pretty good. For standard things, our engineers have made some good guesses at how it works and I have had only a few errors, and most of them are formatting I can fix in a jiffy.
To me, I was sick of pay tons of money for MS upgrades and then autoformatting in MS never seemed to turn off even when I told it to. In OOo these problems don't exist.
Have to go.
HTH,
-- Peter Kupfer OOo user since 'OO4 http://peschtra.tripod.com/open_office/ooo_front.htm
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