MS Word vs Open Office vs Google Docs.. etc.. - Page 2

GlenBarrington · 01-05-2010, 01:22 PM

I Absolutely despise the Ribbon UI of the new MS word. I haven't really enjoyed using MS Word since . . .what was it called? Office 98?

The problem is as a corporate employee, I am forced to use what the company settles on. And that is almost always some form of MS Office. I've stopped upgrading my personal copies of MS Office and now use OO for all my personal office chores.

Greg Anos · 01-05-2010, 01:54 PM

Frankly, I use Wordpad. I rarely need to do any fancy formatting, and for quick and dirty, Wordpad fits the bill....

When I need a spellchecker, I can use Open Office, but it messes up the margins, so I have to load the result back into Wordpad and redo the margins.

Started evaluating Altantis, because it does direct conversion to epub and HTML. Looks good so far. I'll be shipping the $35 soon....

=X= · 01-05-2010, 03:13 PM

I'ved used them all to some extent. I primarily use word however for work and at home I use OpenOffice.

I chose to write the Bookcreator tool using word because I was more experinced with VBA. But ooo could do just fine

While I have not used google docs for writing docs-- it just doesn't make sence to have to be online just to write a doc.-- I have used it with a group of friends for its version control features, though none of us used it to write documents

vivaldirules · 01-06-2010, 05:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

Frankly, I use Wordpad. I rarely need to do any fancy formatting, and for quick and dirty, Wordpad fits the bill....

Same here. Wordpad starts faster and has none of Word's bells and whistles which usually do nothing but confound me. Before Wordpad (pre-WinXP years), I used Write. For managing programs and data tables at work, I still often also used Metapad which was designed as just an expanded version of Notepad.

donovan1983 · 01-07-2010, 03:10 AM

I use OpenOffice because it's multiplatform, free, and I've been using it a while. I do not like Word for Windows much at all beyond Word 97. Word for Mac is actually pretty nice (it is related to the Windows version in name only), but I won't be upgrading beyond the 2004 version since the main reason I even got Office 2004 back then was because OpenOffice had yet to get a native Aqua port out for OS X. I first used OpenOffice before the OpenOffice project even got started. Back then it was StarOffice 5.2 and I think Sun had either just purchased Star Division or it was just before they had. It was quirky, but free and worked quite well and I got used to it.

Google Docs I have played with a little but didn't find it to be useful. The lack of a WYSIWYG mode for document editing was alone enough to turn me off to it.

Another word processor I have played around with a little is Abiword. It is actually pretty nice, working rather similarly to Word 97, while offering more features in general (except for inline grammar checking). It seems to be compatible with even more formats than OpenOffice, which is quite a feat.

For basic text editing, even though I only know the very basics of it still, I tend to turn to VIM. It's simple and vi or VIM is available by default on any UNIX or Unix-like system.

lioslaith · 01-07-2010, 05:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

Frankly, I use Wordpad. I rarely need to do any fancy formatting, and for quick and dirty, Wordpad fits the bill....

When I need a spellchecker, I can use Open Office, but it messes up the margins, so I have to load the result back into Wordpad and redo the margins.

Started evaluating Altantis, because it does direct conversion to epub and HTML. Looks good so far. I'll be shipping the $35 soon....

Did that myself. Shopped around for a MS Word replacement for my Vista desktop which only had a three month trial of Word and wanted £80 to upgrade and get working again after the trial ended. I tried a lot of free and not free software over a three month period and found myself gravitating back to Atlantis time and again. Finally upgraded to full product once trial ended and even when converted from dollars to pounds the saving was significant and more in my price range. Plus it was easier to grapple than some of the others I have tried.

frabjous · 01-07-2010, 04:29 PM

I really dislike Microsoft. Really. They are a shameless corporation, who lies to the public, who deliberately makes their software not comply with open standards so that when people get different behavior with other software they assume (wrongly) it's the other software that is weird. I've also had friends get very lousy customer service... and have to go for months without Office because their registration keys didn't work, and so on. They'll change formats and so on just so you have to upgrade to keep current, etc.

I'm a big fan of all Open Source, and the fact that Open Office exists, is as rich as it is, and is available for free is just amazing.

That said, I definitely can see why many people might prefer Word to OO Writer. There's a lot about OOo that is just not up to par. The lack of support for open type fonts is just unbearable, though they're supposedly fixing that soon. And the presentation software for OOo -- can't remember the name now -- is just plain unusable.

Still, as a linux user, I'm stuck using Open Office when, as happens so often, someone sends me a .doc or .docx attachment.

I tried Google docs, but it is really way too primitive for my needs. But for very simple documents--the letter to grandma--it probably could serve the purpose. What I do like about google docs is the limited sharing ability ... It makes it easy to send someone quick comments on something, or make something available to someone without messing around with email attachments or multiple files.

... and actually that's one thing that scares me about Office 2010, since it's going to have similar features. People are going to expect you to be able to use its cloud computing features and share that way, but they probably won't make them so that linux users can access them, even with the web versions of Word, Excel, etc., that they're offering. That's going to be a major bummer for linux users. Indeed, I really hope they don't do this in a way that shuts out everyone who is unwilling to pay their exorbitant prices. (Or maybe I should wish that, since it may be their demise.)

But let's cut to the chase. If you're typesetting something you want to look professional, neither MS Office or Open Office fits the bill for me. I use LaTeX. LaTeX is much more powerful and capable and flexible than either of these, and the resulting documents are breathtakingly beautiful, and typographically rich. Ligatures, kerning, end of line hyphenation by default, sophisticated paragraph and page layout algorithms, coupled with hyperlinked footnotes and endnotes and citations, and the best renderer for technical material like mathematics that exists. (And I use its beamer package for creating presentations.) And the mark-up is semantic rather than arbitrary. What could be better?

Sure it's got a big learning curve at first, but it's worth it.

Plus, like OOo, it's completely free, open sourced, and platform independent. And you can use whatever text editor you like to create the source files, or pick one of the many IDEs for it out there.

And here's an ideological pitch for you in its favor: Word Processors: Stupid and Inefficient.

(And if you really hate to do your own mark-up, try LyX, for superior typography with the ease of a traditional word processor.)

hidari · 01-09-2010, 07:32 PM

Thanx every one for their replies. Good to see that I am not the only one who avoids MSWORD. May have to try Atlantis ....looks promising.....

vivaldirules · 01-31-2010, 05:17 PM

HELP! I hate it when Word (or even Wordpad) decides to change the spacing between lines. This often happens when I copy and paste something from some other document but it happens at other times, I think. And it annoys the crap out of me! If I select the entire document and reset the font and size, it will not fix the problem. I assume there is some line spacing thing somewhere but I have never found it (it's probably right in front of me but called something else). I haven't gotten anything useful from the online help.

(a) Is there a way to set the line spacing in Word?
(b) Is there a way I can prevent Word from changing the spacing when I paste something in?

frabjous · 01-31-2010, 05:46 PM

I don't have Word installed any more (thankfully), but isn't Line Spacing under Format > Paragraph,

Hell, watch these:

vivaldirules · 01-31-2010, 05:59 PM

Aha! Paragraph spacing (even though it's the spacing of all lines, not just the beginning of a paragraph). Okay. Anyway, thanks, frabjous! You don't know how long that has bugged me. So Word is working, but I see absolutely nothing in Wordpad that will let me make any similar changes. I may have to finally abandon it as my default word processor and move to Word just for this one capability.

nomesque · 01-31-2010, 08:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vivaldirules

Aha! Paragraph spacing (even though it's the spacing of all lines, not just the beginning of a paragraph). Okay. Anyway, thanks, frabjous! You don't know how long that has bugged me. So Word is working, but I see absolutely nothing in Wordpad that will let me make any similar changes. I may have to finally abandon it as my default word processor and move to Word just for this one capability.

When pasting from another program, try to use Paste Special instead of Paste - and select Plain Text. Mostly cuts out the problem you're having, which is basically paragraph and character formatting coming across from the other program

Solitaire1 · 01-31-2010, 09:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vivaldirules

Aha! Paragraph spacing (even though it's the spacing of all lines, not just the beginning of a paragraph). Okay. Anyway, thanks, frabjous! You don't know how long that has bugged me. So Word is working, but I see absolutely nothing in Wordpad that will let me make any similar changes. I may have to finally abandon it as my default word processor and move to Word just for this one capability.

Quote:

Originally Posted by nomesque

When pasting from another program, try to use Paste Special instead of Paste - and select Plain Text. Mostly cuts out the problem you're having, which is basically paragraph and character formatting coming across from the other program

Something else to watch for when cutting and pasting: the styles in use can cause a change in the text's formatting (such as when the "Normal" style of the place you're pasting the text to is different from the "Normal" style of the place you're taking the text from).

frabjous · 01-31-2010, 11:29 PM

The reason I included the third video there is that it has to do with the default spacing, which I think might be relevant to why it gets changed when pasted, but you'd have to test that theory to find out.

01-07-2010, 04:29 PM	#22
frabjous Wizard Posts: 1,213 Karma: 12890 Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Amherst, Massachusetts, USA Device: Sony PRS-505	I really dislike Microsoft. Really. They are a shameless corporation, who lies to the public, who deliberately makes their software not comply with open standards so that when people get different behavior with other software they assume (wrongly) it's the other software that is weird. I've also had friends get very lousy customer service... and have to go for months without Office because their registration keys didn't work, and so on. They'll change formats and so on just so you have to upgrade to keep current, etc. I'm a big fan of all Open Source, and the fact that Open Office exists, is as rich as it is, and is available for free is just amazing. That said, I definitely can see why many people might prefer Word to OO Writer. There's a lot about OOo that is just not up to par. The lack of support for open type fonts is just unbearable, though they're supposedly fixing that soon. And the presentation software for OOo -- can't remember the name now -- is just plain unusable. Still, as a linux user, I'm stuck using Open Office when, as happens so often, someone sends me a .doc or .docx attachment. I tried Google docs, but it is really way too primitive for my needs. But for very simple documents--the letter to grandma--it probably could serve the purpose. What I do like about google docs is the limited sharing ability ... It makes it easy to send someone quick comments on something, or make something available to someone without messing around with email attachments or multiple files. ... and actually that's one thing that scares me about Office 2010, since it's going to have similar features. People are going to expect you to be able to use its cloud computing features and share that way, but they probably won't make them so that linux users can access them, even with the web versions of Word, Excel, etc., that they're offering. That's going to be a major bummer for linux users. Indeed, I really hope they don't do this in a way that shuts out everyone who is unwilling to pay their exorbitant prices. (Or maybe I should wish that, since it may be their demise.) But let's cut to the chase. If you're typesetting something you want to look professional, neither MS Office or Open Office fits the bill for me. I use LaTeX. LaTeX is much more powerful and capable and flexible than either of these, and the resulting documents are breathtakingly beautiful, and typographically rich. Ligatures, kerning, end of line hyphenation by default, sophisticated paragraph and page layout algorithms, coupled with hyperlinked footnotes and endnotes and citations, and the best renderer for technical material like mathematics that exists. (And I use its beamer package for creating presentations.) And the mark-up is semantic rather than arbitrary. What could be better? Sure it's got a big learning curve at first, but it's worth it. Plus, like OOo, it's completely free, open sourced, and platform independent. And you can use whatever text editor you like to create the source files, or pick one of the many IDEs for it out there. And here's an ideological pitch for you in its favor: Word Processors: Stupid and Inefficient. (And if you really hate to do your own mark-up, try LyX, for superior typography with the ease of a traditional word processor.) Last edited by frabjous; 01-07-2010 at 04:43 PM.

01-31-2010, 05:46 PM	#25
frabjous Wizard Posts: 1,213 Karma: 12890 Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Amherst, Massachusetts, USA Device: Sony PRS-505	I don't have Word installed any more (thankfully), but isn't Line Spacing under Format > Paragraph, Hell, watch these: Last edited by frabjous; 01-31-2010 at 06:04 PM.

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01-05-2010, 01:22 PM	#16
GlenBarrington Cheese Whiz Posts: 1,986 Karma: 11677147 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Springfield, Illinois Device: Kindle PW, Samsung Tab A 10.1(2019), Pixel 6a.	I Absolutely despise the Ribbon UI of the new MS word. I haven't really enjoyed using MS Word since . . .what was it called? Office 98? The problem is as a corporate employee, I am forced to use what the company settles on. And that is almost always some form of MS Office. I've stopped upgrading my personal copies of MS Office and now use OO for all my personal office chores.

01-05-2010, 01:54 PM	#17
Greg Anos Grand Sorcerer Posts: 11,509 Karma: 37057604 Join Date: Jan 2008 Device: Pocketbook	Frankly, I use Wordpad. I rarely need to do any fancy formatting, and for quick and dirty, Wordpad fits the bill.... When I need a spellchecker, I can use Open Office, but it messes up the margins, so I have to load the result back into Wordpad and redo the margins. Started evaluating Altantis, because it does direct conversion to epub and HTML. Looks good so far. I'll be shipping the $35 soon....

01-05-2010, 03:13 PM	#18
=X= Wizard Posts: 3,671 Karma: 12205348 Join Date: Mar 2008 Device: Galaxy S, Nook w/CM7	I'ved used them all to some extent. I primarily use word however for work and at home I use OpenOffice. I chose to write the Bookcreator tool using word because I was more experinced with VBA. But ooo could do just fine While I have not used google docs for writing docs-- it just doesn't make sence to have to be online just to write a doc.-- I have used it with a group of friends for its version control features, though none of us used it to write documents

01-07-2010, 03:10 AM	#20
donovan1983 Member Posts: 23 Karma: 475310 Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: San Antonio, TX Device: Kindle Paperwhite	I use OpenOffice because it's multiplatform, free, and I've been using it a while. I do not like Word for Windows much at all beyond Word 97. Word for Mac is actually pretty nice (it is related to the Windows version in name only), but I won't be upgrading beyond the 2004 version since the main reason I even got Office 2004 back then was because OpenOffice had yet to get a native Aqua port out for OS X. I first used OpenOffice before the OpenOffice project even got started. Back then it was StarOffice 5.2 and I think Sun had either just purchased Star Division or it was just before they had. It was quirky, but free and worked quite well and I got used to it. Google Docs I have played with a little but didn't find it to be useful. The lack of a WYSIWYG mode for document editing was alone enough to turn me off to it. Another word processor I have played around with a little is Abiword. It is actually pretty nice, working rather similarly to Word 97, while offering more features in general (except for inline grammar checking). It seems to be compatible with even more formats than OpenOffice, which is quite a feat. For basic text editing, even though I only know the very basics of it still, I tend to turn to VIM. It's simple and vi or VIM is available by default on any UNIX or Unix-like system.

01-09-2010, 07:32 PM	#23
hidari MR Drone Posts: 1,613 Karma: 15612282 Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: DRONEZONE Device: PB360+, Huawei MP5, Libra H20	Thanx every one for their replies. Good to see that I am not the only one who avoids MSWORD. May have to try Atlantis ....looks promising.....

01-31-2010, 05:17 PM	#24
vivaldirules When's Doughnut Day? Posts: 10,059 Karma: 13675475 Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Houston, TX, US Device: Sony PRS-505, iPad	HELP! I hate it when Word (or even Wordpad) decides to change the spacing between lines. This often happens when I copy and paste something from some other document but it happens at other times, I think. And it annoys the crap out of me! If I select the entire document and reset the font and size, it will not fix the problem. I assume there is some line spacing thing somewhere but I have never found it (it's probably right in front of me but called something else). I haven't gotten anything useful from the online help. (a) Is there a way to set the line spacing in Word? (b) Is there a way I can prevent Word from changing the spacing when I paste something in?

01-31-2010, 05:59 PM	#26
vivaldirules When's Doughnut Day? Posts: 10,059 Karma: 13675475 Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Houston, TX, US Device: Sony PRS-505, iPad	Aha! Paragraph spacing (even though it's the spacing of all lines, not just the beginning of a paragraph). Okay. Anyway, thanks, frabjous! You don't know how long that has bugged me. So Word is working, but I see absolutely nothing in Wordpad that will let me make any similar changes. I may have to finally abandon it as my default word processor and move to Word just for this one capability.

01-31-2010, 11:29 PM	#29
frabjous Wizard Posts: 1,213 Karma: 12890 Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Amherst, Massachusetts, USA Device: Sony PRS-505	The reason I included the third video there is that it has to do with the default spacing, which I think might be relevant to why it gets changed when pasted, but you'd have to test that theory to find out.

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