Linux not ready for the desktop? Give me a break! (NewsForge)
Posted Apr 14, 2003 14:54 UTC (Mon) by
eru (subscriber, #2753)
In reply to:
Linux not ready for the desktop? Give me a break! (NewsForge) by gdt
Parent article:
Linux not ready for the desktop? Give me a break! (NewsForge)
> And then there's questions of the quality of software to do even moderately
> serious desktop tasks. Let's try to write a memo. OpenOffice has no
> templates and the default paragraph settings suck.
Sometime ago I did some project documents on OpenOffice/Linux
combination in a corporate environment where practically all documents
are done on MS Word. The project manager did not notice anything unusual
until I told her... Every major organization has its own Word templates
(if only to allow some graphic designer or IT manager leave his/her
thumbmark...), and OpenOffice user can clone the look'n'feel by taking
one MS Word document following the style as a base. That's what I did.
I admit in this case I had to use some OpenOffice features in a certain
way to ensure the the MS Word export would look good. There were some
maddening cases, where the most natural way to do formatting in OpenOffice
was not transferred to the MS Word version properly.
The above of course is an issue only in a "mixed" environment: I believe a
corporation could well do ALL office work exclusively in OpenOffice
without losing any functionality, if documents going out can be
checked on a "real" MS Word, or, even better, always exported as HTML or
PDF documents. (PDF export is better in any case if you are serious about
having the recipient see exactly the layout and page numbering you want.
Different MS Word versions and viewers, even by MS, can create
differences....)
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