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OpenOffice.Org in a Corporate Environment? 376

Posted by Cliff from the roaming-preferences-without-profiles dept.
robpoe asks: "I've been working on a rollout plan for OpenOffice.org 2.0 for a medium sized network. This network runs a number of different MS Office versions, and we absolutely must retain the Microsoft Office 97/2000/2002 file formats (for interoperability with the public and other entities). Getting our versions of Office to 2003 is $65k+, so we're looking closely at OOo. The problem is, since OOo keeps track of changes per user, and we have users that move around (and no, Roaming Profiles are not an option for us), and you cannot expect a user to change those preferences on every computer they log in to. Let's hear some great deployment plans for keeping the default file type, and even general rollout plans. How are you doing it?"
"It seems that nobody has done this (or documented it) that I've found. Let's see if we can get a good thing going by documenting a good, easy to manage rollout plan. Oh, and the default for saving files has to remain in Office 97/2k/xp format.

What are you using to deploy OOo automatically on your network. Assume that we have capability of login script (batch files / registry changes), but no SMS/ZenWorks/etc.
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OpenOffice.Org in a Corporate Environment? More

OpenOffice.Org in a Corporate Environment?

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  • Store the OpenOffice config file on network drive (Score:5, Informative)

    by Harry Balls ( 799916 ) * on Thursday November 17, 2005 @09:27PM (#14058845)
    Elementary, Watson.

    Once a user logs on, a logon script mounts his own personal "network drive" from a central file server.

    Just configure OpenOffice so that OpenOffice will read (and write) the OO configuration from that personal "network drive".
    Yes, a user could still mess up his configuration, but that would only affect himself, not others.

    • Ditto. This is exactly how we do it do.
    • Yeah, that will work great when I am in the field at a customer site with no internet access... what else ya got?

      I like AC's thumb drive solution...
    • doesn't that still require that you change the profile setting for each user at each machine they log in to? he's trying to avoid that.

      this is slashdot. i'm sure you'll all rip me a new asshole for being so obviously clueless, and demand that i surrender my firstborn child to the god of stupid sacrifices for asking such an idiotic question, so just save yourselves the effort before you hit 'reply', because i'm not going to read any replies anyway.

  • Why not? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ZiakII ( 829432 ) on Thursday November 17, 2005 @09:28PM (#14058859)
    Why not just keep Office 2000/XP?

    • Re:Why not? (Score:5, Funny)

      by MankyD ( 567984 ) on Thursday November 17, 2005 @09:30PM (#14058877) Homepage
      Why not just keep Office 2000/XP?
      You're not from around here are you.

    • Re:Why not? (Score:5, Informative)

      by buck_wild ( 447801 ) on Thursday November 17, 2005 @09:41PM (#14058967)
      Um, because he doesn't want to spend an extra $65k. At least, that may have only been clear to me.

      • Re:Why not? (Score:2, Interesting)

        by Professor_UNIX ( 867045 )
        But he's already running older versions of Office. They didn't just magically stop working when Office 2003 came out and they're going to be a lot more compatible with the Word document format than OpenOffice is. The only ones that tolerated us using OpenOffice to munge Word documents were other techies who could tolerate the formatting being screwed up on internal company forms. If I wanted to make sure it looked right I'd have to boot up VMWare on my Linux box and use OfficeXP.
        • In my office, we paid annually for the 'privillege' of using MS Office. If we were found in non-complaince (using Office without paying for it) the resulting punnishment was far more than the license fee.

        • Re:Why not? (Score:2, Insightful)

          by Fallingcow ( 213461 )
          Just send PDFs to those outside the company. 99% of the time you're not sending stuff to people outside the company that needs to be edited, anyway. Printed and filled out or signed, maybe, and usually just read, but not often edited.

          Keep one copy of MS Office around for the rare occasions when you need to send something to the outside that needs to be edited, or the rare occasions when you recieve a doc from the outside that's completely unusable in OpenOffice.

          Sure, some shops do need to send out easily

        • Re:Why not? (Score:3, Interesting)

          by Duhavid ( 677874 )
          You have a good point.

          One issue for that organization, thoughis that the old version will not
          read newer MSOfficeversion's files. This is not an issue if
          they only deal with internal documents, but if they receive
          documents from outside the organization, they will likely have
          no control over those external version, and would therefore
          be under pressure to upgrade to be able to read the newer
          formats.

      • Getting our versions of Office to 2003 is $65k+

        Its not going to cost him $65K to keep his current software. The posting says that his company already has Office 97/200/2002.

        • Re:Why not? (Score:3, Informative)

          by klubar ( 591384 )
          It's too bad that the original poster didn't provide any more details about his organization--how many users does he have? How many need full office? The $65K is the cost of about 2/3 of an employee (after benefits, etc.) If changing for Office to some alternative (training, support, help desk calls from clients) will cost an additional person, he's better off stick with Office. However, I'd recommend waiting until the upgrades for Office 12 are are available to get everyone on the newest version. (Yes,

    • Re:Why not? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Ucklak ( 755284 ) on Thursday November 17, 2005 @09:43PM (#14058986)
      It they have an open license agreement with MS (as most do in a corporate case), they are required to upgrade in X number of years. They could still use the software but it would be illegal (in the eyes of the BSA, MS, and the EULA).

      Last time I checked, the retail version of MSOffice 2002/2003 doesn't allow the use of transform files which set corporate preferences for the user during profile setup.

      • Re:Why not? (Score:2, Informative)

        by pythas ( 75383 )
        Uh, that's 100% wrong. An open license doesn't require any kind of repurchase in a certain amount of years. Using it after that time isn't illegal.

        Who the hell modded this up?
      • In addition to the other response to this, almost always, a corporate license is viable for downgrading. 'Buy XP, install 2000', be it Windows or Office.p.But really...there is no need to upgrade, if you don't see a real need for it.

    • Unfair Moderation. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Doc Squidly ( 720087 ) on Thursday November 17, 2005 @09:50PM (#14059032)

      Why not just keep Office 2000/XP?

      This is a valid question that shouldn't have been modded as flamebait. Sure, its an unpopular question considering the /. crowd but, still valid.

      The first option that is usually overlooked in IT is, "Do Nothing". If any software product is meeting a businesses needs then why replace it without a good enough reason. Will the benefits of switching form product A to product C outweigh the cost.

      I love new stuff as much as the next guy but, if a product works, even one made by M$, then asking if your company should continue to use it is a question any IT Pro should ask.

      There plenty of good reasons to switch to OOo but, don't do it just because it's not a M$ product.

      [Gets off soap box]

      • Re:Unfair Moderation. (Score:5, Informative)

        by buck_wild ( 447801 ) on Thursday November 17, 2005 @10:00PM (#14059113)
        Valid point. However, in a business environment there are other considerations, such as per-seat licenses. If his office is like mine, we were *required* to pay. In this case, doing nothing meant that you were no longer allowed to use MS Office, in which case stiff penalties applied if you were caught*.

        *Employees could 'report' usage to MS anonomously.

        • *Employees could 'report' usage to MS anonomously.

          That would require users to 'have a clue' about software licensing, and 'access' to the 'license records.' I've seen 'companies' install copies of XP as soon as the order was placed, without waiting for the physical copies to arrive. As long as you don't type in someone else or some other company's name in the box, there's not much of a way for anyone to notice a copy isn't licensed.
          • True, but if the original poster is working hard to educate the masses that OO is the way to go, and to get rid of all old copies of MS Office and stop using it, then people will know. That's the way it happened in my company, and it was well known (sent in the email distribution to all of IT) that one could report abuse directly to MS.

            Perhaps my company went over the top, perhaps not. I've no idea what is required by MS when making the change.
      • You mean the real answer is why not just stick to M$ office 97. Hmm because eventually, they will make the old format undreadable by the newest version, rather than just making documents created by the newest version unreadable by older versions.

        Keep your old version of MS office for a long as it is convenient for you to do so, once of course it becomes a micro softie created inconvenience to attempt do so, solve the problem that microsoft has created for you by swapping to open office, why would anybody

      • Re:Unfair Moderation. (Score:2, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Personally, I think the reason it might have been modded as flamebait is because the answer to his question is right in the brief article summary:

        "I've been working on a rollout plan for OpenOffice.org 2.0 for a medium sized network. This network runs a number of different MS Office versions, and we absolutely must retain the Microsoft Office 97/2000/2002 file formats (for interoperability with the public and other entities). Getting our versions of Office to 2003 is $65k+, so we're looking closely at OOo.

    • He's already stated their motive for going to OO was to save money by avoiding the upgrade to Office 2003.

      Assume that they can no longer purchase copies of their current (older) version of Office, or that they are anticipating an increase in the number of seats.

      Admittedly, the cash outlay is less than upgrading to Office 2003 -- unless Microsoft will no longer sell them copies of their current software. Then they are stuck -- unless they opt to make additional copies of their current version of Office witho
    • You mean other than the $299 for XP Proffessional and the $199 for MS Office?
    • You mean other than the $299 for XP professional and $199 for office?

  • OO.org does not have perfect file compatibility (Score:5, Insightful)

    by vijayiyer ( 728590 ) on Thursday November 17, 2005 @09:30PM (#14058875)
    While this doesn't address your question, you mention the necessity of using MS office files. Be absolutely sure you are aware of the limitations of importing/exporting MS office documents. Contrary to what a lot of slashdotters imply, the document compatibility is only so-so when working with complex Word and Powerpoint files, which forced me back away from OO.org. Don't get me wrong - I don't like MS Office myself. But when forced to work with MS Office files, it's incredibly difficult to use any other tool.
    • And as long as MS makes it hard to exchange your documents with other people you should rule them out as a vendor.

      Your point is exactly why somebody should dump office, not why they should keep it. You should not let your vendors dictate the products you use.
    • These same problems affect different versions of MS Office too. A complex word document written in Office 97 or 2000 can look completely different in Word 2003.

      Best method: judge for yourself. Go to Microsoft.com, download all their complex Powerpoint presentations from the MS Office center. See if any don't display perfectly in OpenOffice 2.
    • But when forced to work with MS Office files, it's incredibly difficult to use any other tool.

      That's probably the number one reason to get rid of office. That, and the fact that it can be difficult to use different versions of Office in the same environment. When older versions of office are phased out, and no longer for sale or supported by Microsoft, it becomes necessary to upgrade everyone at what can be an inconvenient time due to version compatibility problems. Better IMO to work with something that yo

  • Use the source, Luke? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by marimbaman ( 194066 ) on Thursday November 17, 2005 @09:30PM (#14058879)
    I imagine it can't be too difficult to build your own distro of OOo that saves in MS Office format by default.
    • Or why not go with any one of the several others that are already out there? I've heard good things about Neo office.
    • Something like default file formats shouldn't be hardcoded.

      OpenOffice 1.x checked for an env variable OOO_MS_DEFAULTS=1
      This doesn't work for OO2, but I haven't done much research yet to figure out what does.
      I've seen something in the GUI, but not for all users.
    • Choose Tools -> Options

      Go to Load/Save -> General

      There is a "Always save as" field in the lower right.
      • PS: I'll hapilly accept the $32.5K

        8-)
      • In OOo with multiple user profiles, this is saved PER USER!

        You cannot expect a user to do this on every machine.

        I either need this globally set or some other elegant solution.
        • How about changing the settings in the directory that is used to create a user's OOo directory the first time OOo is started? On our system this happens to be in /export/local/9.0/packages/OpenOffice.org2.0/shar e / but it would obviously be elsewhere on your MS Windows system. I get the impression that you're not using the network for home directories, so I'm guessing that you don't use it for anything else either. If OOo is installed separately on each computer, you'd have to somehow propagate the defaults

        • Re:Use the source, Luke? (Score:3, Informative)

          by bit01 ( 644603 )

          In OOo with multiple user profiles, this is saved PER USER!

          So what?

          You cannot expect a user to do this on every machine.

          No, why would I?

          I either need this globally set or some other elegant solution.

          If you can't propagate a configuration value like this or even a software installation to all the machines you administer in seconds with minimal user impact you are a very poor system administrator and no amount of advice on /. is going to help you. It's just a file copy operation, no elegance n

  • Use a macro (Score:5, Informative)

    by David_Bloom ( 578245 ) <slashdot@3lesson.org> on Thursday November 17, 2005 @09:31PM (#14058889) Homepage
    Make an OpenOffice.org BASIC macro that sets the configuration settings [openoffice.org]. Put the macro in an empty document, and make it autoopen that document on startup only once (also code the document so it closes automatically once it's done).

  • TermServer/Citrix/XWindows/whatever (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Gothmolly ( 148874 ) on Thursday November 17, 2005 @09:31PM (#14058890)
    Since you're going to make a fairly large paradigm shift anyway, why not go all the way and centrally host it? Running it over your favorite remote protocol might work fine, it wont bloat or slow down the clients, you can insta-upgrade people to new versions, and the roaming profile requirement evaporates.
    If people save to some network share, and their PCs can access that, then there's no problem. Map some printers back to local clients (depends on how you do the remote session, might be LPD, share, or LPT redirect), and people might not ever know they're NOT on the local machine.

  • in other news.... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mulcher ( 241014 ) on Thursday November 17, 2005 @09:34PM (#14058909)
    For $65k you should be able to bargain with MSFT somehow. Academia does it by department which should be far less than what you pay... and it is department negoiated, not University wide. In other news, expect a slashdot article in a month stating that "I got fired for installing OO 2.0 on our corp. network".

    MS Office doesn't even work with highly complex objects and docs... even between versions or across different computers.
    • Another good idea: Negotiate. Except that with the Open Office solution he would pay esentially nothing. Academia also gets discounts for being just that. A small business would likely just get laughed at, or MS would simply bury the costs elsewhere.

  • Remote Folders (Score:5, Informative)

    by Doc Squidly ( 720087 ) on Thursday November 17, 2005 @09:34PM (#14058910)
    Via group policy you can redirect the users' application data folder to a drive on a file server. Assuming Open Office saves the user configuration in the %user name%\Application Data folder, it should work.

    Of course, if you don't already have enough space on your servers; you've got another fight on your hands.

    Good luck!

  • Open Office (Score:5, Informative)

    by scarolan ( 644274 ) on Thursday November 17, 2005 @09:34PM (#14058911) Homepage
    We are a much smaller company - at only $8m a year in sales, but here's how we do it:

    12-15 users all log into a central server running Fedora Core 3 using thin clients. We currently use the excellent LTSP (www.ltsp.org) packages to accomplish this. Through experience we have found that a Pentium 4 server with about 2 gigs of RAM can comfortably handle up to 15 users or so, more than that and the load gets a bit too heavy. The programs that eat up the most memory and CPU cycles are Firefox, Evolution, Open Office, and Adobe Acrobat. We do allow streaming radio with xmms, because it doesn't eat up too much bandwidth or memory, and our users like it. The desktop clients themselves are old Pentium II boxes with 64mb of ram, no hard drives, and no cd-roms.

    All our sales reps use OpenOffice every day to type up their quotes, fax cover sheets, etc. My secretary uses OpenOffice Calc to do spreadsheet work for our government contracts. It's easy to set all your clients to default to MS file formats - go into the File > Save settings and set them to always use .xls or .doc for your files.

    You don't need to use thin clients, however, to use Open Office. We just went the thin client route because it was inexpensive and easy to do with existing hardware. We are planning to upgrade soon so that each user has their own desktop machine running local apps, but still mounting the home directories on the server.

    I suppose if it can be done with 15 computers running linux, you could also do it with your Windows boxes. Just make sure they all have the same OO settings, and that they are all set to save in the proper file formats before your users even get a chance to work with it. OO works almost like MS Office - but be prepared for lots of complaining from users who will say "But Microsoft Office didn't work this way" . . .

  • My OO.o tips (Score:4, Interesting)

    by saskboy ( 600063 ) on Thursday November 17, 2005 @09:34PM (#14058912) Homepage Journal
    I'm far from an expert, but I've been using OO.o for over two years now.

    My first tip is at home or for basic users, you can go into
    Tools
    Options
    Java
    Disable the Java, and your startup time is almost certainly going to improve.
    [Another Slashdotter showed me this trick, and it apparently disables macros or something I don't use much if ever.]

    I install OO.o on a computer, and log into the profile that will run it, hit enter a few times to accept the agreement, and say I've already registered then proceed. This loads the quickstarter into the Startup, and if MS Antispyware is running it might even ask if you want it to run every time.

    Since I image computers and roll out a standard image when a machine needs redoing, I don't worry about standard config settings yet. Most machines I put it on don't have Word, so I set OO to automatically open Word files, when I install it.
    • Disable the Java, and your startup time is almost certainly going to improve.
      [Another Slashdotter showed me this trick, and it apparently disables macros or something I don't use much if ever.]

      It will give problems making database forms, for example. If you have database problems (not being able to edit fields), it's possible Java is disabled.

  • Be careful about compatibility (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mferrare ( 65039 ) on Thursday November 17, 2005 @09:39PM (#14058950)
    I used to run my own consultancy and I used OpenOffice (well StarOffice back then) as my office suite. I found it more useful to send documents around in PDF format instead of sending word documents to my clients. Most of my clients could read PDF back then (this was '99/2000) - even more should be able to now.


    Be careful about compatibility. The MS Office compatibility in OpenOffice is not all it's cracked up to be - even things like bullets and headings change fonts and spacings during conversions. IMHO it's better for you to work in native formats and send PDF files around.

    • The MS Office compatibility in OpenOffice is not all it's cracked up to be - even things like bullets and headings change fonts and spacings during conversions.

      This kind of thing doesn't sound all that severe. I would expect programs like Word and OpenOffice.org Writer to support things like default serif and sans-serif fonts. For example, at least in the old days, Mac users typically didn't have Times New Roman and Arial; those documents, when opened on the Mac, would render in Times and Helvetica.

      The

      • You just want to change the view to "Web Layout." You can do that either by checking it, or by unchecking "Print View."
      • But web view loses all concept of pagination -- it's just an endless roll of paper. The Word Normal view really is an excellent format for drafting because it makes the information (like page breaks) visible without slowing things down.

        There's a bug open for OOo to add normal view, and there's been a lot of noise recently on it, but since the bug has been there a couple of years and OOo 2.0 still hasn't implemented it, I'm not sure if we'll ever see a normal view. Which is a shame.

    • Re:Be careful about compatibility (Score:5, Informative)

      by EnronHaliburton2004 ( 815366 ) * on Thursday November 17, 2005 @10:00PM (#14059115) Homepage Journal
      The MS Office compatibility in OpenOffice is not all it's cracked up to be - even things like bullets and headings change fonts and spacings during conversions.

      And truth be told, MS Office compatibility in MS Office is not all it's cracked up to be. Opening MS Office 97/2000/2002 documents in a different version of MS Office can yield in wildly different results.

      Opening an Office 2000 document in Office 2000 can also result in different results, as I noticed yet again with my resume. The bullets are NOT as I left them last week.

      And here I am editing a document in Word 2003. I have a bulleted list, and I hit return. MS Word creates a new line with a bullet-- great! But it also automatically changed the font, itallics and spacing for the rest of the bulleted text in the list-- WRONG! This bug has existed since Office 1997--- I hate it!

  • Roaming Profiles aren't a good solution... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 17, 2005 @09:40PM (#14058958)
    They only solve this problem for EVERY app on your network.

    You're basically asking for the features of Roaming Profiles without having to actually implement them.

  • Bite the bullet (Score:2, Insightful)

    by GWBasic ( 900357 )
    Consider biting the bullet and spending the money. $65k, depending on where you're located, could be much cheaper then the amount of money you'll have to spend on supporting Open Office. Microsoft Sharepoint allows people to easily move between computers, yet still have access to documents in a central repository.
    • Consider biting the bullet and spending the money. $65k, depending on where you're located, could be much cheaper then the amount of money you'll have to spend on supporting Open Office.

      OO.o support costs? Heck, I'll offer OO.o support myself for just $50,000! Limited time deal, contact me today only!

    • Re:Bite the bullet (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Theatetus ( 521747 ) on Thursday November 17, 2005 @11:53PM (#14059848) Journal
      $65k, depending on where you're located, could be much cheaper then the amount of money you'll have to spend on supporting Open Office.

      Where is this magical world people are from in which MS Office works out of the box and doesn't require support? I "tech guy" for about 20 small organizations and as of this last invoice 65% of my time is supporting people on MS Office (90% if you count Outlook) because it freezes / craps out / corrupts their files / won't open older versions / won't open newer versions / does weird things where bullets aren't all the same size / messes up multi-column calculations half the time but not the other half of the time / etc.

      Do you really work with MS Office installations that don't require support?

  • "and we have users that move around (and no, Roaming Profiles are not an option for us)"

    Without roaming profiles, how would this be any different in MS Office land?

  • Better Idea. (Score:2, Interesting)

    by unixbugs ( 654234 )
    Why don't you spend 35K on someone to implement all the OOo you can stand.

  • Have you checked with your Finance department? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by winkydink ( 650484 ) * <sv.dude@gmail.com> on Thursday November 17, 2005 @10:25PM (#14059281) Homepage Journal
    Especially the really heavy users of Excel? The ones who build "models"? Don't tell them, but all that "macro" stuff they build? It's essentially a furball of VB. Furball? Yes, because it's been written by somebody who doesn't know how to program. They just keep whacking at it until it works.

    And guess what? It doesn't work in OpenOffice.
  • I'm a MS guy so when I think of track changes by users I think redlining/blacklining.

    Is this something like a config file that keeps track of toolbar/font/etc. customization and such? Is OP saying he wants to keep these configs for every user but not use roaming profiles or network shares? If you have your laptop #1 in the field and user Bob logs in and changes default font to Helvetica, you want Bob to have that set as default when he uses laptop #2 on a different day? If not, as another suggested, sto

  • Perils and Pitfalls (Score:3, Interesting)

    by mpapet ( 761907 ) on Thursday November 17, 2005 @10:39PM (#14059385) Homepage
    I'm probably crazy but, I'm thinking it's kind of a "convince me" kind of post rather than a "solve my problem."

    Unless someone WAY at the top of the organization drives this, advocating the move is more likely to make you look bad. The first hiccup and the brown-stuff rolls downhill to your door. Present the facts and be done.

    If $65K really is an intollerably large chunk of change, then I don't really understand why there's even a question.

    • Re:Perils and Pitfalls (Score:3, Insightful)

      by robpoe ( 578975 )
      Government entity (county level)

      The elected official has approved the move.

      The convincing has been done. We like the direct export PDF, we like the compatibility (and direct use of same product on Linux), might even be doing some linux stuff on the desktop in the future..

      Think of this as a first step ..
  • You must edit the OOo registry as shown here: http://www.oooforum.org/forum/viewtopic.phtml?p=10 5239 [oooforum.org]

  • A real earth-shaking idea (Score:5, Insightful)

    by adolf ( 21054 ) <flodadolf@gmail.com> on Thursday November 17, 2005 @11:22PM (#14059661) Journal
    Here's a thought:

    Pay someone else to do it. You're saving $65k, right? Give a (small) portion of that cash to someone familiar with OOo, and have them code the changes that you're after.

    Just because it's free software doesn't mean that it's afraid of money. Go ahead and buy the features you need.

  • 1. install OO in workstations
    2. buy:

              * big whiteboard - $35
              * whiteboard marker - $5

    3. then write the instructions on the white board on how to configure OO

    total expenses: $40

  • OpenOffice Defaults (Score:2, Informative)

    by wehup ( 567821 )
    Open Office 2.0/StarOffice8 do not make it easy to configure defaults. The first time any user opens the program on a given computer they are greeted with a EULA, and series of configuration screens. File save formats will default to OpenDoc. One possible solution is to use scripting to copy the setup.xcu file from a fully configured user to the profile of each user. This approach turns out to be rather clumsy. A solution that works involves modifying the installation files so that OO2/Sta

  • Tip: import MS, convert to OOo, export to MS (Score:5, Informative)

    by SysKoll ( 48967 ) on Friday November 18, 2005 @12:00AM (#14059878)
    The key is to realize that complex MS Word documents are unstable: even when edited only with Word, they tend to accumulate cruft, that is, subtle changes of layout and format in parts nobody touched. When you open them with OOo, these unpredictable changes can really screw you up.

    So the trick is this: when you edit a .DOC file with OOo, convert it to the OOo format (.sxw) as soon as you start. Make sure the format is OK. Keep the file in .sxw format inside the company.

    When you need to interface with the outside world, publish the .DOC by saving in this format if needed. If you don't need outside people to actually edit the document, export it from OOo as a PDF, which is read-only, and publish the PDF instead of the DOC.

    And remember to edit only the .sxw file.

  • Compatibilty Issues (Score:3, Informative)

    by protobion ( 870000 ) on Friday November 18, 2005 @01:00AM (#14060191) Homepage
    I use Openoffice 2.0 on my computer and be advised that I faced serious compatibility issues when editing certain Microsoft Word (Office XP) files in Openoffice writer.
    These files were edited using the "Track changes" option in MS Office, that allows you to automatically mark changes that you have made to the file. Openoffice simply does not understand such a file and loads it without the accompanying change tracking information.

    Admiteddly, I liked OpenOffice at first and thought that MS Office could finally be replaced. However, several experiences (problems with huge loading time, slowing down the PC, OpenDocument format not popular etc.), including the above mentioned one, have forced me back to MS Office, and my personal conclusion is that MS Office has a lot more features and is much better as a regular word processing app. I hate paying Microsoft, but in this case, they take the cake. I'll have to wait for Oo3.

    PS : The only OO features that I noticed MS does not have, are the ability to render equations and make PDFs. However, MS Office + MathType + Adobe Acrobat Prof./any free PDF renderer can take care of that.

  • OOo 2.0 Network Installation Script (Score:5, Informative)

    by mgpeter ( 132079 ) on Friday November 18, 2005 @11:34AM (#14062724) Homepage
    I created a Kixtart Net install script to rollout OpenOffice.org 2.0 - The requirements are simply a Domain Admin Account and the ability to access the Default Administrative Shares that Windows automatically creates.

    You can Download it at

    http://www.pcc-services.com/kixtart/scripts.html [pcc-services.com]

    For the default saving into Office filetypes - All of the user settings are saved in XML files and you can edit these files before you roll-out OpenOffice.org. To do this simply adjust the settings on a separate machine, find out what file was modified to see what you need to change in the default installation. For instance I created a menu item for my script to add a "From Gallery" option to the "Insert - Picture" Menu.
    • Also, upon further thinking - to keep the settings consistant for each user as they use different machines, simply redirect the "Application Data" directory within the profile for each user to somewhere in their home directory. This way there program settings will follow them without actually having to use roaming profiles.

      To redirect folders, simply use Active Directory's Group Policy Objects, or use the older System Policy Editor to create an ntconfig.pol file to place in the netlogon directory of your D

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