OpenOffice.org is used by schools as an alternative to proprietory applications. What is your experience of OpenOffice.org?
Will you be using version 3 of OpenOffice.org? If so, post your review here.
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OpenOffice.org is used by schools as an alternative to proprietory applications. What is your experience of OpenOffice.org?
Will you be using version 3 of OpenOffice.org? If so, post your review here.
I had no trouble moving to OpenOffice.org as it has at least 90% of the functionality of MS Office (the instant PDF adds another 5% for me) so most people can just start using it. Flash objects are more advanced but I'm sure it will be available at some point. Like any addiction, it isn't easy to stop immediately, but the more you use OpenOffice, you'll steadily loose the cravings of what you thought you needed and you can break free of M$.
The main drawback of OpenOffice over MS Office in the past has been its lack of support for embedded Flash objects in PowerPoint files - there are many pre-made PowerPoint resources out there (see companies like BoardWorks for some good examples), but the damn things wouldn't work in OpenOffice. I plan to try with OpenOffice 3.
--
David Hicks
We have Open Office and Microsoft Office 2000 available on all student machines. At the moment most students typically use Microsoft Office, but if asked why they are typically surprised that any other office package exists.
Open Office *is* used by many students, often those who have brought Microsoft Works (which we cannot open) or Office 2007 documents into school and get sent back home with Open Office on their memory stick.
Open Office is also great when students are working between different versions of Microsoft Office, as often simply opening the document in Open Office then saving it again is enough to make it work (problems even exist between 2000 and 2003).
The biggest drawback of Open Office is the inability or reluctance of some to even "try it out", particularly with staff, as a contrast to what is taught with even a simple thing such as comparing two poems.
I have installed it on all our school machines (saving an absolute fortune) and (sneakily) removed the various versions of Microsoft Office. For the children there is absolutely no problem at all. They use it freely and expertly and naturally. The only issue is the Office 2007 files brought into school for project work which I convert with an online converter and then hand back to the pupil. This has only been on one or two occasions so I can live with it. I do nag the kids to download Open Office and advertise it on our school blog and push it on our ictideas wiki.
Our teachers are different. They are fine using it with children but in their own use its trusty Microsoft. I have no issues with this at all except, again with Office 2007 and its compatability issues especially Publisher. It annoys/frustrates me when our LEA run Office 2007 courses and other similar stuff and leave out completly openoffice/ open source applications. Muliply the savings we have made by just a fraction of local schools and what could that money be used for.
At a personal level I use Open Ofice for everything. For school work and for home stuff - it does every job I need it to do.
To answer the original question.... I would argue that the question should be the other way rounnd..."Is Microsoft a suitable alternative for Open Office?"
A parallel discussion has just started among ICT Skill for Life teachers on www.ictsfl.org.uk with quite a bit of activity in the first 24 hours. Here it is so far. Any thoughts from this community?
OpenOffice: the alternative to Microsoft Office?
by Peter Robinson - Friday, 30 January 2009, 07:06 PM
Has anybody used OpenOffice? This is a free alternative to Microsoft Office. What do you think?
Re: OpenOffice: the alternative to Microsoft Office?
by Allie McCormick - Friday, 30 January 2009, 08:09 PM
Yes I use this all the time and also Mozilla Firefox browser which is also free
Re: OpenOffice: the alternative to Microsoft Office?
by Keith Moody - Friday, 30 January 2009, 10:22 PM
Likewise - I use it on a regular basis too - and - there is a portable version that can be installed to usb memory stick and run on almost any computer without installing it to the PC or laptop. There are also other apps that can be installed to portable drives too.
Re: OpenOffice: the alternative to Microsoft Office?
by Allie McCormick - Saturday, 31 January 2009, 12:20 AM
I use portable apps too
Re: OpenOffice: the alternative to Microsoft Office?
by Peter Robinson - Saturday, 31 January 2009, 09:09 AM
Very interesting. Are any of you having any problems with these applications?
To those of you who are using OpenOffice: What are there things that you want to do but cannot?
Re: OpenOffice: the alternative to Microsoft Office?
by Colin Schofield - Saturday, 31 January 2009, 07:47 PM
The biggest problem I find is transfering files saved in an open office format to machines that only have Microsoft Office on. If you, (or the student), remembered to save them in a Word format originally then there is no problem, if they didn't then there are problems as you cant open them. However if it has been drummed into your students to save them this way then all should be well. It also helps if the tutor's machine have both Open Office and Office on..
I constructed a PowerPoint Presentation in Office that contained macro's that didn't function in Open Office so transferability does have to be checked.
The reason I use Open Office as a training resource is that my students when they buy machines will tend to use this software rather than paying for Microsofts product.
Lastly, I've heard a rumour that the latest product, Open Office 3 will read Microsoft Office 2007, if true that will save an awful lot of harrassment as my machines at work have Microsoft Office 2003 on at the moment. I ain't checked this yet, anyone know?
Re: OpenOffice: the alternative to Microsoft Office?
by Evered Woodward - Saturday, 31 January 2009, 10:09 PM
I have used open office and find it a useful office package. One of its advantages is that it will work in conjunction with Microsoft office. I often put students who have just purchased a machine and so not have a reasonable office package installed onto open office. I always keep a disc containing the programme handy.
Re: OpenOffice: the alternative to Microsoft Office?
by Keith Moody - Saturday, 31 January 2009, 10:13 PM
I know there are some limitations with Open Office but when teaching in Skills for Life they really don’t come into play very much at all. I think the latest version of Open Office supports MS Office 2007, the alternative web browsers seem quicker (but yet to move away from Outlook)!
I can get the portable version of the Open Office Suite installed on a memory stick and work with any PC – OK it is a little slower but for word processing and spreadsheet use it is fine.
re John Hammond's post on the icstis site:
OpenOffice version 3 does indeed open Office2007 files. For that one reason it is now necessary on all our school computers. In some cases OpenOffice v3 has been made the preferred application for opening docx files rather than MSOffice2003.
For adult novices who fear stepping into the unknown beyond Microsoft, I configure OpenOffice to always save in Office2003 format. The users then do not need to know the difference. In even better than Microsoft fashion, things just work for them.
So I go to
www.ictsfl.org.uk
to contribute this pearl of wisdom ....
It is a very closed user group. No womder they are having trouble with the concept of open source!
How does one get a pass key for their site - if one can be bothered? And then how does one contact the site organisers to tell them that they really should have a contact link if they mean what they say on their front page:
"Any suggestions for improvements are welcome."
Most of all, why do I never have these problems on commercial sites?
Oh - and as an aside, a big thank you to Microsoft for helping me to explain to our pupils why they must take responsibility for deciding how to save their work, where to save it, and what to name it. I have been fighting Microsoft on these issues for far too long - it is getting easier now!
On the ICTSfL Public Arena the Open Source software discussion has opened up again. Here are the last two postings:
Re: OpenOffice: the alternative to Microsoft Office?
13 February 2009
Hi all
For anyone working in Further Education, the Scottish Regional Support Centres in conjunction with JISC TechDis have an initiative called Access Apps which gives access to Open Office and many others useful free software on a USB pen. You can download the material onto to a USB pen yourself. See http://www.rsc-ne-scotland.ac.uk/accessapps/ for more information
Best wishes
Catherine
Re: OpenOffice: the alternative to Microsoft Office?
13 February 2009
Hi Catherine
I've got the AccessApps stuff, it looks really good. I downloaded it myself first, and then bought some pre-loaded memory sticks with it on to distribute to staff. However, a lot of the applications don't seem to run... including all the Open Office ones unfortunately. I've tried both the memory sticks and the version I downloaded separately myself, and they all seem to be the same. Do you know if this is a common problem, or if it's just something unique to us? I thought it was worth mentioning so you could check them out before lots of other ppl download them and find the same thing...
Thx
Kathy
Could somebody please supply some answers. Here will be fine, but if you have the energy please go into the ICTSfL site. This link should take you straight to the discussion If you have not signed up you will need to.
Peter,
Why don't you ask Kathy to join our community too? It would be useful to know whether her difficulties with Access Apps are in relation to computers at her college or at home. If it's the former, it would be worth her chatting with her network manager / technical staff.
Miles.
Kathy's posting is the end of a chain. John Hammond shows earlier postings in that chain. But not the first, which calls upon members of the ICT Skill for Life community to join this site, follow this link to see.
From what I can see nobody from there has signed up here. They may have visited. One reason possibly for not joining is they do not work schools.
I am pretty sure Kathy tried running the applications at work. She is no fool but has hit a barrier; many people will have not gone as far as her. When she talks to the technical staff what should she say? Are there potential incompabilties due to operating systems? Or potential software clashes?
In terms of having a dialogue with her and others I will remind her and others to go this site but it would be extremely helpful if we could provide more answers. It would be even more helpful if they were done withinn that community
If her difficulties with portable / accessible apps were at work, then it's possible that system / group policies in place on the college's computers may prevent applications being run from USB sticks. If this is the case, the college's technical staff should be able, although not invariably willing, to help.
Hi All,
We have used Open Office at Brewers Hill Middle School for the past 3 months. Half the kids did not notice the difference.
Some things it does better, some things less so. Most changes just take a little getting used to.
I also use Kompozer for web design - not as cuddly as Front Page but easier than Dreamweaver and above all FREE.
Paul Burrett
One wonders why anyone uses Microsoft Works these days. Open Office is not only free and much more powerful, it is also more compatible with MS Office than Works. The main downside to Open Office is that it is machine resource hungry and works better the higher the hardware spec. My number one wish for the Open Office developers is to optimise the code for speed and memory efficiency and worry less about adding features hardly anyone will ever use. then we will see Open Office on Smart 'phones. Since Brazil has just made odf (Open Office's open file format) mandatory in line with a number of other countries MS is going to have to support the odf ISO standard. That will reduce lock-in and increase competition which is good for everyone. Did you know that the NHS pays more in MS Office licenses than Sun paid for the entire code base of Open Office and the business behind it? We could buy a lot of Alzheimers care for those license fees.
An observaton from a Secondary school in Bradford using Open Office for over a year now when I posed this question locally -
Absolutely! After a period of severe pain (4-5 months) we are making it work for us. There are some staff (Head's PA, Finance Officer and Data Manager who we have identified as staff who do require Microsoft Office due to the nature of their role. This is mainly due to external software packages they have to interact with (SIMS) rather than it being a training issue or personal preference.
I'm trying to get the Bradford Schools involved directly wit this community but it's taking a while :-)
As you indicate, it does not have to be all or nothing. That seems to be a common misconception. If you have paid for MS Office licenses you can always have some MS Office for anything that really needs it. When the MS Office users are in a minority for long enough they are likely to eventually change especially as filters etc continue to improve and you have a policy not to upgrade further. I'd also encourage alternatives such as Google Docs, Abiword or Koffice even though Google is not FOSS. Choice is actually educational. As for SIMS, I think it has already been flagged up that pressure should be put on Capita to support OpenOffice. Two monopolies acting together and blocking competition is illegal.