+1 Rory's point is all that matters. The user wants to know how things will work *now* in choosing between different products. Hypotheticals and speculations about format standards are not useful. (I've worked on both OOXML and ODF specifications and I know from direct knowledge how baseless that debate is. I also run Office 365, Apache OpenOffice, and LibreOffice. I will not offer a preference so don't ask.)
Neither Microsoft Office nor Apache OpenOffice provide a works-alike of the other and its preferred/native format. Each uses the format of the other by (imperfect) conversions. That will be apparent when Bill or anyone has them side-by-side and tests interchange with the documents that are important to him. My recommendation to Bill Pate is that he go to the trouble of installing Apache OpenOffice and checking on what matters for his particular situation and the documents that are important to him. He should not save back on top of his Office 365 documents, but save as new versions from OpenOffice until he is satisfied that any deviations are tolerable. He also needs to know that if support for OOXML (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx) formats is important for reasons of interchange, that Apache OpenOffice does not save back in those formats and it won't in the foreseeable future. Earlier comments suggest alternatives (e.g., going back to .doc, .xls, and .ppt formats or switching to .odt, .ods, and .odp) and Bill should satisfy himself whether any of that works in his situation. It may also matter whether he requires Mobile/Tablet support and an alternative to desktop Outlook (if used in his Office 365 work), frequent security and feature updates, etc. It doesn't matter what others think sucks. It matters what will actually work for Bill. The safest step for Bill is to try both while he can have them side-by-side and then satisfy himself. - Dennis > -----Original Message----- > From: Rory O'Farrell [mailto:ofarr...@iol.ie] > Sent: Sunday, October 2, 2016 07:00 > To: dev@openoffice.apache.org > Cc: Xen <l...@xenhideout.nl> > Subject: Re: <DKIM> In regards to Open Office > > > Top posting: > > This thread is going off at half cock! > > Hagar's implied point was that any change in editor is almost certain to > cause some alteration (greater or lesser) in formatting. Why this > should be and whether the precise file format is responsible is hardly > relevant. > > Rory > > > On Sun, 02 Oct 2016 15:43:56 +0200 > Xen <l...@xenhideout.nl> wrote: > > > Jörg Schmidt schreef op 02-10-2016 14:05: > > > > > And let me say it absolutely clear: > > > I've heard how MS has denigrated many years Linux, but I have also > > > noticed that MS > > > reality of ODF recognized. > > > Only with better software, we can beat MS, not with stupid sayings. > > > > It is easier than ever today, I must say. Microsoft creates worse and > > worse software by the day, for the most part. But for the most part > > Linux is not improving either... > > > > > I believe in the competition for the better software, not I believe > in > > > the power > > > of ideological talk. > > > > Indeed just saying some software is better won't make it better. > > > > Thank you for these sentiments. In the Linux world many things are > make > > believe. If you can get enough people to agree that a pear is orange, > > other people will start believing it too. > > > > Some Linux advents and groups and products keep repeating "their great > > community" and "their awesome software" verbatim every day. But saying > > it is great doesn't necesarily make it great and I see the same on > > television if I have stayed away from it for a while (it will be > called > > nationalism). > > > > Only honesty can really improve things. Anyway, sorry for this. > Regards. > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > > To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@openoffice.apache.org > > For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@openoffice.apache.org > > > > > > > -- > Rory O'Farrell <ofarr...@iol.ie> > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@openoffice.apache.org > For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@openoffice.apache.org --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@openoffice.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@openoffice.apache.org
