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From: "Bruce Martin" on 2 Feb 2010 15:02
Dear Ms. Walsh:

From Canada:

(Parts of this replay are interspersed with your original complaint.)

Out of the box techie here!


This is the kind of problem I have been dealing with for some years. I use a
custom built computer that will run 3 operating systems, BIOS controlled and
share about 4.5 Tb. of data in 3 languages (of the 92 that Open Office
supports).

It boots in either of 2 installs of Win XP or one of Fedora 12 (Linux)

In Windows it runs Open office and Microsoft office concurrently with a
whole roomful of external hardware as a pert of a network on 3 floors.

In Linux, it runs Open office and many Linux based applications (almost
always free and legal) to do a diversity of tasks, some of which one would
not do in Windows.

There are many ways to produce stuff in Oo and render it for use with non Oo
users.

Whether this were done in Linux or Windows is transparent (that is to say
that the end user does not even know which operating system or software it
came from unless he is told, or it comes in a format proprietary to one
platform (typically the Microsoft applications which use specialized
proprietary file formats, not a likely issue for a school.)

The success if importing and exporting documents from any software to any
other values more with the specific details of the content of each
individual file.

The following content categories apply pretty much not only to Word
processor documents (Word, Writer, etc.), but also to spreadsheets, drawings
and presentations.

Generally the basics import/export very well:

- Text (excluding issues with different installed fonts on different
machines.)

- Raster Bitmap) graphics; digital pictures or images (notwithstanding
whether the particular size, resolution and colour depth of the graphic are
appropriate to the needs of the environment into which it is to be imported.
This works better in Writer than in Word, but dragging and dropping an image
into Oo Draw or Impress is not recommended. It is better to use the insert
picture from file approach in these applications.

This does not include anything containing executable content, such as
vectorial information, layers, editable text, etc. Therefore, some raster
files, such as .PSD (Photoshop) or .XCF (The Gimp), being multilayered
graphics rasters, contain layers and this feature is effectively vectorial.

- Language settings for the spellcheckers. This works provided the
environment into which the content is imported supports the appropriate
dictionaries, thesauruses and hyphenation dictionaries for the same
languages coded into the original application.

(Please note that for any language that is spoken in multiple countries,
each country's dialect is treated as a separate language in all systems.)

For exotic languages, additional special setups may be required (right to
left, (Farsi), concept/symbol (such as Chinese), etc. in every system that
needs them. This is in addition to added fonts specific to these languages.

These types of content do not import/export well, but can be handled
effectively by alternative, extra procedures (these are actually forms of
embedded executable content).

- Vector graphics (.WMV, .DXF, .SVG, .PS etc.) These correspond with
Word draw, and may be added to a Word document from Oo Draw or Inkscape by
the use of the clipboard. They may sometimes need fixing up in Word after
the fact due to the proprietary approach of Microsoft. In the case of .DXF,
it should load as a picture, providing your copy of Microsoft office has the
added special filters to handle it (usually available on the original
install disk, but not turned on in a default installation.)

- Animation.

- Sections and some types of hyperlinks.

In more extensively structured documents, it may be necessary to rebuild the
sections and hyperlinks in Word. If you have a non-working hyperlink showing
in a newly-imported Word file, in Word, select the hyperlink and press
{ctrl-k}. This will open the dialogue to fix the coding to suit Word.

In what Country, City are you located? (This might help me to further help
you.)

I have done electronic reconstructions from hard cover books of over 200
pages at a shot, including graphics and illustrations. Output can be in many
formats. Typically this is scan, OCR and reconstruct with hyperlinks to make
the end product easily navigable. These may be multilingual, and/or contain
specialized terms.

I also program large complex spreadsheet workbook applications and some
Relational databases using Oo Base.

If you still have the original Writer file (or the corrupt Word file), you
might want to send me a copy for more diagnostic info.

I can likely help you (and surprise you in the process!)

Best Regards,

Bruce Martin
Brucemartin10(a)gmail.com

-----Original Message-----
From: kwalsh2004 [mailto:kwalsh2004(a)gmail.com] Sent: February 2, 2010 12:44
PM
To: webmasters(a)openoffice.org; users(a)openoffice.org; discuss(a)openoffice.org
Subject: [discuss] OO Writer

Hello -

I am writing to every e-mail address I could find on your Contact Us/Help
page on your web site. I teach computers part time at two small private
elementary schools - and one of them couldn't afford the licenses of MS
Office, so we've been using Open Office. I found it to lacking in all the
things that would make it easier for these younger kids to learn the
application, like Clip art, page borders, etc.

That aside, I am writing to tell you of my latest issue. I usually use MS
Word at home to write up my lesson plans, but last week, I updated the page
in Open Office Writer and saved it in the same format (MS Word), not OO
Writer.

When I tried to open it today, in MS Word (my home computer) - none of the
text in my table is there - 99% of it has dissappeared! The only thing left
was my headers and 29 blank pages (it was only one page when I saved it).
(There may be more there, but hidden. This sometimes happens!)

I had to download Open Office on my home computer, where I was able to open
the Word document in Writer. When I copied the table into a new Word
document, it was all messed up - the rows and columns were not the size they
appeared in Writer (or the original Word document), so I spent about 30-45
minutes to fix one of my lesson plans so that it look like I had it
originally.

I have 4 total to fix. There was a one-page plan for each week (Jan. 25th
and Feb 1st), and each had 3 columns (one for the class period times, and
one for each day that I teach: Tuesday and Thursday and the other was
Wednesday and Friday), and one school had 10 rows and the other had 11.

Now I have to fix the other two, and I don't really have 3-4 hours to waste
fixing this. It's been a struggle with the kids, but I have learned my
lesson - I will never use Open Office for any of my personal and
professional documents.

Kim Walsh

"The Benefits are in the details. No person made this; no person can change
this." To solve problems, one must dig deep, however a large part of that
digging can be delegated, although not all.

(P.S. I didn't register the version we use in school as we are hoping to be
able to afford MS Office next year and didn't want to be part of any
feedback study, or receive any e-mails or spam.)

No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 9.0.733 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/2663 - Release Date: 02/02/10
02:35:00

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