Office Alternatives?

[DJ]

Hello everyone, I am relatively new here only a couple of posts and right now I am still using Windows still on my main pc. Many of my professors require us to turn in homework in .doc form (copy on disk or email attach.) so I still have Office on my computer but am searching for an alternative for personal use, email and such.

I am mainly interested in a Word alternative and email program. Any info would be appreciated.

DJ

[TheQuirk]

OpenOffice.org is free, and is compatible with Microsoft Office.

[pkd_lives]

Check the home page of this site. The list on the right will help.

And for E-mail, the mail client in the mozilla browser (a replacement for IE) is v.good.

[DJ]

I am using Mozilla now   , but I didn't really like the Netscape email utility and since this is based on Netscape (correct me if I am wrong) I didn't know how much better/worse it would be, but I will give it a shot. Thanks for the responses.

DJ

[Kintaro]

Was based on Netscrape, now Netscrape is based on Mozilla.

[Calum]

yeah, mozilla has overtaken netscape by a long shot, since it is open source.

a closed source alternative to mozilla is Opera. This also features mail, broswer and email client, however unlike mozilla it doesn't have a wysiwyg html editor, but then you can probably live with that if you have mozilla already anyway.

[DJ]

I am really liking this OpenOffice.org suite, works VERY well so far, was messing around with it last night and didn't get my homework done until 2:30

thanks everyone

DJ

[ October 14, 2002: Message edited by: Engineer ]

[mobrien_12]

Unless your professors specifically want to modify the documents using the annotation/markup tools in Word, they ask for doc because they don't know any better.  You can turn in your homework in rich text format (RTF) and it will open in Word or many other word processors.  

RTF works fine for most documents.  It's not good for embedded pictures though.  RTF can be read and written by almost every word processor.  You can even convert LaTeX DVI files to RTF.  

Better yet, tell your professors that you can give them PDF files. Unless the professors want to modify the documents, PDF is the ideal solution for electronic documents.


Check out my webpage for information on making PDF documents.  

http://www.geocities.com/mobrien_12

[DJ]

I already know how to make pdf files (in M$ Word anyway), its not to different using OO.org is it, if possible? Just something I would like to keep in mind.

DJ

[beltorak0]

nope; just save as type "pdf".

-t.

[CaptainCool]

Umm, how do I launch OpenOffice in Linux?

[emh]

From a terminal, go to your Open Office directory, go to the programs directory, type "./swriter" (basically, "./(whatever program you want to run)") and it will run.

You can also use this path to make a desktop shortcut.

[voidmain]

I just click the OOo application icons on both my panel or on my menu. But then my distro came with it all installed and configured (RH8). But those ICONS point to the following programs:

oocalc (like MS Excel)
oowriter (like MS Word)
ooimpress (like MS Powerpoint)

But the above are RedHat wrapper files so the real commands that you would probably want to use if you are on a different distro would be:

scalc (Like MS Excel)
swriter (Like MS Word)
simpress (Like MS Powerpoint)

Those commands should reside in the directory that you installed OpenOffice to, create ICONS for them (actually I thought the OO setup created the desktop/menu items for you). There are lots more applications that are included besides the ones I listed:

sagenda
scalc
sdraw
sfax
slabel
smath
smemo
sweb
etc

[CaptainCool]

Ah, ok, I got it thanks dude.

[Calum]

quote:Originally posted by void main:
(actually I thought the OO setup created the desktop/menu items for you).

it didn't up to 1.0, not sure about 1.0.1 but i bet it's the same. that, and the fact of needing to type "./install net" to install it is the only thing that gets it the thumbs down for me. Actually there's nothing wrong with any of that at all, but i think that those issues and how to resolve them need to be shouted from the rooftops a bit for linux newbies. in windows, you just doubleclick the .exe file, and there you go. how hard would it be to make a similar script that does the menu and adds the 'net' flag as well, for easy installation by newbies?