Office Software

wildgoose1uk

Hi

I am looking to buy another licence for MS Office but am considering switching to openoffice. Does anybody have any experience of it? Is it a viable alternative?

ta

wg

Paul C

Hi,

I find open office very good for basic everyday use. I switched back to Microsoft as I was concerned that some clients would not be able to (or think that they could not...) easily open "word" or "excel" type files that I send them. But I did manage to get a very low price deal via my day job.

jamesm96

I know this isn't specifically what you asked, (I've very little experience of OpenOffice) but, if you have more than 5 machines (I think) then Microsoft allow you to join their Partner Program so that you can market their software to clients.

As a 'benefit', they'll give you 10 MS Office Licences for your own internal use along with numerous Windows and Windows Server licences (the latter being well worth the £200odd annual subscription).

Monsoon

OpenOffice is fine, but feels slightly clunky to me compared to MS, but is fine when you get used to it.

You can save as .xls and .doc so it looks like you're using MS.

If you're running VT Accounts, which is an Excel add-in, then you need Excel though.

anniem

If you are a student you can get a good deal through software4students.

wildgoose1uk

All good points and thanks for the input. The clincher really is that VT is an Excel plugin so until that changes I am a little stuck.

The partner program is worth looking into though.

JodieR

I've not used openoffice for years so maybe its improved since then, but I remember it being very basic compared to excel and everything I wanted to do was frustratingly slow. I think it's alright for very basic home use but not good enough to use as your main office software.