microsoft programs

[John *.?-!.* cub owner]

this was sent to me and I thought some of you might be interested in it. I haven't tried it myseldf, so I haven't any idea how well it works. One note, if you are on dialup a 77mb download will take 3+ hours.

Tired of getting all those weird Email attachments that can only be opened with Microsoft Office programs? Microsoft Office is a huge program which is a major resources hog, and expensive. Open Office is a totally free office program that will open all of Microsoft's documents such as .xls (Excel) and .PPS (PowerPoint Presentation). Go to

http://download.openoffice.org/2.0.0rc/ ... nstall.exe

and download the program (about 77mb).

[lildog]

I've used Open Office for quite a while - but mostly as a back-up kind of thing. It is a full-featured office suite, but not quite as full as MS Office. Plus, if you are using it to get away with not shelling out the $$ for Office, know that the conversion to OpenOffice is not 100%.

By default, OpenOffice's main file type for all kinds of documents is XML, making them fully compatible across all platforms. But what it does with Microsoft files is unpredictable, at best. Its rendering of Microsoft PowerPoint presentations is the most questionable.

Nonetheless, the price is right. But I only recommend it if you have broadband for that massive download. Also, Mac users beware that the OpenOffice project doesn't "officially" suport the platform, though there are a couple of groups that have ported it to the Mac. The one I use on the Mac at work is called NeoOffice.

So, in summary: OpenOffice is great if you need the basic functionality of a word processor, spreadsheet, presentations, images or web page editor. It is an alternative to MS Office, not a substitute for it. If you deal with a lot of Office files, you'll want office. But, for the occasional file, OpenOffice might just work for you.