[HLUG] OpenOffice 3.0.1 problems on Windows

[Julian Robbins]

Paul Stenning wrote:
> Well two of my attempts at banging the open source drum has failed 
> miserably.
>
> I installed OpenOffice 3.0.1 on a PC for a client and he is having 
> regular problems with the spreadsheet program crashing with large 
> spreadsheets, often when trying to save but it can happen at any point. 
>   He does telesales, is sent the spreadsheet by the client, has to enter 
> the results of each call, then send it back.  If it crashes he loses the 
> results and if he can't remember all the calls (at around 30 calls per 
> hour he can't be expected to) he has to call them all back, try not to 
> sound incompetent,  and not get paid for that time.
>
>   
No idea about this, possibly needs reinstallation.
> The PC is running Vista Home Premium, and have enough RAM (2GB).  It is 
> a fresh Windows installation with no viruses detected by NOD32.  Other 
> similar and lower spec PCs running Microsoft Office 2003 handle the 
> spreadsheets with no problems.  So they are now getting another 
> Microsoft Office (2007) license and want "this OpenOffice rubbish" removing.
>   
As you may know, we moved over to OOo for much of our company. Results 
are 'mixed'. Some people love Ooo, some think its ok, some hate it with 
a vengeance ! 
> I also installed it on a couple of PCs for another client and they are 
> having problems with .RTF files (when opening some menu options are not 
> available) and with page layout differences when opening .DOC files in 
> OpenOffice compared to Microsoft office.  Again they want the Microsoft 
> version "which works properly".
>   
OOo does a pretty good job of opening .doc and .rtf files, in fact in my 
experience, opening .rtf files is usally more compliant with the 
original than .doc files.

In our office, we do not have some many files supplied from customers, 
and where we interact with them, use PDF usually, and the MS formats 
where we have too. Once you have a mass of OOo native files, the 
problems opening and exporting them in MS formats go away pretty much.

I think you have to consider that using OOo Writer to read and write a 
.doc file, is actually a two translation stage process

   1. Opening from .doc to OOo
   2. Saving back to another non native format, ie .doc again

So here you actually convert the file twice each time !!

> OpenOffice may be good for casual users but it cannot cope with more 
> heavy-duty use or in environments where some users have Microsoft Office 
> already.
>   
It's a fair comment. As I say, for companies where you can restrict 
internal use to the native OOo formats, ie .odt, .ods, .odg etc it works 
pretty well, but where there is a lot of format interchange, you can get 
stung.
> I know this is a whinge, and I know OpenOffice is free, but we have to 
> accept the limitations as well as the benefits of open source.
>   
But there is a little light at the end of the tunnel ;-)

Have you tried go-oo.org ? Novell got so fed up not having their patches 
and improvements included in the main OOo core (mainly developed by Sun 
of course), that there is another OOo, Go OO http://go-oo.org/, which 
isnt quite a fork, but a maintained version, with many more of the fixes 
applied.

Its well worth a try, and may just alleviate some of the issues you've 
been seeing.

A note from their website :-

>
>       Better interoperability
>
> Go-oo has built in OpenXML <http://go-oo.org/discover/#docx-support> 
> import filters and it will import your Microsoft Works 
> <http://go-oo.org/discover/#ms-works-import> files. Compared with 
> up-stream OO.o, it has better Microsoft binary file support (with eg. 
> fields <http://go-oo.org/discover/#fields-support> support), and it 
> will import WordPerfect 
> <http://go-oo.org/discover/#wp-graphics-import> graphics beautifully. 
> If you are reliant on Excel VBA 
> <http://go-oo.org/discover/#vba-support> macros - then Go-oo offers 
> the best macro fidelity too. If you expect your spreadsheets to 
> calculate compatibly, or you get embedded Visio diagrams 
> <http://go-oo.org/discover/#emf-rendering> in your documents, you'll 
> want Go-oo.
>
I suppose, the only thing to mention to your clients, is that as well as 
any licence fees incurred in buying MS Office, that you will be doing so 
with upgrades a few years down the line too.

Its not about the purchasing of the licences, but being encumbered by 
having to say 'wedded' to MS and their associated MS upgrade fees.

Last point. In theory, with the XML formats being used a bit more every 
year, that compatibility between OOo and MS Office should be better as 
there will be no more binary files, and the files formats open, so 
converters should be more reliable. (although they are still a little 
immature at present, I believe)

Julian