On Wednesday 27 December 2006 13:41, Michael Leuty wrote:
I am doing my little bit for Linux evangelism (ho ho!) by introducing it in a certain Church Office where I am the closest thing they have to an IT expert. [...] My question is this. Is the Microsoft XML filter that comes with the SUSE 10.2 version of OpenOffice.org more accurate in conversion than the DOC filter? If files were exchanged in (MS) XML format would the conversion be 100% accurate? =========== See if they can convince the church to spend $3-500 for a MS Office package, then point out that most of the problems they are having come from the MS package, not wanting to follow any standards. Secondly, I don't think the XML filter has been created yet and it's not included with 10.2 OOo. That's to come later, sadly. MS should be urged strongly to support the open document format instead. There is in fact a patch/filter available for MS Office to save in that format, by the way.
Usually you'll find the only reason something doesn't convert well from .doc to OOo is because the user of MS Office is using lots of tables or macros within their document or just don't know how to use their program. Those have been the biggest problems I've seen at least. I doubt there will ever be a perfect conversion for everything, since even different versions of MS Office can't do that!
If so, then we could respond to criticism by saying that the problem is not the Linux computer but the fact that they are using out-of-date Microsoft products, and propose that they purchase an upgrade to Office 2003. Or install OOo, of course. :-)
Mike
-- Michael Leuty Nottingham, UK ============ Certainly the problem is not the Linux computer, but one has to point a finger at the user of that Linux computer somewhat. There are a number of sites dedicated to OOo with tutorials and FAQs! I found some really good ones last evening. Also, show them how to use the "help" in OOo, as it's invaluable. See what her/his objections are and sort them out with some solutions. Overcome their fears of using a different OS & program. Don't try to battle with them, just listen, explain and resolve. By the way, what version of OOo are you using as I've found the 2.x builds to be quite capable.
bye, Lee -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org