Open Office vs MS Office

[bigmck]

I am still using MS Office 2003. I realize soon I will need to upgrade. Since I am on the cheap side, I was wondering if Open Office would be a good substitute. Could I still use all of my MS files? Is there a way to import the MS files to Open Office? Any info that you could give me on Open Office would be appreciated.

Thanks,

 

[mxosder16]

The files produced by Microsoft Office 2007 are also called Office Open XML, OpenXML, OOXML, Office 12, .docx, .docm, .xlsx, etc. (other extensions).

• OpenOffice.org 3 can open these files, but it cannot save in these formats.

That's from their FAQ section and I'm pretty sure that the file types that they save in cannot be read by MS Office

 

[bigmck]

The files produced by Microsoft Office 2007 are also called Office Open XML, OpenXML, OOXML, Office 12, .docx, .docm, .xlsx, etc. (other extensions).

• OpenOffice.org 3 can open these files, but it cannot save in these formats.

That's from their FAQ section and I'm pretty sure that the file types that they save in cannot be read by MS Office

That's what I was afraid of. If I send someone a spreadsheet, I want them to be able to read it if they have MS Office. Thanks for your help.

 

[mxosder16]

That's what I was afraid of. If I send someone a spreadsheet, I want them to be able to read it if they have MS Office. Thanks for your help.

You're welcome. If you want to give it a try here is a link for the beta of Office 2010: Office 2010

 

[pparks1]

The files produced by Microsoft Office 2007 are also called Office Open XML, OpenXML, OOXML, Office 12, .docx, .docm, .xlsx, etc. (other extensions).

• OpenOffice.org 3 can open these files, but it cannot save in these formats.

That's from their FAQ section and I'm pretty sure that the file types that they save in cannot be read by MS Office

You can open the standard office file formats like doc, xls, etc. And you can save them as .doc, .xls, etc....so you can still open them back up in Microsoft Office. It just doesn't natively handle the xml versions of the files which end in x.

 

[mxosder16]

You can open the standard office file formats like doc, xls, etc. And you can save them as .doc, .xls, etc....so you can still open them back up in Microsoft Office. It just doesn't natively handle the xml versions of the files which end in x.

Thank you for the clarification

 

[pparks1]

No problem. I've been using OpenOffice at home now for a few years with Microsoft Office at work.

 

[FuturDreamz]

go-oo is a variation of openoffice that includes a bunch of plugins for openoffice in the default build, including open/save support for docx.
am downloading to verify this.

 

[pparks1]

I don't use the docx or xlsx format features...neither does my employer or my previous employer. Seems lots just stuck with .doc and .xls in order to maximize compatibility.

 

[UrbanBounca]

I thought I'd clarify that I used Open Office, until I realized it doesn't support citations. If you're in college or doing research papers for work, you may want to stick with Microsoft Office.

 

[pparks1]

I thought I'd clarify that I used Open Office, until I realized it doesn't support citations. If you're in college or doing research papers for work, you may want to stick with Microsoft Office.

Yeah, at least students can get academic pricing. But you are right, it makes better sense to use what everybody else is using when it comes to the world of academia.