Thank you for your reply.
The situation I face is that I have no control over the documents that I
receive from other people. ALso, sometimes I am dealing with a document
which I or someone else created before I started using OO.
I should make clear that I have no complaint with the developers -- it
is made freely available and if it does not meet my needs that is my
problem, not theirs.
This inquiry was motivated in part by a document available from Sun
designed to help with interoperability of MSWord and OO.
It too is directed to a scenario where it is possible to interact with
those peopel who generate the word file.
In my case, most of the word files I receive have the following issues:
1. Tables are misplaced. This can usually be solved by explicitly
selecting "center" in the table properties. I do no know why OO does not
realize that it is displaying a table in the margin and off of the page.
2. Images are misplaced. Twayne suggested that the anchor points are the
problem, and this is in the correct direction. However, it is not always
obvious how to fix this, and I still end up with incompatibilities (eg,
the surrounding text is not placed correctly).
3. I often receive Hebrew or bilingual documents. This is a real pain,
because of apparent font incompatibilities. In particular, ( and ) are
often reversed (I think that this is a font issue).
The first two issues, and especially #2, forces me to work in Word,
using Virtual Box (I run OSX). If I was a real expert in using OO, I
might be able to quickly fix the files and go on. However, that is not
the case.
If there are some FAQs that address these issues, that would be great.
Again, thank you for your input.
--aryeh
jomali wrote:
This subject has come up many, many times.
The OOo developers have done an outstanding job in trying to maintain
compatibility between OOo and MS Office. However, it is inevitable that
there will be some incompatibilities between the tools.
Might I suggest a workflow solution to the problem, using a "separation of
concerns" approach borrowed from object oriented programming and modern web
page development?
When developing a document that has to be shared, use minimal (preferably
no) formatting of the document during the development and initial review
process. For example, simply insert graphics after the paragraph that will
eventually contain them. Make tables simple unformatted tables of data.
When everyone in the workgroup is satisfied with the content, use either OOo
or MS Office to format the document. For final comments, circulate a PDF
file which the reviewers can mark up and return to the person formatting the
document. That person, using the tool of his or her choice will then
incorporate comments as necessary.
Such a process will avoid the contention over which tool is "better" and
allow each person in the group to use the tool they prefer.
John
On Thu, Feb 11, 2010 at 9:20 AM, McLauchlan, Kevin <
[email protected]> wrote:
Aryeh Weiss [mailto:[email protected]] inquired:
I find that MSWord docs which contains tables or figures
usually do not
display properly. Location of the images is wrong, and often text
positioning is not correct.
I do not know if list rules allow posting of attachments, but
if anyone
it interested, I can email offlist the MSWord file and two PDFs that
show which show the MSWord display and the OO display.
Thia issue is the major limiting factor in my needing to
keeping using
MSWord (in virtual box under OSX). Are there particular options which
solve this problem?
I would be interested in this, too.
I'm trying to use OOo inside a Microsoft-centric company.
If anything is going to screw up my attempts to turn around documents that
other people edit in MS Word, it's usually tables and graphics.
Is there guidance, somewhere, on "best practices" for creation of documents
in Word, such that they'll stand the best chance of round-tripping between
Word and OpenOffice?
Or a cheat-sheet on things to look for in Word documents - and correct -
before bringing them into OOo?
I've found the odd old discussion via Google, but nothing definitive or
comprehensive.
Most people with whom I deal are using MS Office 2003 or 2007.
Similarly, it might be interesting to know some things-to-do and
things-to-avoid when creating documents in OOo that you know are going to be
edited by people using Word. Usually, nobody ADDS tables or graphics to my
docs, but they might edit the contents of tables, or do things that would
push a graphic around. Or, they might copy a table in my document (the Word
version that they're editing) and paste it as the basis of a new table, or
perhaps add a column or rows to an existing table.
- Kevin
--
Aryeh Weiss
School of Engineering
Bar Ilan University
Ramat Gan 52900 Israel
Ph: 972-3-5317638
FAX: 972-3-7384051
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