9 Responses

1. Christopher Davis

   05|Jun|2007 1

   Maybe it’s time they tried OpenOffice. You can download that and many other things from the links on my website.

   www.chrisdavistech.com

2. Andrea

   10|Jun|2007 2

   well. I simply LOVE office, and I think it’s the best piece of software in the world.
   No, i’m not a microsoft fanatic, I use linux for development and openoffice too… but honestly MS Office has a user experience out of the world. I use office2007, and can save as office 2003 as far as I want… which is the problem?
   Nobody said that docx would be retro-compatible, and office had the SAME format since 97-2003!

   I just hope OpenOffice will change it’s user interface (with taskpane, live preview, etc) to keep his most diffused competitor, and - maybe - go on and become even better than it. But until then…

3. Batman

   13|Jun|2007 3

   This whole offie blog is bogus. First it’s really easy to save a document in the format
   for the previouse verions of Word.
   Second (I know this for fact I tested it), if somebody using Word 2003 (only tested on
   that version, cause I can’t think of anybody still using older versions) open a .docx
   it will give them the option to download a compatibilty patch, thus allowing them to
   view the document.

4. Francis

   17|Jul|2007 4

   “I can’t think of anybody still using older versions”

   Really? I still have Word 97 at home, and use Word 2k at work, although I wish I didn’t have to.

   It’s still clunky and temperamental (especially with paragraph numbering) but MS is much keener to add bells and whistles than to iron out bugs.

   I bought Ashampoo Office recently, and am well impressed. Very fast, and can be installed on a memory stick to use anywhere. I’d use Zoho, but the WP lacks some key features at the moment. The on-line filing and version number control is impressive, though.

   If you’re in the UK, you can buy Ability Office (a decent clone) for £13 from Ebuyer. It’s own-label, but no worse for that.

5. Superman

   20|Jul|2007 5

   “well. I simply LOVE office, and I think it’s the best piece of software in the world.”

   “This whole offie [sic] blog is bogus.” (Batman)

   Hey, “batman”… What if I told you that many of my Word 2003 documents **won’t even open** in Word 2007? Those of you who think that Word 2007 is that great probably don’t work with big documents (500 + paged) with lots of frames and textboxes.

   Word 2007 is a huge disappointment because of that issue. OpenOffice or Textmaker open these 500 + pages documents without a hitch.

   Sorry.

6. Velozity

   10|Sep|2007 6

   I am an Office 2000 user. I was very happy with it until I downloaded the Office 2007 Trial versions. My poor laptop does not have enough memory to do anything much when any Word doc is open. There is so much crap on the 2007 Word that I will never use and everything is so conveniently NOT organized for anything I need to do. I know, I hate change, like anyone else. But as a writer who mainly does text documents with no graphics, footnotes, etc., Word sucks for me now. I guess I will have to go indie and use some generic program that’s not as complex, and not as compatible with other applications. I have only ever tried OpenOffice, which I absolutely hated. I am going to become one of those crotchety people who just like what I know, I guess, as I did not feel welcomed as a new user at all by Word the way I did with Word 2000. My 2 cents.

7. Nico

   20|Sep|2007 7

   With all respect to OpenOffice - which I like - or MS Office - which I hate- none of them come close to LaTex when it comes to submitting papers with equations. The real question, therefore, is not which Office package is the best for that purpose but rather whether Office packages are appropriate for article submission. The answer is: no. LaTex is really easy to learn, multi-platform, much better quality, extremely well documented online and… free.
   My personal way of writing papers:
   1. write the text with NO formating in your text editor of choice (from notepad to gedit to office software, it really doesn’t matter as you don’t do any formatting)
   2. Once I’m happy with the content, it’s a matter of copy and paste inside a .tex file with the adjustments for math expressions.
   3. put the citation in the right format using BibTex.
   4. download the right LaTex format from the editor
   5. run a bit of magic and voila! every thing is formated automatically (text, automated bibliography, etc) and saved in dvi or pdf. Most publishers not only accept LaTex files but actually encourage them. Simply no competition here with office(s)
   my 2.5 cents for tonight.

8. Diane

   30|Oct|2007 8

   The bottom line is that if you have to buy a new computer, with few exceptions, you will be forced to deal with the new Vista OS. I fully expected to be able to import my WORD 2002 docs into WORD 2007. However, they are not compatible for others who are using earlier versions of WORD, which is still the majority of businesses and individuals. The problem is not saving them as WORD 2003 compatible in WORD 2007, but that you have to do it for each and every document. There is no quick fix. It is very time consuming. Additionally, Outlook 2002 is not completely compatible with Vista, so I was forced to also purchase Outlook 2007.

   The fact that these basics issues are not disclosed to new Vista users who have been using Office programs for years is no less than unconsionable on behalf of Microsoft, their retailers and marketers. Customers would not be so upset if they new what and how much they would be required to spend and the amount of time wasted in figuring out these problems after the fact. Oh, and the new user interfaces in Vista and Office are completely different too, so you better ante up for a manual too!

9. Furry Squid

   29|Dec|2007 9

   Um……. daft question, but where’s the back button in word 2007? I’m trying to edit a document consiting of 400-ish cros-references at approx 10 ref/page, and can’t work out how I navigate between them.

   (Other than than, based on two days’ experience of a new PC, Vista a pain in the bum, and new style word doubly so!)