2009/10/17 John Jason Jordan <[email protected]> > On Wed, 14 Oct 2009 17:45:49 -0700 (PDT) > Helene Bigler <[email protected]> dijo: > > > Dear Support Team: > > I am absolutely petrified to change from Word / Excel on Vista to your > open office. However, even though I purchased my computer with Windows Word > / Excel already installed about a year ago, it seems it has decided my > 'license' is no good and unless I spend some $300 + I can't use it without > going thru a rigmarole of tabs, pop-ups and other assorted garbage to access > it! > > Thus.....YOU were recommended to me. > > Can I keep all the files I already have on this now non-licensed Word? > > Will downloading you simply 'transfer' my information to you? HELP! I > don't want to loose anything - I am petrified! > > If I go into remove files to remove Windows Word/Excel will I do. . . > what? Damage my files? Loose info? ???? > > I can type, but I am not totally literate in computereze. > > Helene, > > OpenOffice.org is an office package that offers more or less the same > functionality as Microsoft Office. I say "more or less" because OOo has > a few features that MS Office lacks, and vice-versa. > > Having said that, the buttons are in different places. There will be a > bit of a learning curve as you figure out how to do things that you did > in MS Office. Sometimes entire concepts are different. You will need to > be patient as you learn the OOo way. > > OOo can open all MS Office files, so you don't need to convert your old > files. You can even set up OOo to use the MS Office file format as its > default instead of its own open, non-proprietary format. However, > because MS does not make their file formats open, the OOo developers > have had to reverse engineer the compatibility modules. The result is > that OOo can open any MS Office file, but occasionally there are some > slight formatting differences. Expect to have to spend a couple minutes > reformatting MS Office files when you import them into OOo. The more > complex the features used in the MS Office file, the more tweaking will > be required. > > The biggest issue that users of OOo have is sharing files with users of > MS Office. If you send a file to a colleague you'll likely have to send > it in MS Office format. Because the import/export modules are not 100% > perfect, your colleague may not see precisely the same formatting as > you do. Some people find this intolerable, others realize that the > world is not a perfect place. We're all different and our computing > needs are different. > > You can install OOo and use it alongside MS Office. OOo is free, so you > have nothing to lose. Just download it, install it, and take it for a > spin. I can guarantee you one thing: You will never be presented with a > threat that it will no longer work because its license has expired. > > And welcome to the users e-list for OOo. This is the best place to ask > questions and get help. Literally tens of thousands of users worldwide > read this list daily. Ask any question and someone will soon pop up > with an answer. > > Forwarding to unsubscribed OP
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