Why OpenOffice? Why Microsoft Office? Each one makes their argument

[JavaJones]

Tried the ribbon several times, still hate it. Maybe good for novices, or to learn the shortcuts, but it's miserable for me. To each their own I guess.

Spreadsheet embedded in a word doc is possible in Office 2Kx, OOo, and probably others. It's clunky in every case I've tried, maybe not so in RagTime? But if it really is just OLE, then RagTime isn't as cool as I thought, or at least is not what I was envisioning above, with a single app of multi-capability and "modes" for each task.

- Oshyan

[tomos]

I'm under the impression that Softmaker 2010 is now out of beta.  I haven't tried it, but I was impressed the few times I've used the 2008 version.

-cyberdiva (February 22, 2010, 10:05 PM)

they're talking about the Linux version.

[Shades]

@ JavaJones:
The OLE experience from MSOffice doesn't feel as smooth as RagTime's, not by far. Just tried to include an excel sheet in a word document (MSoffice2003) and that was rather painful and slow. So I installed the last freeware version from RagTime that I have (5.6.5) and tried to do the same.  It took time to find my way around its interface again, but after that it was a breeze...and still faster than the MSOffice OLE crap.

I stand by my recommendation.

[TucknDar]

I'm under the impression that Softmaker 2010 is now out of beta.  I haven't tried it, but I was impressed the few times I've used the 2008 version.

-cyberdiva (February 22, 2010, 10:05 PM)

Yes, you're right about SoftMaker Office 2010 for Windows, it was released in December IIRC. The Linux version is still in beta testing, however.

[cyberdiva]

Yes, you're right about SoftMaker Office 2010 for Windows, it was released in December IIRC. The Linux version is still in beta testing, however.

-TucknDar (February 23, 2010, 11:08 AM)

Oops, sorry, I somehow lost sight of the fact that it was the Linux version being referred to. 

[f0dder]

Having recently needed to OCR and re-format 100 pages of not-so-well scanned PDFs, I'm now tempted to ditch OOo and go out and purchase a copy of MSO. Granted, the biggest frustrations come from FineReader not outputting to any OOo-friendly formats, and OOs retarded input filters screwing everything up majorly, but after having spent 4 hours with Word 2007... well, I now actually like the ribbon. Initially it took a while to find everything, but it ended up being quite a productivity booster. And while I still think XML-based formats as default are retarded, and would want the more-open ODF format to win over ms's xml format, and ms's xml format not being nearly as fast as it's good old binary .doc... well, saves are still faster than what OOo can do.

If anybody can recommend a cheaper word processor with fast workflow and solid stylesheet support which can import relatively complex .doc files, lemme know.

[TucknDar]

f0dder, I'm not certain how well it fares for your needs, but I'd at least try SoftMaker Office 2010.

I'm not part of their PR department or anything, but I want to add that they also have a academic license, for the students and teachers among you.

Worth a shot, anyway