Open Office update

petlew · ‎30-08-2007

Downloaded new Open Office update (to V3) this morning. And pleased to see a couple of my gripes in the word processor (Writer) have been dealt with:
When first opening Writer, the cursor flashes in the document page as normal, but does not allow input until the blank page has been "clicked in" first...fixed
The mouse wheel scrolling issues (which I've posted about passim) have been fixed.
I would guess that the other applications are fixed for these as well, making a nice suite even better.

Experience; is something you gain, just after you needed it most.

When faced with two choices, simply toss a coin. It works not because it settles the question for you. But because in that brief moment while the coin is in the air. You suddenly know what you are hoping for.

mal0z · ‎02-10-2008

And it can now import and export MS office 2007 formats

I've not done much with it yet to check out the new features
http://www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/features/3.0/

artmo · ‎12-08-2007

Thanks for that. My trial version of MS Office expires soon and I don't feel like paying them for a full version.

petlew · ‎30-08-2007

Whilst on this topic; I used to do a lot of work in MS Publisher, although not so much nowadays, anybody know of a good (free) alternative, preferably one that will open Publisher files?

Experience; is something you gain, just after you needed it most.

When faced with two choices, simply toss a coin. It works not because it settles the question for you. But because in that brief moment while the coin is in the air. You suddenly know what you are hoping for.

mal0z · ‎02-10-2008

I wish I did too - or a Publisher reader. MS don't seem to do that as they do for other files.
And I don't think x.pub files are in the new "semi-open format", like Word and excel.
I use Publisher for a magazine I do - as it is better at some things than plain Word files - and can't afford the better Adobe program.

pierre_pierre · ‎30-07-2007

you could get the slightly out of date promo version of Serif on a magazine cover, its good and not time dated.

petlew · ‎30-08-2007

Thanks pierre. Check out www.freeserifsoftware.com
Pageplus 9 £9.99
Pageplus 9SE free

Experience; is something you gain, just after you needed it most.

When faced with two choices, simply toss a coin. It works not because it settles the question for you. But because in that brief moment while the coin is in the air. You suddenly know what you are hoping for.

VileReynard · ‎01-09-2007

Try Scribus - there's a short review at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scribus
This is open source.

"In The Beginning Was The Word, And The Word Was Aardvark."

mal0z · ‎02-10-2008

Good call AoE - I forgot that - but it doesn't open or save publisher. And I would find it difficult to use as I have to share files with 2 or 3 others who only have Publisher

- and I would have to install and teach Scribus to them too.............

petlew · ‎30-08-2007

@axisofevil. Uhmm, have seen scribus before on someone else's PC and pretty good it looked too. However, and I could be very wrong about this but, I don't think its currently compatible with Vista, their download pages don't mention Vista at all, nor indeed any other Windows version by name (which of course may mean quite the opposite and be compatible with all Win versions) the date of the last available download is 05/08 which is not very helpful for compatibility.

Experience; is something you gain, just after you needed it most.

When faced with two choices, simply toss a coin. It works not because it settles the question for you. But because in that brief moment while the coin is in the air. You suddenly know what you are hoping for.

mal0z · ‎02-10-2008

"Choose your platform: Windows Vista/XP/2000, MacOS X, OS/2, Debian Repository w/Instructions, Source and RPMS."
http://www.scribus.net/?q=release
http://www.scribus.net/?q=faq/vista

petlew · ‎30-08-2007

Thanks mal0z, didn't see that page among the many on the site. So it is compatible with Vista then.
Remembered my colleague was running it on a Mac (don't know which though) not too sure why though as I always thought (never having been a Mac user!) that Mac handled DTP far better than Windows anyway. DTP is not a huge issue for me these days, I have lots of Publisher files on disks but no software to run them these days (without buying it) Have downloaded the free Serif Page Plus 9 SE, if it seems worthwhile I may upgrade to the £9.99 version, much depends on how well it handles older Publisher files.

Experience; is something you gain, just after you needed it most.

When faced with two choices, simply toss a coin. It works not because it settles the question for you. But because in that brief moment while the coin is in the air. You suddenly know what you are hoping for.

mal0z · ‎02-10-2008

I've never had a Mac - only Apple I have used was the old Apple II !!!.
But yes the publishing / graphic design fraternity seem to much prefer them.

pierre_pierre · ‎30-07-2007

have you noticed that the Good Old BBC I player didnt work on Mac, but all the News readers had Mac's on the Desk

pierre_pierre · ‎30-07-2007

Re Serif, I have been using it since version 2, was a bit quirky then but has got much better, also I am now an old duffer and dont have much use for it