My girlfriend uses MSOffice Excel alot at work. I would like for her to be able to work at home on the weekends. Rather than driving to work every day. In Suse 8.2, which spreadsheet program will be the most compatable? Openoffice or Koffice? Can either open or save MSOffice Excel files? Are they as good/better/worse as Excel? She says formating is very critical, as she would get in trouble if she turned in work they can't use. I don't use office programs at all, so I'd like recomendations please. Thank you, -Trey
In Suse 8.2, which spreadsheet program will be the most compatable? Openoffice or Koffice?
I can't say, sorry.
Can either open or save MSOffice Excel files?
Famously, OpenOffice can do both. http://www.koffice.org/filters/1.2/ says that Koffice 1.2 can import but not export.
Are they as good/better/worse as Excel?
I'm sure that an MS employee would have a quick and clear answer to that. Meanwhile, the average opinion is that OO is rougher than Excel, but that it's pretty good.
She says formating is very critical, as she would get in trouble if she turned in work they can't use.
Then she could use OO (or possibly Koffice), and do any needed final tweaking in Excel. Gratuitous confusion: there's also Gnumeric, y'know.
On Saturday 12 July 2003 7:48 am, Trey wrote:
My girlfriend uses MSOffice Excel alot at work. I would like for her to be able to work at home on the weekends. Rather than driving to work every day.
In Suse 8.2, which spreadsheet program will be the most compatable? Openoffice or Koffice? Can either open or save MSOffice Excel files? Are they as good/better/worse as Excel?
She says formating is very critical, as she would get in trouble if she turned in work they can't use. I don't use office programs at all, so I'd like recomendations please. Thank you, -Trey
OpenOffice.org is more compatible and is very Excel-like, so your girlfriend ought to be at home with it. There is a risk that some formatting may be lost, but generally this is only the case with complex documents. The only way to check is to try a few files in it and see if they work. Bear in mind that OpenOffice.org (or Koffice) won't run Excel's Visual Basic, so if the files rely on macros to work, then you may be lost. You'll want to ensure that you've installed the Microsoft core fonts (Arial, Times New Roman etc) for maximum compatibility. You may also want to consider installing OpenOffice.org 1.1RC which will be released very soon which has some significant improvements over the version included in SuSE 8.2 -- it will be released on www.openoffice.org I believe from early next week. It's already on the ftp mirrors. HTH, Jason
In Suse 8.2, which spreadsheet program will be the most compatable? Openoffice or Koffice? Can either open or save MSOffice Excel files? Are they as good/better/worse as Excel?
Can I put a word in for Gnumeric, which now handles all the functions of Excel, and some apparently better than Excel -- James Ogley, Webmaster, Rubber Turnip james@rubberturnip.org.uk http://www.rubberturnip.org.uk Jabber: riggwelter@myjabber.net Using Free Software since 1994, running GNU/Linux (SuSE 8.2). GNOME updates for SuSE: http://www.usr-local-bin.org
On Saturday 12 July 2003 01:48, Trey wrote:
She says formating is very critical, as she would get in trouble if she turned in work they can't use.
I would definitely recommend paying for Crossover Office and then installing MS Excel, if that is an option for you. I've found it works flawlessly with the exception that it seems to be more stable running in Linux than on a native Windows platform (that figures). If that is not an option for you (i.e., if you don't have the $55 for Crossover or you don't have a copy of MS Office 97 or 2000), then I would try OpenOffice. The risk is, however, that you could lose formatting unless these are sheets with relatively straight-forward formats, and you could also find that some formulae do not work. - Thomas Long -- Using SuSE Linux 8.2
Thomas Long wrote:
On Saturday 12 July 2003 01:48, Trey wrote:
She says formating is very critical, as she would get in trouble if she turned in work they can't use.
I would definitely recommend paying for Crossover Office and then installing MS Excel, if that is an option for you. I've found it works flawlessly with the exception that it seems to be more stable running in Linux than on a native Windows platform (that figures). now this seems like the best solution...I didn't think of that before!
If that is not an option for you (i.e., if you don't have the $55 for Crossover or you don't have a copy of MS Office 97 or 2000), then I would try OpenOffice. The risk is, however, that you could lose formatting unless these are sheets with relatively straight-forward formats, and you could also find that some formulae do not work.
- Thomas Long
The risk is, however, that you could lose formatting unless
these are sheets with relatively straight-forward formats, and you could also find that some formulae do not work.
Actually her documents do not use formulas. It's all just text & page formating. She types resteraunt menus into Excel, which when printed come out as a grid of items & numbers. The grid has to maintain its format. So it prints correctly on the page. Pretty simple stuff really, just nitpicky on the printing. -Trey
* Trey (urlik.skarsol@verizon.net) [030712 13:56]:
Actually her documents do not use formulas. It's all just text & page formating. She types resteraunt menus into Excel, which when printed come out as a grid of items & numbers. The grid has to maintain its format. So it prints correctly on the page. Pretty simple stuff really, just nitpicky on the printing.
You could have her to a test spreadsheet with OpenOffice and then take that to work and if it looks fine on her Windows machine with Excel then she if she's satisfied she can then use OO at home. :) It doesn't sound like shes doing anything very complicated. -- Ben Rosenberg ---===---===---===--- mailto:ben@whack.org ----------------------------------------------------------- This e-mail and any attachment is intended for anyone with an email address and does not contain information that is confidential and privileged or that is of any intrinsic value to anyone.
You could have her to a test spreadsheet with OpenOffice and then take that to work and if it looks fine on her Windows machine with Excel then she if she's satisfied she can then use OO at home. :) It doesn't sound like shes doing anything very complicated.
--
We spent several hours this afternoon doing just that. Seems the OpenOffice spreadsheet program works great. The OO file saved as Excel97/2000/Xp opens and prints perfectly in Excel. Just for the record, the Kspread program from Koffice messed it up badly. Thanks to everyone who emailed me help & opinions. It was a huge help as we could not afford to buy Excel at this time. -Trey
* Trey (urlik.skarsol@verizon.net) [030713 23:30]:
We spent several hours this afternoon doing just that. Seems the OpenOffice spreadsheet program works great. The OO file saved as Excel97/2000/Xp opens and prints perfectly in Excel.
Great! Glad it worked for you! :)
Just for the record, the Kspread program from Koffice messed it up badly. Thanks to everyone who emailed me help & opinions. It was a huge help as we could not afford to buy Excel at this time.
I had high hopes for Koffice but every new version still has issues with simple Microsoft documents that I get a work so end up uninstalling it. I then reinstall it when a new version comes out hoping it will work better but as of right now..it never has. One good thing is that a lot of people in my dept have been switching to OO on their own so I don't even worry about selecting a format. :) You actual pay for Microsoft software? ;) I thought most people pirated that stuff..oops..there I go again believing the BSA. *laugh* Cheers! And good luck. -- Ben Rosenberg ---===---===---===--- mailto:ben@whack.org ----------------------------------------------------------- This e-mail and any attachment is intended for anyone with an email address and does not contain information that is confidential and privileged or that is of any intrinsic value to anyone.
On Saturday 12 July 2003 10:05 pm, Trey wrote:
The risk is, however, that you could lose formatting unless
these are sheets with relatively straight-forward formats, and you could also find that some formulae do not work.
Actually her documents do not use formulas. It's all just text & page formating. She types resteraunt menus into Excel, which when printed come out as a grid of items & numbers. The grid has to maintain its format. So it prints correctly on the page. Pretty simple stuff really, just nitpicky on the printing. -Trey
And another option could be to use the Linux version of OOo at home, and install the Windows version at work, and transfer native OpenOffice files.... ;-) Jason
What a simple and elegant solution...unless she must send the file to her boss for approval. M$ products tend screw up the formatting when converting to and from OO. On Sat, 2003-07-12 at 18:06, Jason wrote:
On Saturday 12 July 2003 10:05 pm, Trey wrote:
The risk is, however, that you could lose formatting unless
these are sheets with relatively straight-forward formats, and you could also find that some formulae do not work.
Actually her documents do not use formulas. It's all just text & page formating. She types resteraunt menus into Excel, which when printed come out as a grid of items & numbers. The grid has to maintain its format. So it prints correctly on the page. Pretty simple stuff really, just nitpicky on the printing. -Trey
And another option could be to use the Linux version of OOo at home, and install the Windows version at work, and transfer native OpenOffice files.... ;-)
Jason
* Michael Long (mlong@datalong.com) [030712 20:23]:
What a simple and elegant solution...unless she must send the file to her boss for approval. M$ products tend screw up the formatting when converting to and from OO.
Well. Then your best solution is to have her do spreadsheet in OpenOffice and have OO save it as an Excel sheet. If it's as simple of spreadsheet as you say then she should be able to open it at work and test it before she hands it off to her boss. If it doesn't work then the small amount of cash for CXOffice is her solution for the time being. -- Ben Rosenberg ---===---===---===--- mailto:ben@whack.org ----------------------------------------------------------- This e-mail and any attachment is intended for anyone with an email address and does not contain information that is confidential and privileged or that is of any intrinsic value to anyone.
Then your best solution is to have her do spreadsheet in OpenOffice and have OO save it as an Excel sheet. If it's as simple of spreadsheet as you say then she should be able to open it at work and test it before she hands it off to her boss.
Or try this one: she uses OOo at home, she uses OOo at the office; her boss is happy with the result; talk of this success gets around the office; others in the company do the same thing; the demand for Excel drops off; the money that would have gone to MS goes instead to lubrication for an office party or whatever.
On Sunday 13 July 2003 4:22 am, Michael Long wrote:
What a simple and elegant solution...unless she must send the file to her boss for approval. M$ products tend screw up the formatting when converting to and from OO. <snip>
Then why not offer to install OOo on the boss' computer? Viral marketing! <vbg> I've also found OOo can read Office files that Word has damaged and refuses to load again. Jason
On Sun, 13 Jul 2003 19:12, Jason wrote:
On Sunday 13 July 2003 4:22 am, Michael Long wrote:
What a simple and elegant solution...unless she must send the file to her boss for approval. M$ products tend screw up the formatting when converting to and from OO.
<snip>
Then why not offer to install OOo on the boss' computer? Viral marketing! <vbg>
I've also found OOo can read Office files that Word has damaged and refuses to load again.
Jason
In my opinion OpenOffice is far more compliant to the MS specs than the different versions of MS products are. Often I have used OpenOffice Calc to recover damaged Excel files at the office. I have noticed if you format a MS Word document correctly in word it will import/export correctly from word to OpenOffice. A high percentage of documents that stuff up are badly formatted in Word in the first place, especially in the page and margin formatting. -- Regards, Graham Smith ---------------------------------------------------------
Thats an even better solution. Then you can suggest replacing M$ Office with OO as a cost cutting measure and your girlfriend will get a raise for helping the company cut costs. :) Mike On Sun, 2003-07-13 at 05:12, Jason wrote:
On Sunday 13 July 2003 4:22 am, Michael Long wrote:
What a simple and elegant solution...unless she must send the file to her boss for approval. M$ products tend screw up the formatting when converting to and from OO. <snip>
Then why not offer to install OOo on the boss' computer? Viral marketing! <vbg>
I've also found OOo can read Office files that Word has damaged and refuses to load again.
Jason
On Sat, 2003-07-12 at 08:48, Trey wrote:
My girlfriend uses MSOffice Excel alot at work. I would like for her to be able to work at home on the weekends. Rather than driving to work every day.
The programs have already been mentioned by others, I don't have anything to add to that. But there is also the option of working remotely. If she has dialup or VPN access to her job, there are clients for linux that can access the remote desktop in windows. Look at rdesktop or grdesktop. With those (or possibly VNC), she could use her work machine from home.
On Saturday 12 July 2003 02:48 am, Trey wrote:
My girlfriend uses MSOffice Excel alot at work. I would like for her to be able to work at home on the weekends. Rather than driving to work every day.
In Suse 8.2, which spreadsheet program will be the most compatable? Openoffice or Koffice? Can either open or save MSOffice Excel files? Are they as good/better/worse as Excel?
She says formating is very critical, as she would get in trouble if she turned in work they can't use. I don't use office programs at all, so I'd like recomendations please. Thank you, -Trey
I work on Solaris machines at work, and my boss uses WindowsXP. We are constantly trading spreadsheets, each of us adding and modifying the others. I use OpenOffice on the Solaris machines and it exports to MS Excel like a charm. We use lots of charts and lots of formatting. Both of these export very well.
Trey wrote:
My girlfriend uses MSOffice Excel alot at work. I would like for her to be able to work at home on the weekends. Rather than driving to work every day.
In Suse 8.2, which spreadsheet program will be the most compatable? Openoffice or Koffice? Can either open or save MSOffice Excel files? Are they as good/better/worse as Excel? i've seen staroffice (the new version) and it worked very well with excel from office 2000 and 97.
She says formating is very critical, as she would get in trouble if she turned in work they can't use. I don't use office programs at all, so I'd like recomendations please. Thank you, -Trey
Files for Office applications are not and will never be totally perfect. The reason is that Microsoft can and does obfiscate the format for marketing reasons, hiding (and sometimes encrypting) the hooks. Microsoft will not open up until someone forces them to do so, since this is the engine of their monopoly. If she needs *perfect*, she needs to use Microsoft Office. I have found that using the Codeweaver product http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=6153 and VMWare (a little pricey) will get the job done. For VMWare, she needs the VMWare product, plus a licensed copy of Windows (most flavors), plus a licensed copy of Office (I got all except VMWare on ebay). Incidentally, VMWare will give her a virtual copy of Windows, so she should be right at home. Running VMWare on a 2.4G Compaq laptop, devoting 176mb (the default) to Windows 2000 Professional gives me plenty of speed. It would be nice to skip this fooling around to write these files. I don't expect things to change until either the market or the government forces M$ to open their formats. On Fri, 2003-07-11 at 23:48, Trey wrote:
My girlfriend uses MSOffice Excel alot at work. I would like for her to be able to work at home on the weekends. Rather than driving to work every day.
In Suse 8.2, which spreadsheet program will be the most compatable? Openoffice or Koffice? Can either open or save MSOffice Excel files? Are they as good/better/worse as Excel?
She says formating is very critical, as she would get in trouble if she turned in work they can't use. I don't use office programs at all, so I'd like recomendations please. Thank you, -Trey
participants (12)
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Anders Johansson -
Ben Rosenberg -
Graham Smith -
James Ogley -
Jason -
Michael Long -
Michael Sacco -
Peter Evans -
pheonix1t -
Thomas Long -
Timothy Hanson -
Trey