onecrazymother ([info]onecrazymother) wrote,
@ 2007-10-26 08:53:00
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Current mood: busy

Mostly for 1cmf
hey sweetie,

LJ seems like a useful format for discussion of that not-windows-office free software you were telling me about. What was that? Can we get it? Sometimes I get stuff sent to me, and I can't open it, and I get a message telling me to do something to see if I can open it...it might say "go to systems applications" to do something like select how to deal with this file. I haven't tried following those instructions yet.

(If anyone else feels like chiming in, feel free. If I didn't want you to, I could have put this on our just-us filter.)

-1cm


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[info]tldz
2007-10-26 01:01 pm UTC (link)
Most likely, [info]1cmf was referring to OpenOffice.org.

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[info]tactisle
2007-10-26 01:16 pm UTC (link)
I just switched from my old copy of Micro$oft Office 97 to OpenOffice.org, and I love it more every time I use it.

However, for greater compatibility with MS-Office documents etc., I should probably mention that Google has a weird distribution agreement with Sun that allows them to distribute the commercial version of the same software (StarOffice 8) for FREE, via the GooglePack project.

(you can, if you like, install a GooglePack that's only StarOffice.)

The main difference between StarOffice and OpenOffice seems to be that StarOffice contains some commercially-licensed fonts, MS-document import filters, etc. that won't conform to an open-source license.

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[info]onecrazymother
2007-10-26 01:26 pm UTC (link)
[info]1cmf is on a huge google kick, so he likely meant StarOffice. But he can weigh in tonight.

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[info]sambear
2007-10-26 01:46 pm UTC (link)
Ackshully, you can go to docs.google.com and sign in and get access to a word processor, a spreadsheet, and a presentation thinger for free and you don't have to install anything.

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[info]tactisle
2007-10-26 02:10 pm UTC (link)
We *heart* Google Docs too. Especially the power to share documents and let multiple people edit 'em.

But one thing Google Docs can't do is give file associations to documents on one's computer, which (if I read correctly) is the problem-to-be-solved here.

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[info]onecrazymother
2007-10-26 03:34 pm UTC (link)
that sounds exactly right. I often seem to have problems communicating with other people. I'm always having to change stuff to rtf, and asking them to do the same. It seems everyone else's computer is speaking a different language. I mean, I know some folks just don't want any of this gooey stuff, and that's fine, but many people seem to be going with some sort of modern default that I don't use. I dislike paying $300 for software I only need because everyone else has it, and I even more dislike installing stolen copies of anything (I'm annoying that way)...but it seems like there is now another alternative, which makes me happy.

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[info]shirleym
2007-10-26 01:49 pm UTC (link)
Google also has online office applications, to which you can upload files in other office suites' formats. You don't even need to "get" those--if you have a Google account, you can get to them from www.google.com by selecting "more" from the menu at the top and then "Documents" from the dropdown list. (Sorry, I don't remember the URL for getting directly to them. It might or might not be docs.google.com.)

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[info]onecrazymother
2007-10-26 03:35 pm UTC (link)
yes, this is the sort of thing that 1cmf is using a lot lately. He figures (if I understand him correctly) that then he can trust google, rather than us, not to lose his data. Nobody is infallible, but I'm with him that Google is more likely to succeed at being computer-competent, than we are.

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[info]catwithbell
2007-10-26 01:55 pm UTC (link)
That what I was thinking too.

The presentation and word processing parts work just fine. A friend (GS) reports that the spreadsheet part does run into some complications. Something about issues with floating point calculations. It seems fine for basic uses, though.

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[info]1cmf
2007-10-26 08:47 pm UTC (link)
It was indeed Open Office: It's sitting burned on a CD in my briefcase.

I'm intigued by the Googley thing, I've been using Google Docs precisely becuase it's free and readilly available and all that, but most of the world still embraces the Micro$oft Demon and Google Docs is not yet sufficiently compatable AFAICT.

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[info]pythonista
2007-10-27 06:17 am UTC (link)
I am going to expend a bit of whatever good will I've accumulated by devoting part of this response to something totally and utterly off-topic: I have only just now realized what 1cmf stands for, now that you have signed your entry 1cm.

But I do have a small contribution to the topic at hand, which is that for my taste, the main problem with Google Docs is not its compatibility shortcomings but its functional and... um... "interfacial" shortcomings. The compatibility thing is largely due to M$'s usage and zealous guarding of proprietary formats (though that seems to be softening) while the rest are due to the current limitations and quirks of using the browser as the thing that runs the applications.

However, for light tasks, and the benefit of accessing your documents from any computer with an Internet connection and Web browser, Google Docs fits the bill nicely.

As for opening documents created by other people—without conversion hassles and without expensive commercial software—I can only wish you well. It's a much different (and I think harder) problem than that of finding free software which will let you manipulate your own documents the way you like.

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