In general, I like OpenOffice very much, and consider the word processor so fully satisfactory that I could never use Microsloth Word again, were it not that it's what my university has. But as for Impress, it's not so great. If, like the WP, Impress's goal is to clone MS Powerpoint, Impress is sloppy. The controls differ significantly enough that if I start preparing an oral presentation using Powerpoint at school, and go home to finish it using Impress, it will take me considerably longer, because the automatic indenting Powerpoint does, I can't get Impress to do. In general, the program is not as intelligent as Powerpoint, the controls less intuitive. Am I just missing something?

WinXP, you could always just go back to Windows-but over one program, that is kind of lame. You don't want an Linux OS to be the exact same as Windows, why its programs too? Anotherwords, I was trained on MS Powerpoint and got the certification for it, there are a lot of things that you don't really know about till you look hard, Impress may be the same way.

That's a bit harsh, kalabanta.

I agree with newbiesforever that ooWriter is a great product. Still, when co-operating with my colleagues I have to save the documents in Word format, and every time again it is a surprise where frames, tables and pictures end up now again when I re-open the document. It does not apply to native ODT format, and ooWriter does have a number of great features, or I must say: features which just work like they should, like styles and numbering. ooWriter is great, and the slight effort needed to deal with Word format is worth it.

However, some applications are different. I have seen some with Impress, and I have seen a whole lot more from ooCalc. ooCalc is not just imcompatible with Excel, but is is also greatly lacking basic performance to the point of being unusable.(I said performance, not features)

Unfortunately we have to deal with a world which dominated for 90% by Microsoft format. Keep yelling that OO is great & better does not help the case for OO. Better be clear about the limitations. I can only hope that the developers one day are able to achieve as good compatability (on file level) as possible. But once and foremost take care that every implemented feature works perfectly. Even if that means a limitation on the number of features.

As for Impress, presentations are widely being exchanged, being ran on other computers etc. Non-100% compatibility seriously limits the use.

And I use VMware to be sure to be compatible ot to test compatability when I need. Like it? No!


jlinkels

Pray for ODF to prevail over OpenXML!!!

Meanwhile, I now have MSOffice running on CrossOver--for exactly the stated reasons.

Most of the time OOWriter and Impress are fine--SOMETIMES I have to use Office.

I could re-educate my employer (Big Aerospace agency--~8000 people), or simply retire and do all documents MY WAY. I just turned 65--guess which way I'll go....

I'd like to "educate" my university as well, by letting them know they could probably save a lot of money by using Linux and OO. But then they'd probably have to spend even more money training faculty and staff in how to use Linux.

C'mon... Linux on the user level is not more complicated than Windows. Which means that with the same lack of knowledge ordinary users have they can either [not] use a Windows machine or a Linux machine.

No, I am afraid that MS licences are being considered something logical and inevitable, just like taxes and death. Who is gonna fight against that?

jlinkels

If you are brave enough, you could consider learning to make presentations with LaTeX. there are some very good packages for doing this like beamer and powerdot.

Of course if you don't know LaTeX it will take a bit before you can make a good presentation. Another drawback is that conversion from latex to (Open)Office documents is not possible (or extremely difficult)

Have you tried OpenOffice.org Portable? It has Impress along with the other OOo apps and it runs from a USB drive. It might not run (I know how locked down school comps can be), but if it runs it would solve the problem of beginning in PP and finishing in Impress.

I hadn't heard of that, but that gave me an idea, Jughead. The school computers have CD drives, of course, so as far as I know, there is nothing to stop me from running a liveCD with OO on one of them.

Unless IT at your school actually knows what they're doing and has the bios locked down to prevent that.

They'd have to be quite anal to do that. On the other hand, one of my profs, who is no Micro$oft slave, recently said to me, "We're not a Linux school."

How true, linkels!

We all forget how difficult it was to learn Windows almost 20 years ago; at least for me. It doesn't take long to realize just how difficult it is, when you sit down with a new Windows user. My wife has been that person for me.

The things that we do automatically, takes a newbie like her, many hours to master.

Therefore, IMHO the learning curve would be equal for a person who had never used either one.

The fact that I don't have to worry about anybody looking over my shoulder to see if I have a legitimate copy of my OS, is worth a bunch. Also, I can install it as many times as I deem necessary. Try that with Windows. It won't take long before you get the error message that you have to call MS to activate your copy. It takes about 20 minutes to do so by phone.

This is very common for overclockers like me. We are always tweaking our rigs and causing problems that require a clean install.

There is a port of OOo that runs just fine in Windows, so there is no requirement that someone run Linux to use OpenOffice.

Regarding compatibility, even different versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint treat documents differently. It is part of Microsoft's Embrace, Extend, and Extinguish policy, which even applies to their own products as they introduce new versions and try to obsolete the older ones, forcing people to upgrade.

Regarding OpenOffice and Impress, I think you will have the best results if you start the document with Impress and just modify it with PowerPoint. That way, you have a chance of avoiding the "Microsoft oriented" features and keeping to the standard ones that will probably work with both Microsoft's .ppt and OASIS .odp formats.

I believe the OOo development team is quite aware of the performance issues of Calc. Release 2.2 improved on some of them. And Rel 2.1 brought my favorite missing feature for Impress, "presenter mode".

Now if they could fix the ridiculous 3 or six slide hand out prints from stamp size to something that makes sense and has the right orientation, I'd be happy as a kid.

K<o>