Open Office Suite

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niv2

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David
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Has anyone used Open Office?

Reason for asking is that I would like to replace my parents aging desktop with a new laptop...that means going from XP to Win 7. At present, they are using Word 2003. They have only just managed to master XP and Word 2003 and I don't want to confuse them too much. I think they can handle the switch from xp to win 7 but I think that a switch to Word 2010 will be just too confusing for them.

Hence thinking about Open Office (or getting hold of a 2003 licence for Word)

Any thoughts?
 
Have you thought about installing Chrome and using 'google docs,?
 
Hi, I use Open office and find it ok.
It is free and would be worth you down loading
if only to have a look.
my pc is a Sony Vaio with Windows 7 .
Hope this helps.
 
Open office is fine but MS Office 2003 works on Windows 7.
 
If you downoad the free Belarc Advisor onto your current PC, it will tell you the license key in use for Word 2003 on the XP machine. You can just reuse that when you reinstall onto the new PC.
 
arad85 said:
If you downoad the free Belarc Advisor onto your current PC, it will tell you the license key in use for Word 2003 on the XP machine. You can just reuse that when you reinstall onto the new PC.
Click to expand...

I have the disks for Word 2003 and the key but it says that it is a "single use" product......surely I will be unable to use this again?
 
Dave P said:
Hi, I use Open office and find it ok.
It is free and would be worth you down loading
if only to have a look.
my pc is a Sony Vaio with Windows 7 .
Hope this helps.
Click to expand...

Does it look and act like Word 2003?
 
niv2 said:
I have the disks for Word 2003 and the key but it says that it is a "single use" product......surely I will be unable to use this again?
Click to expand...

As long as it is only installed on one PC it is fine. (I think the EULA allows for instalation on a back up machine but not for simultaneous usage.
 
W7 shouldn't be a problem, but Word 2003 to Word 2007 (or 2010) is a bit of a jump and I'd try to avoid this if your parents aren't comfortable with new and unfamiliar software. It took me a while to get used to it, and I'm still not fully convinced that it was worth it. I'd try and stick to 2003 if possible.
 
niv2 said:
I have the disks for Word 2003 and the key but it says that it is a "single use" product......surely I will be unable to use this again?
Click to expand...
You can install on the new machine with the same key. Just remove it from the old machine (not that there is any real check done on Office for serial numbers like there is for Windows keys though).
 
niv2 said:
Does it look and act like Word 2003?
Click to expand...

In simple terms yes.

Open office has an almost identical user interface to that of MS office.
Most of the drop downs and functions are the same.
Further more open office will work with MS office documents.
 
stupar said:
Further more open office will work with MS office documents.
Click to expand...
The one time I tried it, it didn't format the document in exactly the same way as Word did. Not good for a WYSIWYG editor :nono:
 
arad85 said:
The one time I tried it, it didn't format the document in exactly the same way as Word did. Not good for a WYSIWYG editor :nono:
Click to expand...

Never had any problems with that aspect myself, but guess it can happen.
 
My parents only need it for basic letters and documents so do not need anything too sophisticated. Will open office open Word 2010 documents?
 
niv2 said:
My parents only need it for basic letters and documents so do not need anything too sophisticated. Will open office open Word 2010 documents?
Click to expand...

AFAIK, yes. Why not download and check it out? It's free anyway, so you don't have to use it if it doesn't suit you.
 
MartynK said:
AFAIK, yes. Why not download and check it out? It's free anyway, so you don't have to use it if it doesn't suit you.
Click to expand...

Have done so...looks very similar to the old Word 2003 so may try it out on the Parents.
 
I use open office on my imac, it's been more than a match for office on my xp laptop and I've never had compatibility issues between documents.
 
The curerent Office software can be moved to the new PC, I can't think why you'd want to throw away several hundreds of pounds of software and replace it with something free?

The one problem is that Outlook won't save email acct passwords in Windows 7 (well documented bug and bothers my inlaws)
 
Phil V said:
The current Office software can be moved to the new PC, I can't think why you'd want to throw away several hundreds of pounds of software and replace it with something free?

The one problem is that Outlook won't save email acct passwords in Windows 7 (well documented bug and bothers my inlaws)
Click to expand...

So I can use the existing Office 2003 and licence just transferring them to the new computer?
 
niv2 said:
So I can use the existing Office 2003 and licence just transferring them to the new computer?
Click to expand...

Yep, think Arad85 told you that near start of this thread:)
 
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