Microsoft word vs openOfficeword.org

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anthorn

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Which one is better for writing with?

Officeworld which I use now, gives me a wordcount of 100'000 odd. 467pg
Microsoft word gives me one of 99'000 odd, 543pg.
Officeworld has no punctuation correction.
Microsoft word does. Is it's puntuation corrections correct or not? Should I switch over or not?
 
OpenOffice and other freebies end up causing real trouble here, but whatever works for you.
Personally I want spelchek, grammar and punctuation OFF.
If u are using Word now, don't change. No way in the world are any free programs better, and it seems Word is the standard of the industry.
 
Despite its claims of compatibility, in my experience things will be displayed/formatted differently in OpenOffice. Even 100 page booklets need completely re-writing/editing. But I still use it... ;)
 
i prefer openoffice; but then i'm odd. plus my netbook runs on linux, so compatability with the Bloody Stupid Thing upstairs is important. and OO creates PDFs, which Word does not.
 
Uh, I use Notepad to write, edit and print: A tad minimalist, sure, but I like it...

I only load my txt-files into Word(TM) to get a word-count...
 
Personally I don't go for either program. I use Microsoft Works instead. It's simpler than Word and has the one feature I can't give up in my writing: the justified alignment.


Neither Notepad nor WordPad have that feature, and call it a pet peeve, but I can't stand having my writing in uneven edges. Comes from years of reading, I suppose....
 
I absolutely hate microsoft, and Im a die hard linux user for over 6 years. Having said that, I think OpenOffice is slow to respond and is lacking in some areas. Definitely use MS Word for now if you have it or, if not, can easily afford it. Maybe you can use something else in the future when someone writes a decent Office Suite thats not written in a crappy programming language like Java.

P.S. I use OpenOffice for everything myself, except for college work, where I use a public computer and MS word so that there are no inconsistencies in the formatting.
 
My partner swears by Openoffice, however she does despise paying Microsoft for anything she doesn't have to. As for me, I got given a copy of Office 97 in around 1998, and have been happy with that ever since. I've seen later versions of Office, and can't say that the bloat impressed me.

Word will create *.pdfs if the appropriate plug-in is installed. I have a full copy of Adobe Acrobat 5 and that makes Word 97 quite happy at saving as a *.pdf.
 
I haven't commented on this thread because I've not used Open Office. I use Word 07 under protest. I have to have a copy of Word for all of the attachments from people who just assume that the whole world uses Word, and I have to make PowerPoint slides every week for my sermons. Or in the case of last week, two sets of them. I really get frustrated when people don't send out PDF's for attachments, and some of them (A newspaper, no less) requested that I not send a PDF, but a Word doc instead. GRRRR!

For any kind of actual writing I use Word Perfect. I have since 1989, which I know is longer than some people on this site have been alive. I presently use WP 12, but need to up grade as it doesn't mesh overly well with Windows 7. My main complaint is that Word is designed to do things one way, while WP gives you many more options. Just as an example I have a keyboard macro on CTRL U which puts uppercase letters at the beginning on a highlighted word. In Word that key stroke has to underline, a feature I almost never use. etc. etc.
 
Having used both, my only quibble is the compatibility issue, as I've been able to read Word documents in OO but not to edit them.

OO's big advantages are the ability to export as pdfs (straight from the box rather than an add-on) and the price, free to anyone who wants it.

Working exclusively in one or the other tends to get rid of most problems.

Karn, the watered-down version of Word that comes with Works can be a real sod if the recipient has only Word, we've had numerous problems with people trying to open Word documents with it or vice versa.
 
Karn Maeshalanadae said:
Neither Notepad nor WordPad have that feature, and call it a pet peeve, but I can't stand having my writing in uneven edges. Comes from years of reading, I suppose....
Click to expand...
Really? I'm the opposite. Sometimes justifying spaces out the words really oddly and it just distracts me.

I'm currently using OpenOffice until I can get Microsoft Office for my Mac and I don't really like it. It could be because I've pretty much used Word my whole life, so I know where everything is and how to set things up the way I like them, but there are a couple of little features that seem to be missing or messed upon in OpenOffice. I still can't figure out how to make it give me a running word count down the bottom like Word does, and the word count also counts things strangely (quotation marks, ellipses and brackets are sometimes counted as words). I guess those are my two main gripes. Still, it's handy to have, especially since it's free.
 
The Ace said:
Karn, the watered-down version of Word that comes with Works can be a real sod if the recipient has only Word, we've had numerous problems with people trying to open Word documents with it or vice versa.
Click to expand...


Well yes, that's true enough, but I can't afford Word and I've tried using openOffice without success. Works has enough features for me without being overly complicated anyway, watered down or not. I've managed to open .doc files on Works before.

I've used Word plenty of times on computers that's had it, but I haven't used any Word program since 07.


And what digs has said is true enough with word spacing, but I probably have a mild form of OCD and I prefer to see evenly block text over mismatched lines.
 
I've used Word and OpenOffice - most of my book was written using OpenOffice. Then I toyed with using Word for formatting issues...I think I had problems with the PDF format that OpenOffice was producing for publishing on the Kindle....in the end I used Word to convert to PDF as that produced a slightly different PDF (which worked better with Amazon).

Personally if you can afford it or already have a copy of Word then stick with that - but if you don't then go ahead and download OpenOffice.

Both products do the job - they won't affect your creative juices!! ;)
 
I've always used openoffice. Tried Microsoft's offering for a while, but just couldn't get my head around it. I suppose it depends on what you're used to, or at least what you've become used to. They're both much of a muchness, though, so I doubt either would provide a bar to writing. As long as either types the words I write on screen I'm happy enough.:)
 
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