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Author Topic: Alternatives to Microsoft Word  (Read 5361 times)

Anonymous

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Alternatives to Microsoft Word
« on: June 25, 2004, 11:55:53 AM »
http://www.geekforum.org/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=13" target="BLANK">http://209.225.8.65/shifty/images/demo_avatar_ruprecht.jpg"> Submitted by Demosthenes

Tired of MS Word?

Me too.  It's buggy, bloated, and expensive.  I don't use it at all anymore, not even at work.  I figured I'd post something helpful for a change, in addition to my usual "bitch of the week" in the http://www.gotthegeek.com/list.php?title=Rants&listfile=rants_list.txt">Rants section.

There are alternatives for Windows users that are just as easy to use, and best of all, free.

Here are some suggestions worth a look or two:

http://www.openoffice.org">OpenOffice.org -- Has a great Windows version, does most of the things that most people use Word for, but with less frustration.  Plus, you can save things as Word documents for your MS-only friends and cow-orkers.  One of the best features is the "save as PDF" feature.  I use this all the time.  Click, done!  A PDF that anyone with Adobe Acrobat Reader can read.  Pretty spiffy.  

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/abiword.html">Abiword -- Another open source word processor that's basically a MS Word clone.  Runs a lot faster than MS Word or OpenOffice.org's Writer app, and I've encountered a number of occasions where it interpreted MS Word documents more accurately than OpenOffice.org did where formatting was concerned.  It can also save as .DOC for your open-source-impaired friends and colleagues.  Not to mention, this application is free as well.

http://www.software602.com/download/">602PC Suite -- Not open source, but there is a free version that has apps comparable to Word and Excel.  I haven't used this one much, but it does look pretty nice, though it doesn't have quite as many features as OpenOffice or Abiword in my opinion.  There's a commercial version available as well that allegedly has more features, and I'd be willing to bet it costs considerably less than MS Office does.  One caveat:  the "free" version is 30-day trial only now, apparently.  It never used to be that way, but you should be aware that the new one is.  At the end of the 30 days you don't have to pay them anything, but they do require you to go through their "FREE online registration" at that point.  I haven't done that, so I don't know what's involved, but I bet it isn't anything that can't be snowed by filling out the form with TheJudge's name and email address like everything else we fill out around here.  

http://www.download.com/3000-2064-10054140.html">EasyOffice --  Never used this one, but it looks pretty nice, and according to reviews I've read of it it's pretty easy to use and is loaded with features, even if its interface seems a bit cluttered.  Probably worth a look though, and like everything else I'm talking about, it's free, so quitcherbitchin.

There.  Now you have no excuse.  Why pay hundreds of dollars for an entire MS Office suite of which you really only use 10% of the features?  Particularly when stuff like this is available for nothin' but a download.  
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hackess

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Alternatives to Microsoft Word
« Reply #1 on: June 25, 2004, 12:02:34 PM »
Offhand, do you know how OpenOffice handles Track Changes?
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Demosthenes

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« Reply #2 on: June 25, 2004, 12:11:59 PM »
Quote from: catwritr
Offhand, do you know how OpenOffice handles Track Changes?


Pretty well, though admittedly I don't use that feature.  It works almost identically to how it works in Word, from what I've seen.  They have pretty good documentation, so I'm sure it covers that as well as it covers everything else that I've looked up.
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hackess

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« Reply #3 on: June 25, 2004, 12:16:52 PM »
I use the feature A LOT, and like to work from home whenever I can. I'll have to test it to make sure the changes transfer well between OO and Word 2000/XP.

Thanks!
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pbsaurus

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Alternatives to Microsoft Word
« Reply #4 on: June 25, 2004, 03:46:20 PM »
I rarely use Word, but thanks for the info.
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Anonymous

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Alternatives to Microsoft Word
« Reply #5 on: June 26, 2004, 08:07:01 PM »
There's always edit and qedit. :lol:
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The_FOO

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« Reply #6 on: June 26, 2004, 10:16:44 PM »
ed, or edlin too.

If you're really really desperate: vi
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« Reply #7 on: June 29, 2004, 03:41:17 PM »
Even though I qualify for educational discounts (including free StarOffice), I use OpenOffice.org 1.1.0 at home and have been delighted with it.  It does everything I need it to.  In fact, we use it at work to recover MS Word documents that were corrupted in network transfers! :shock:
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Demosthenes

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« Reply #8 on: June 29, 2004, 05:03:31 PM »
QEdit i5 t3h r0x0r!!!1

I use OpenOffice almost exclusively at home in Linux, and in Windows.

In fact, since reformatting my laptop, I haven't even bothered to reinstall MS Office because

A)  It's a pain in the ass to install

and

B)  I've discovered that I don't really need it
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pbsaurus

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« Reply #9 on: June 29, 2004, 06:25:09 PM »
So how about the alternatives to Excel, Powerpoint, and Access.  Has anyone tried them?
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Demosthenes

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« Reply #10 on: June 30, 2004, 08:20:11 AM »
I don't know of quite as many of those for Windows... believe it or not, there are more free alternatives to Excel in Linux.

However, OpenOffice has an Excel clone that works really well, and that "602PC Suite" and "EasyOffice" suite that I mentioned in my initial post on this topic both supposedly have Excel equivalents, though I can't vouch for their quality/usability.

OpenOffice also has a Powerpoint clone that's pretty nice.

And why would you want something that works like Access?  Use a real database platform.  Access is for suckers.  :)
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« Reply #11 on: June 30, 2004, 11:01:46 AM »
At work I use a couple DBs which use Access as an engine.  Sometimes I need to open them up in Access and tweak them.  I agree, Access is teh suck.  The primary DB I use is SAS right now.
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reimero

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« Reply #12 on: June 30, 2004, 11:04:01 AM »
Quote from: pbsaurus
So how about the alternatives to Excel, Powerpoint, and Access.  Has anyone tried them?


The OpenOffice counterpoint to Excel can handle .xls files just fine from what I can tell.  I think it may ignore macros, but it knows how to handle other built-in special formatting and calculations and whatnot.
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Demosthenes

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« Reply #13 on: June 30, 2004, 12:02:04 PM »
And actually, depending on the complexity level of the macros, they can sometimes be pretty easily recreated in OpenOffice if they don't port directly over.
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