[ILUG] Disappointment with OpenOffice

[Gareth Eason]

	Perhaps it should be remembered that the Excel document format is a 
CLOSED format. Anything that Open Office can do with Office files is due 
to the untiring work and dedication of the Open Office team, reverse 
engineering (in some fashion) to way the file formats hold together.

	I think you'll find that incompatibilities are rife between different 
versions of Microsoft Office, and Microsoft Office for different 
Platforms (I've had issues using Office files being edited on Office on 
Mac and Office on Windows - and they're both from the same company with 
full access to the file format specifications!!!)

	In short, I empathise with your difficulties, but the problem lies in 
the fact that you have started with a proprietary format. A proprietary 
closed format which Microsoft will not release a specification for. I 
think you'll find that if you use Open Office formats (XML) or any 
number of open, publicly documented file formats, you will enjoy a 
vastly superior user experience from the OpenOffice.org product suite.

	Best regards,
	-->Gar



Michele Neylon :: Blacknight Solutions wrote:
> <quote who="Timothy Murphy">
> 
>>I had to edit a rather large Excel file.
>>Following excellent (no pun intended) advice from ILUG,
>>I converted the file under Windows to CSV format,
>>and edited that under Linux.
>>This solved the problem completely.
>>When I transferred the file back to Windows
>>it came up perfectly in Excel,
>>though the formatting commands (centering columns, etc)
>>were lost, but they were easily re-installed.
>>
>>However, I tried editing the .xls file in OpenOffice under Linux,
>>and was really quite disappointed with the result.
>>In fact I didn't trust the program, and so gave up using it.
>>
>>For example, when I edited one line in the Excel file,
>>another line was also affected, at least in the display.
>>And the little text-window at the top
>>where one can make changes in cells
>>was displaced downwards, so I could only see the tops of letters.
>>
>>Finally, when I tried to save the file
>>I was told it could not be saved in Excel format,
>>but only in some special OpenOffice format.
>>This didn't really concern me, as I had decided by then
>>that I didn't trust the Excel output.
>>
>>Sad ...
> 
> 
> Open Office < > MS Office only seems to work well with simple documents. I
> ran into similar issues last year with spreadsheets using formulae.
> 
>