OT: StarOffice

I have used Star Office 5.2 and Open Office 1.0
I have not purchase later versions of Star Office.

Star Office is a very good product that at the 5.2 level would read
and write simple MS Office files. It had a problem with Word Tables
and Excel merged cells.

Open Office has some development holes. The find and replace feature
is not fully functional. It also has some problems with tables and
merged cells in MS office. Otherwise it is excellent. If you plan to
produce documents and spreadsheets for your own use it works well.
I do have problems with the lockups. That may have more to do with
old 16 bit applications than Open Office.

At Weaver Industries we will be using Office 2003

HTH
RUss Dover

> I vaguely remember some discussion a while back concerning StarOffice
> versus
> Microsoft Office. I'd really appreciate ANY feedback on StarOffice.
> Is it
> worthwhile? Does it convert easily/well from Excel/Word files?
> Looking at
> the reviews on Amazon, there were several that mentioned Java
> problems and
> the software causing the computer to crash. Then there were other
> messages
> that insinuated that the negative reviews were from Microsoft
> personnel.
> So....looking for unbiased feedback. This is my first home computer
> (I
> know....hard to believe!!) and don't want to do anything to cause
> myself any
> problems. Thanks all for your input!!!
>
> Tricia
>
>
I vaguely remember some discussion a while back concerning StarOffice versus
Microsoft Office. I'd really appreciate ANY feedback on StarOffice. Is it
worthwhile? Does it convert easily/well from Excel/Word files? Looking at
the reviews on Amazon, there were several that mentioned Java problems and
the software causing the computer to crash. Then there were other messages
that insinuated that the negative reviews were from Microsoft personnel.
So....looking for unbiased feedback. This is my first home computer (I
know....hard to believe!!) and don't want to do anything to cause myself any
problems. Thanks all for your input!!!

Tricia
Tricia,

The negative reviews you mention below are more than likely Microsoft FUD.
At home I have been running various versions of StarOffice for a few years
now, and I have never had one crash on me. The GUI is getting better (v.5.1
had this nasty GUI app that tried to replace your entire desktop). I never
had any problems with conversion of excel or word files. If you want to go
totally free you should visit www.openoffice.org. From this site you can
download a stripped down, but totally free version of StarOffice. The main
thing not included in this version is the database (Access) package.

HTH,

Paul

-----Original Message-----
From: Tricia Simon [mailto:t.simon@...]
Sent: Thursday, December 04, 2003 7:52 AM
To: Vantage One-List (E-mail)
Subject: [Vantage] OT: StarOffice


I vaguely remember some discussion a while back concerning StarOffice versus
Microsoft Office. I'd really appreciate ANY feedback on StarOffice. Is it
worthwhile? Does it convert easily/well from Excel/Word files? Looking at
the reviews on Amazon, there were several that mentioned Java problems and
the software causing the computer to crash. Then there were other messages
that insinuated that the negative reviews were from Microsoft personnel.
So....looking for unbiased feedback. This is my first home computer (I
know....hard to believe!!) and don't want to do anything to cause myself any
problems. Thanks all for your input!!!

Tricia



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Tricia,

Open Office is what I tried. It is very good, unless you need to be in sync
with your customers/branches and MS Office. We have some functions and
formatting that did not work with the version 1.0 of Open Office. It might
be different with the new version, but I can't tell you. We went to MS
Office XP because of this problem.

Gary Polvinale
Denton ATD

-----Original Message-----
From: Tricia Simon [mailto:t.simon@...]
Sent: Thursday, December 04, 2003 7:52 AM
To: Vantage One-List (E-mail)
Subject: [Vantage] OT: StarOffice


I vaguely remember some discussion a while back concerning StarOffice versus
Microsoft Office. I'd really appreciate ANY feedback on StarOffice. Is it
worthwhile? Does it convert easily/well from Excel/Word files? Looking at
the reviews on Amazon, there were several that mentioned Java problems and
the software causing the computer to crash. Then there were other messages
that insinuated that the negative reviews were from Microsoft personnel.
So....looking for unbiased feedback. This is my first home computer (I
know....hard to believe!!) and don't want to do anything to cause myself any
problems. Thanks all for your input!!!

Tricia


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Useful links for the Yahoo!Groups Vantage Board are: ( Note: You must have
already linked your email address to a yahoo id to enable access. )
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Crystal Reports and other 'goodies', please goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/files/.
(2) To search through old msg's goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/messages
(3) To view links to Vendors that provide Vantage services goto:
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