[Rollbar]

MS Office 2010 is free until Oct 31, 2010

MS site

[Brian]

let me know if you ever need ANYTHING else. for free ask Dave, I usually come through

[sbmonkey]

Openoffice FREE for life. And it is based on an OPEN standard that you don't need a commercial company deciding whether you can open a file five years from now. Your welcome.

http://www.openoffice.org/

[Jim B]

sbmonkey, on Jan 26 2010, 11:44 PM, said:

Openoffice FREE for life. And it is based on an OPEN standard that you don't need a commercial company deciding whether you can open a file five years from now. Your welcome.

http://www.openoffice.org/

We agree, the problem is that most of the world (including schools) is using MS Office.

Have a Will openoffice open any msoffice file If it does, this might be something to look at. Most updates from msoffice have a feature in where you can save the file so that any version can open it. They also have converters.

I like the concept of openoffice.org, never used it and if it could open the msoffice files and save in that format (so that when you forward to others they can open it if they don't have openoffice) it would be trick.

[SuperDave1984]

Jim B, on Jan 27 2010, 07:06 AM, said:

We agree, the problem is that most of the world (including schools) is using MS Office.

Have a Will openoffice open any msoffice file If it does, this might be something to look at. Most updates from msoffice have a feature in where you can save the file so that any version can open it. They also have converters.

I like the concept of openoffice.org, never used it and if it could open the msoffice files and save in that format (so that when you forward to others they can open it if they don't have openoffice) it would be trick.

Yes. It opens any Word, Power Point or Excel file and you can save in .doc, .xls, or .ppt format.

[Jim B]

superdave1984, on Jan 27 2010, 08:30 AM, said:

Yes. It opens any Word, Power Point or Excel file and you can save in .doc, .xls, or .ppt format.

This is good to know to know. Does it open even the .docx

I might look into this. If any MS Office can open up their saved files I don't understand why is not being talked about more.

I wonder who is using the broom.

[Rollbar]

So then it could put MS Office out of business. Why would I want to spend 4-600 bucks on MS Office ?

[JeepNWilly]

Rollbar, on Jan 27 2010, 01:54 PM, said:

So then it could put MS Office out of business. Why would I want to spend 4-600 bucks on MS Office ?

It has no email client so you will need a third party email callendar program.

[Rollbar]

But then why couldn't I just use my web mail or windows mail, then works for a calendar. I know, it's a PITB

[JeepNWilly]

Rollbar, on Jan 27 2010, 03:48 PM, said:

But then why couldn't I just use my web mail or windows mail, then works for a calendar. I know, it's a PITB

Sure you can I am just letting you know case you thought it had a mail client

[Rollbar]

I understand, it's just we get use to all these buttons etc.

[sbmonkey]

The reason Openoffice does not take over the desktop world is simply because of marketing and the fact that some forms/doc etc... with special complicated formulas or docs with embedded spreadsheets and the such, need some massaging to make them look exactly like they do in Word or Excel. But there within is the problem. Microsoft has locked the vast majority of people into using their products and they don't play nice with competing products. Every M$ format is closed and proprietary and had to be reverse engineered. Reverse engineering is tough and does not always produce exactly the form at that was seen in Msoffice. So OpenOffice, owned by Sun Microsystems, uses a completely open format which is part of the open document standands. Being that it is open allows anyone to create a competing applications and these will be able to open Open document formated forms/docs EXACTLY as they were created.

So marketing and the fact that there isn't a 100% garrantee that every msoffice doc/spreadsheet will look exactly as they were created is why this does not take over. I use OpenOffice without issue and so do 1/4 of the other s where I work.

Just download it and try it. It is free and will always be free so there really isn't anything to lose.

[Brian]

sbmonkey, check your PM

[Jim B]

Rollbar, on Jan 27 2010, 03:48 PM, said:

But then why couldn't I just use my web mail or windows mail, then works for a calendar. I know, it's a PITB

Webmail has it's place especially when I'm traveling but I like the faster trusty email clients the best. I don't use Outlook, I used the old Eudora which is simple, faster and has no limitations. They have not updated this program for years because Qualcomm did not want to be longer involved. A private company took it over and re worked the code with same functions.

It's called Mail Forge I purchased it and before I move over I'm testing it heavy. There is also a forum section.

[Rollbar]

Mail Forge - 20 bucks.

Hum,