The Watering Hole

Listed in the "useful tools" section above (along with Kev).    

Who has used it?  how  do you like it?  How does it compare to the standard in the field, MS Office?  

I got Amy a new laptop for Christmas, and she'll need a word processor and a couple other things.  Thought I might try this out.  

MS Office saves you some compatibility problems.

I use OpenOffice exclusively on my home computer, and it works with and saves to all the MS office file formats no prob. However, I know my shit.

On my wife's laptop, she started with OpenOffice, and I switched her to MS Office when I got tired of doing her tech support, if that tells you anything.

Typically, new laptops come preloaded with Office and you can use it for 30 days or something. She can figure out whether she can't live without it...

If you get the burning desire to learn any of the stuff you've been asking about (i.e., Google and Microsoft) as well as tons of others (like Adobe products or even Pro Tools) this is the website to go to:

http://www.lynda.com/

Only $25 per month for all-you-can-watch training videos (GOOD training videos).  Even I had a few "Wow, I didn't know that!" moments in software I've been using for years.

Of course, if you're techy and the moral issues don't prevent you, all of these videos can be found on various file-sharing websites (just be careful - some harbor malware as well).  I have all of the Microsoft 2007 videos (about 31 gig so far) as well as a few others and will be getting the Adobe ones soon.  We're preparing to upgrade to Windows 7 and MS Office 2007 plus I'll have MS Project 2007 or 2010 along with one of the Adobe CS5 Suites, Visio 2007 and AutoCAD.  I'm trying to be ready and know the basics about the software before I even install it.

I think she'll use mainly Word equivalent.  I might download it myself and try it out first.  

Kinda old, but what the heck. I've been using open office now for about a month. Keep in mind my needs are basic business....spread sheets, and normal word stuff.

I find that when I fill out a form for the first time it works perfect. Then I open the same form again and try it and it completely fucks up the form and I have to fix it....boxes, etc. I'm using it on my macbook pro. I'm gonna give it another month of messing around and if it pisses me off more, I'll just get the MS stuff and be done with it.

I'm not good enough with computers to try this hard to deal with shit.

It fucking sucks, by the way. ;D

Open orifice.