Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

This topic was raised in an unrelated thread I started in the Writer folder. For those of you who have moved over to OOo but still keep Word on your computer, why?

I still keep it on because it can do things in the advanced search and replace (wildcards / regular expressions) that I either have a hard time pulling off in OOo or sometimes can't altogether.

THREAD DISCLAIMER: OOo is the single most useful project I've encountered online, and I'm deeply grateful for all the work that's gone into it. This thread is not intended to be negative in any way; I'm just starting it in the hopes that perhaps people mentioning what's holding them back from completely uninstalling Word could make OOo even better in the future.

The "Synonyms" and "Antonyms" features in word are quick, easy, and available. When looking for the appropriate word on the tip of your tongue, but just not making it's way out of your head, it's really a useful feature. It also helps to quickly and conveniently keep your writing from being repetitive by diversifying the language, and consequently serves to help reinforce the diversification of your vocabulary.

I know this seems perhaps an odd thing to miss, and I realize that other features of word might be thought more advanced and desirable, but I have to say, when I did switch, upon getting my current computer, that was one of the, if not the, greatest factor(s) keeping me from Open Office.

+1 on search and replace.

MS Word Search and Replace for common expressions, tabs, paragraphs, etc. seem to be more intuitive and are also selectable from a list...

Regular expressions is powerful, but not very approachable for new users or people who only use the functionality a couple of times a year.

I still have Word because part of my job is user support on the MS suite.
Weird story (short version):
Our school used to use OOo primarily. Government guidelines advise the use of open standards. When county authorities were pushed by government directive to increase the use of ICT in schools, they re-introduced the MS suite as "the standard" for secondary schools in the county, and bought licenses to give to all the first grade students.

Perhaps this should have been a main thread in this section, but somehow I felt that it didn't fit in...

RonIA wrote:+1 on search and replace.

MS Word Search and Replace for common expressions, tabs, paragraphs, etc. seem to be more intuitive and are also selectable from a list...

Regular expressions is powerful, but not very approachable for new users or people who only use the functionality a couple of times a year.

That's precisely why I've still kept Word around. In fact, it's the only reason.

I'm translator, and in most cases the clients require me to deliver jobs in Word DOC format. OpenOffice.org still can't export to DOC flawlessly, and I have always to check files with Word.

Well, yes, OOo's search&replace is inferior to MS Word's. And in some cases MS Word saves time. If OOo developers simply copycat Word, this will be great.

I still have Word (sigh) to send resumes and cover letters on Monster and other job hunting web sites. Most only accept Word/Works and a few will not accept PDF. It's very frustrating to convert for me, I was Oo completely until I lost my job and had to submit resumes.

Why not juy continue to use OOo Writer and SaveAs DOC files. If you keep to straightforward formatting then the results look fine when opened in Word.

* +1 on search and replace.
* My clients expect me to send doc files and, yes, there sometimes stay funny things in converted files, so I always make a last editing round in Word.
* I don't hate Word as some others seem to do, maybe because I have also worked with WordPerfect 5.1 without a proper training. When you're old enough to have worked with WP, you may remember the immense relief when WinWord 6 appeared.

AMEN!

my employer has it, so my choices are limited there, but outside of work I use OOo exclusively.

I use OO exclusively.

At work I have MS Word on my computer as well as OO. I was allowed to install OO so I'm lucky. Sometimes I do check my documents to make sure it looks ok in Word if I'm sending docs to other people.

caleb19992003 wrote:I still have Word (sigh) to send resumes and cover letters on Monster and other job hunting web sites. Most only accept Word/Works and a few will not accept PDF. It's very frustrating to convert for me, I was Oo completely until I lost my job and had to submit resumes.

Really? Never had that problem. And yes I was looking for employment when I converted to OOo. But my resume and cover letter template had been originally created in either Word 97 or WordPerfect 6 (DOS) (I think). I never had any major problems as long as I kept saving in .doc format.

Our school district (1000+ pc's) runs Open Office throughout. We found we had to keep Word (and the other MS Office components) on our Business Professionals of America lab. BPA is a High School program that students take to learn about vocational careers in professional organizations: http://www.bpanet.org/public/ Our students attend their national conference each year and attend competitions there. Unfortunately BPA only uses Microsoft Office (and only allows the one package in their competitions). We have asked the instructor why in this economy would BPA expect schools to constantly get the latest and greatest expensive package from Microsoft when Open Office is so much more cost effective for our school (we are saving $23,000 each year). The explanation is that they believe that the students need to have the same tools they'll be using in the "real world". In any case we want our students to participate in BPA, so we must have Office 2007 in one lab.

Regrettably I have to continue with MSWord because of the absence of table styles in Writer. Unfortunately table autoformats are still useless as a workaround. Otherwise I think Writer is far superior

I keep Word on my computer because I have to use it to fill out 4-H record book forms. When I edit them in OOo, the formatting gets REALLY messed up (they're DOC files).

One reason only: Outline View.

I use Outline View to give presentations. I think it makes a much better presentation than the linear powerpoint. Audiences can see where we're going, and where we've been. They continuously see the whole context of the talk.

digital demon wrote:AMEN!

AMEN to you too!!

I still use word as it is simple to use.Also, it has some features that are very easy and simple.The most common formt in the use is Doc which is used to foeward a document to some other user.Synonym and Antonym feature along with autocorrect and add to dictionary, all these things are good to use and more convenient. That's why word is still on use.

The most common formt in the use is Doc which is used to foeward a document to some other user.

Ther binary .doc fileformat is obsolete, never standardized, and it has a lot of incompatible, wrongly documented versions. Never use it.
Always use the International Standard ODF fileformats for your important document for the long time compatibility.
The newer MS Office versions can read the ODF fileformats.

See [Tutorial] Differences between Writer and MS Word files for why you should always work in and save files as .odt.

I keep Word on my computer because it has more advanced search and replace capabilities than OOo. It's also the power of habit