The company I work for is about to upgrade the Microsoft office suite from Office 2003 to Office 2010 because they say they need to be using the latest software
One issue we had is that some people receive files made in 2010 and could not open in 2003 ( I opened it for them on my laptop with Linux and saved in 2003 format, I know they can also use the free converter / reader from Micro$oft but to me to buy a few hundred copy’s of Office 2010 is a waste of money when there is an alternative, is there any company’s using the open source office suites that we know about and I would like them to reconsider as the money could be put to much better use elsewhere.
> is there any
> company’s using the open source office suites that we know about and I
> would like them to reconsider as the money could be put to much better
> use elsewhere.
While I was working for Novell, I used OpenOffice (and then LibreOffice)
exclusively.
Many people did just that.
The thing you need to look at/consider is the importance of file format
compatibility. If you don’t exchange documents with external people, or
send read-only documents (in which case PDF will work just fine), then
it’s reasonable to look at a free office suite. But remember as with
anything, there is user training that has to take place, and you need to
fully understand the users’ needs rather than force a solution on them
that they don’t like.
Why don’t you offer employees a free trial of LibreOfice 3.4.1 or 3.4.2 for three or six months - pointing out that they can download and use it at home for free? The chances are you will find some people who will choose it, some who want to stick with MS and some who couldn’t care less as long as it works. You can set LinreOffice up to default to MS formats if that helps in the transition.
One issue we had is that some people receive files made in 2010 and could not open in 2003 ( I opened it for them on my laptop with Linux and saved in 2003 format, I know they can also use the free converter / reader from Micro$oft but to me to buy a few hundred copy’s of Office 2010 is a waste of money when there is an alternative, is there any company’s using the open source office suites that we know about and I would like them to reconsider as the money could be put to much better use elsewhere.
When you have a large number of users sharing documents with the outside world there is no escape. You need “the original thing” ™ to remain compatible. A few hundred licences is much cheaper than the trouble and loss of time caused by any free Office suite in this environment.
Why don’t you offer employees a free trial of LibreOfice 3.4.1 or 3.4.2 for three or six months - pointing out that they can download and use it at home for free? The chances are you will find some people who will choose it, some who want to stick with MS and some who couldn’t care less as long as it works. You can set LinreOffice up to default to MS formats if that helps in the transition.
That’s an excellent idea. Many people are just producing and reading basic .doc and .xls files anyway, during the course of their work. Further to this, its good to lean on any management who will listen, the benefits of using open data formats (as well as OS software). Most are at least receptive to the $$$ that can be saved when other advantages are lost on them.
When you have a large number of users sharing documents with the outside world there is no escape. You need “the original thing” ™ to remain compatible. A few hundred licences is much cheaper than the trouble and loss of time caused by any free Office suite in this environment.
It all depends on what is being shared of course. My own experience has been that I can read over 99% of what I’ve been sent within last 5-6 years. I’ve read and edited collaborated spreadsheets created by others largely without issue. Thankfully, the company I currently work for encourages the use of open source software, so I don’t require MS products of any kind.
> My own experience has
> been that I can read over 99% of what I’ve been sent within last 5-6
> years. I’ve read and edited collaborated spreadsheets created by others
> largely without issue.
Personally I use LibreOffice and have no problems as well. However in a
corporate environment of 10,000 users even that 1% becomes a huge headache.
>> One issue we had is that some people receive files made in 2010 and
>> could not open in 2003 ( I opened it for them on my laptop with Linux
>> and saved in 2003 format, I know they can also use the free converter /
>> reader from Micro$oft but to me to buy a few hundred copy’s of Office
>> 2010 is a waste of money when there is an alternative, is there any
>> company’s using the open source office suites that we know about and I
>> would like them to reconsider as the money could be put to much better
>> use elsewhere.
>
> When you have a large number of users sharing documents with the outside
> world there is no escape. You need “the original thing” ™ to remain
> compatible. A few hundred licences is much cheaper than the trouble and
> loss of time caused by any free Office suite in this environment.
It does depends a lot on the complexity of the documents. I’m working on
a project right now that I received a .docx file for (and probably will
receive more), and LibreOffice opened it just fine…
But try to find an app that lets you embed annotations (ala Reader X - ie,
not just “markup” but actual Acrobat Annotations) in a PDF file on Linux
no dice. Even Acrobat Reader X won’t do it under Crossover (the
annotations just disappear).
Often when people look at migrating from MSOffice to Open/LibreOffice they will interpret formatting issues as “incompatibility,” without really thinking about what is going on; issues relating to word wrap, paragraphing, picture and table locations are common. You can, as indicated in an earlier post, save everything in MSWord format but even this can cause issues if you do not have the MS fonts installed. Take the time to set up standard document templates, or import your MS ones and save them in .odf format. Then check that, page size, margins, headers, footers, defaults fonts, word spacing, line spacing and paragraph spacing are all the same. Also make sure that inserted objects are anchored to the immediately preceding character, as opposed to page or paragraph this will ensure everything is in the right place. If all these parameters are set the same the document will be the same.
Going the other way you could always install the Sun (Oracle) plugin for MSWord so that it can read from and saved to .odf format.
Standardising on templates and checking that they are in fact the same either way odf/doc will resolve many if not all of the perceived “incompatibilities.”
LibreOffice and OpenOffice can read .docx and .xlsx files without any converters. Unfortunately if the files hold something more complex inside them the reading of the “latest” Microsoft office files can be not accurate. For compatibility it’s best not to use those formats at all but generally people are to lazy to use save as…
Another problem is that (at least in Office 2007 don’t know if it’s still there as I use LibreOffice now exclusively) when using the save as .doc for example the mathematical equations are turned into pictures… and later on You’re not able to edit them. So the best idea is to ditch all the new Microsoft Office suits altogether.
Another impressive piece of software is google docs but it’s harder to get familiar with it if You want to switch from the standard Microsoft Office.
>
>Often when people look at migrating from MSOffice to Open/LibreOffice
>they will interpret formatting issues as “incompatibility,” without
>really thinking about what is going on; issues relating to word wrap,
>paragraphing, picture and table locations are common. You can, as
>indicated in an earlier post, save everything in MSWord format but even
>this can cause issues if you do not have the MS fonts installed. Take
>the time to set up standard document templates, or import your MS ones
>and save them in .odf format. Then check that, page size, margins,
>headers, footers, defaults fonts, word spacing, line spacing and
>paragraph spacing are all the same. Also make sure that inserted objects
>are anchored to the immediately preceding character, as opposed to page
>or paragraph this will ensure everything is in the right place. If all
>these parameters are set the same the document will be the same.
>
>Going the other way you could always install the Sun (Oracle) plugin
>for MSWord so that it can read from and saved to .odf format.
>
>Standardising on templates and checking that they are in fact the same
>either way odf/doc will resolve many if not all of the perceived
>“incompatibilities.”
Problem understood. Many files coming into company(internal 10%, 90% external) I work with are in MS .docx or MS .xlsx which cannot be read by others in company as we have MS Word versions from 2000 upwards on different machines (almost all using MS XP Pro as OS).
I install OpenOffice.org on all machines to enable them to read files and save in MS .doc 97/2003 to their own machines.
I also try to get them to save in MS 97/2003 formats as ‘default save’ in both MS Office and OpenOffice.org. This allows inter company compatability.
I am afraid it is user education, user education, user education.
It could save alot of money a lot to go to OpenOfice.org or Libreoffice .org.
Advise your bosses this is way the ‘extremely sensitive’ French Police and Customs went, as did other government organisations and it saved a lot of taxpayer money. French Armed forces also use Thunderbird as email client, slighty altered & you can get their version, not MS Outlook due to absolute requirement to know who opened and read message. Sometimes MS products are not the best for the job, although for many they are adequate.
