[HLUG] OpenOffice 3.0.1 problems on Windows

[Matt Jones]

On Tue, Apr 28, 2009 at 8:05 PM, Julian Robbins <joolsr at fastmail.fm> wrote:
> 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
>
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>
It will be interesting to see how the future of OOo plays out with
Oracle in control, maybe they will help push development forward,
hopefully in a more community involved fashion.

Matt