Additionally, this list does not have a home page (that I could find) allowing member options such as "No mail", an option I would have selected because most topics have no relevance for me. I read one post to this list in which a list member describes how he periodically unsubsrcibes when going on vacation, just because there is not a "No Mail" option. I sense that the same problems that plague commercial software prevail in the OpenOffice.org developer community.
Sandy On Fri, 27 Jun 2008 22:38:19 -0600 [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > Here are some problems with Open Office: > > 1. If I open a document with Open Office Writer just to look at it > and > make no changes, Open Office will not allow me to close the > document. > Open Office insists that I have changed the document and refuses to > close > it unless I answer the dialogue box which says > > "The document "(name of document)" has been modified." > > and asks: > > Do you want to save your changes? > > The choices allowed are not answers to this "Yes - No" question > (namely, > "Yes" and "No"). They are: > > "Save", "Discard", "Cancel" > > I did not want to choose any of these: I made no changes to save and > I > did not want to discard anything. I also did not want to forget > about > closing Open Office Writer. I therefore used the task manager to > force > Open Office Writer to close. I then tried to open Open Office Writer > again and it failed to open and instead presented me with "Open > Office > Document Recovery" which asked permission to recover the document > --- a > document I had not edited or changed in any way. > > Subsequently, every time I tried to open the program it refused to > open > until I respond to the "Open Office Document Recovery" dialogue box. > > My fear of this behavior was that Open Office Writer may actually > corrupt > my documents just by being allowed to open them. > > I finally pushed "Discard" and was able to start the program. > Experiments > with a sample document showed the following: the document, which had > been > saved in Word with a 14 point font, opened in Open Office Writer > with a > 10 point font. When I restored it to the original 14 point font, > Open > Office Writer saw that as a modification of the document. > > This episode indicates to me that Open Office Writer is altogether > unacceptable as an alternative to Word. > > Here are other problems I have had: > > 2. The installer for Open Office Writer asked whether I wanted Open > Office Writer to open MS Word documents. I chose this option, but > the > requested file associations were not established. > > 3. The installer did not prompt me to create desktop or start menu > icons. > Instead, it created start menu icons, but not desktop icons, and it > gave > no indication of what it was doing. The result of this was that I > was > unable to find the programs until a member of this group suggested > looking for start menu icons. > > 4. The installer does not allow choice of target directory for a > full > install. > > 5. For custom install, the installer has a bizarre dialogue labelled > "custom setup" with a tree structure to the left showing disk-drive > icons > with labels like > "OpenOffice.org Writer" and to the right a box with some explanation > of > each feature. One can expand the tree by clicking on the [+] > symbols; > clicking on > the /name/ will show a brief explanation of what's selected; > clicking on > the icon will show a drop-down menu allowing a choice of "don't > install > this", "install this", "install this and all sub-features". Unlike > every > other tree selection menu of this kind, there are no check boxes > showing > what has been selected, to that the user is essentially left flying > blind. > > 6. The website links to a setup guide for version 1 which does not > apply > to version 2. Somebody on this list sent me a webpage containing a > link > to the setup guide for version 2. That guide gives instructions for > all > the obvious things for which one does not need a guide, but does not > explain the weird setup for custom install described in (5.) above. > > 7. Finally, a general comment. It appears that the developers of > this > program have focused on fancy bells and whistles and have neglected > the > need to construct a sound and solid basic program, to which bells > and > whistles could be added later. I also see no evidence that the > developers > have made any effort to eliminate the problems typical for Microsoft > programs. Some of these problems are: default placement of the > program > under the C:\Program Files directory and default placement of > working > files in "My Documents". Thus, this program appears to have all the > usual > problems associated with Microsoft and additional problems due to > careless design and construction. I see no reason to change from MS > Office 2000 to OpenOffice.org. Furthermore, I got MS Office 2000 for > free > or nearly free from my educational institution and I could have > gotten > MS Office 2003 for free from my place of employment at that time (I > chose > not to go with MS Office 2003 because experimenting with it > convinced me > that it is total garbage.) > > I hope developers take my comments seriously under advisement and I > plan > to try OpenOffice.org again in a few years to see whether anything > has > changed. Meantime, I recommend MS Office 2000 or MS Office 1997 to > anyone > who wants a halfway reliable halfway unbloated office suite. > > Best regards to all, Sandy > > On Wed, 25 Jun 2008 07:53:15 -0700 Ganesha Bhaskara > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > writes: > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > > <SNIP> > > > I am very sorry to say that my initial impression is very > > negative. If > > > the installation is this bad, I am skeptical about the quality > of > > the ooo > > > suite itself. > > > > > This works very well if you are interacting with an entity with > > commercial interest. (My package did not arrive on time ...... > > so, amazon sucks, is understandable when made to a customer > > service agent working for amazon). Such a statement when > > made on a forum staffed by volunteers is a big turnoff and will > > hurt your changes of getting useful answers to your questions. > > > > Constructive criticism is always welcome. We are just trying to > > help out OO users and make OO better by providing feedback > > to developers. If you feel that the installation process could be > > improved, filing a feature request would be most helpful. > > > > <SNIP> > > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > > > ____________________________________________________________ > Looking for information to start your Human Resources career? Click > here to get started! > http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/Ioyw6i3l53IpsaZuhEjAtFHhd04Sz M29ZoBcoZk4vvTYZi5IfBTkcc/ > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
