Jerry Feldman wrote:
I installed Open Office 1.0 last week with no problems. However, when I created my lesson slides for my class on Tuesday, I created html and PowerPoint. I did not really like the html output, but it was ok. The PowerPoint output was horrible. Most of the slides were blank. I subsequently ran Star Office 5.2, and exported to PowerPoint and all the slides came out as expected.
Another thing I did not like about OO is that on StarOffice 5.2, I could bring up multiple documents and align them vertically or horizontally on the desktop for easy cutting and pasting. (Normally I create a new lesson but I also recycle some slides from previous classes). Open Office create new windows. Just a minor annoyance. However, I did prefer the fonts on Open Office to Star Office 5.2.
I don't think the MS filters in "OpenOffice" are as good as the ones in StarOffice (6.0). This is, after all, one of the reasons Sun wants to/will sell a commercial product. I've got SO 6.0 (for some time, the final, not beta ;-) ) but I can't say how good it is, I haven't had to export any powerpoint stuff. I never had any trouble importing MS Word files though.