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From: isw on 10 Aug 2010 01:28
In article <090820101615408571%star(a)sky.net>, Davoud <star(a)sky.net>
wrote:

> isw:
>
> > Complain to the school. They should not be requiring students to spend
> > hundreds of dollars for proprietary software
>
> $109.
>
>
> > when there are perfectly
> > acceptable non-proprietary substitutes such as OpenOffice.
>
> Bzzzzt! Wrong answer. There are acceptable substitutes such as
> OpenOffice for those who work independently and who do not require full
> compatibility with others in their circle who are using Microsoft
> Office.

Make the incompatibility the problem of the "Office" users: "Sorry,
Charlie, but I can't read your file. You'll have to provide it in some
*non-proprietary* format; try PDF."

Isaac
From: nospam on 10 Aug 2010 01:40
In article <isw-1B7AEE.22282409082010@[216.168.3.50]>, isw
<isw(a)witzend.com> wrote:

> > > when there are perfectly
> > > acceptable non-proprietary substitutes such as OpenOffice.
> >
> > Bzzzzt! Wrong answer. There are acceptable substitutes such as
> > OpenOffice for those who work independently and who do not require full
> > compatibility with others in their circle who are using Microsoft
> > Office.
>
> Make the incompatibility the problem of the "Office" users: "Sorry,
> Charlie, but I can't read your file. You'll have to provide it in some
> *non-proprietary* format; try PDF."

obviously, you've never actually tried that strategy. typically, it
does not work.
From: Davoud on 10 Aug 2010 04:14
Davoud:
> > Bzzzzt! Wrong answer. There are acceptable substitutes such as
> > OpenOffice for those who work independently and who do not require full
> > compatibility with others in their circle who are using Microsoft
> > Office.

isw:
> Make the incompatibility the problem of the "Office" users: "Sorry,
> Charlie, but I can't read your file. You'll have to provide it in some
> *non-proprietary* format; try PDF."

Really? Seriously? A freshman is going to march into a university (or a
community college or a trade school or OJT at McDonalds) on day 1 and
announce "OK, this place is dumping MS Office *today* ; from now on
it'll be Open Office in order to be compatible with me."

On day 2 s/he will be seeking employment in lawn care--in a position
where the technology comes from Briggs & Stratton rather than a
computer company.

Davoud

--
I agree with almost everything that you have said and almost everything that
you will say in your entire life.

usenet *at* davidillig dawt cawm
From: Wes Groleau on 10 Aug 2010 09:54
On 08-10-2010 02:57, Michael Vilain wrote:
> If the OP is paying $40K/year to send a kid to college and can't pop an
> additional $100 for Office, there are deeper problems here. Buy Office
> and send your kid to college right. Friken cheapskate.

OP said "school," which _may_ mean college, may not.

If it means college, that softens but doesn't cancel my rant
about requiring things that shouldn't be required. If there
are no spelling errors, who cares whether Word checked it or
whether the writer is a good proof-reader? If it's legible,
who cares whether it's Times, Verdana, or handwritten? (My
son actually had a high school teacher demand Word, a font
not on our Macs until we installed Word, and a specific margin
setting/line spacing--apparently because he/she does not know
that Word has a word counter built in.)

--
Wes Groleau

I have to admit, it's cool
http://Ideas.Lang-Learn.us/WWW?itemid=125
From: Erik Richard Sørensen on 10 Aug 2010 11:38


AES wrote:
> In article <evedndbKONf_vv3RnZ2dnUVZ_gadnZ2d(a)earthlink.com>,
> Kurt Ullman <kurtullman(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> Is there a free, shareware, or cheap program out there that mimics
>> Office? My kid needs Office for school, but would prefer to not spend
>> the money if she can find something compatible.
>
> If you're talking Mac, and something to handle Word docs, Bean
> (<http://www.bean-osx.com>) is much to be recommended:
>
> * Opens and exports Word docs, in Word formats
>
> * Basically works in .RTF format, but also has an .RTFD format that
> handles graphics quite neatly.
>
> * And, can also be accessed as a Service from most any other Mac app,
> which is really handy.

Right, but notice that Bean isnot an office app and won't include
graphics in a RTF file opened on any other platform than OS X, and RTFD
is a Mac only format. - Here you need to save into .doc (DOC with
graphics) instead. - Also handling DOCX files could be better, but it is
acceptable, though most formatting get lost...

As others already have written, I'd prefer either OpenOffice 3.2.x or
even the pro version from SUN Micro Systems - StarOffice 9 for Mac...

Textprocessing in OOo and SO are identical to each others, so is the
presentation and database part. But hte spreadsheet in StarOffice is a
bit better than the one implemented in OOo (and NeoOffice). The
spreadsheet problems with either missing cross-references and/or wrong
fonts identification is now nearly solved in the ver. 3.2.1 of OOo and
nearly gone in latest build of StarOffice 9.x for Mac.

These problems don't occor when opening spreadsheets made with OOo/SO
(Mac/Win), but only with those made in Excell for Windows/Mac. -
MSO2004/2008 for Mac as well as MSO2003/2007/2010 for Windows...

Cheers, Erik Richard

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Erik Richard Sørensen, Member of ADC, <mac-manNOSP(a)Mstofanet.dk>
NisusWriter - The Future In Multilingual Text Processing - www.nisus.com
OpenOffice.org - The Modern Productivity Solution - www.openoffice.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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