[david7]

When I bought my first laptop with a Vista OS, I purchased MS Office Home & Student 2007, and installed it on the computer. Since then, I have learned about Open Office, the free software. Recently, I bought a second laptop for the family. I am considering putting Open Office on the new computer. I'm wondering about compatibility. Can we write reports and stuff in Open Office and then transfer them to a computer running Vista and Office 2007 and continue to work on the document? How about vice verse? Also, my office and my daughter's school use computers running XP and Office 2003. Can we write reports and stuff in Open Office and then transfer them to a computer running XP and Office 2003 and continue to work on the document? How about vice verse? My quick reading of the Open Office web site says that there is some compatibility and I want to get more details.

If I started with MS Office on one computer, and if school/work uses it, do I have to stick with it on additional computers?

Also, more generally, I would appreciate hearing about people's experiences working with and comparing the two word processing suites.

Thanks

[Adama]

Hi David,

My laptop came with MS Officde 2007, but I never used the trial version. I ended up uninstalling the whole thing and going to Open Office, and I like that much better.

Sorry I don't have any compatibility comparisons for you, but if you have Open Office, you really do not need anything else, IMO.

[Tech4me]

Hi david...I 've used OpenOffice for awhile.....Not a good open platform back then.....V 3.0 has a good review though.

I Now use Office 2007...and love it...

Since you already have Office home& student 2007...Why don't you use it for all your Pcs...?

Check out review..: www.download.com/OpenOffice-org-Windows-/3000-2064_4-10263109.html

[david7]

Thanks for your response.

I like the Microsoft office suites just fine, but OpenOffice is also highly regarded (see Adama's post). Quite simply, given the choice between paying $70 to $130, or paying nothing, I'll take the latter! But I want to know how easy it is to start a document in OpenOffice, save it on a flashdrive, and then finish it in a computer running Microsoft Office. I'm wondering if there are people out there who do that.

[david7]

Thanks for your response. You are one of many who thinks OpenOffice is great. Thus, I would like to try it, especially since it's free. I have no complaints about MS Offfice 2007, but I bought it once, for one computer, and I figure once is enough.

I'm wondering how easy it is to start a document in OpenOffice, save it to a flashdrive, then save it in Office 2007 and continue to work on it, print it, etc.

[Tech4me]

Office 2007 that came with Adama's Pc is a TRIAL VERSION...also comes with almost every pc out there......NOTHING compares to the PAID version.
Since you already bought MS office...you can install it in at least 4..5 pcs if you want...don't need to buy for each Pc you have.

If you have no choice.....by all mean use OpenOfffice....Nothing wrong with using free software...most of my stuffs on my lap are free.

I Never use Openoffice and finish with MS office..So I can't tell you If It can be done....I don't see reason why not.....(How.easy It is... I don't know.)

Hang tight, Other members might help you with that.

Check out this link...: www.oooninja.com/2008/03/openofficeorg-30-new-features.html

[david7]

Re: installing Office 2007 on 4 or 5 computers:

I was under the impression that you could only install it one computer, since it comes with one key code. Someone on Craigslist was selling Office and said it could be installed on 3 computers. I thought that that person was confusing it with security programs that come with 3 key codes, and can be installed on 3 computers. Am I the one that's confused?

[Tech4me]

You can also load it in your Flash drive with Activation code....Thats how I install it on my laptop and desktop.

You bought it ...didn't you......so use it.:^0

[rgreen4]

If you purchased the retail version of MS Office 2007 Home & Student, that package is good for activation on up to 3 computer with the same COA. I have my first package installed on three and purchased a second package for an additional two machines. I am a long time user of MS Office with both an antiquated Office '97 CD and an old Office 2000 CD. There was a learning curve getting used to Office 2007's ribbon, but once accustomed to it, I do like it.

There are some incompatibilities I have found in experimenting with Open Office 2.3 and 3.0. I first tried OO 2.3 when I was using MS Office 2000, and found the OO 2.4 calc to be fairly compatible except when it came to worksheet passwords. If you open an Excel .xls file and modify it in Cal 2.3, you can save it back as an .xls file. If you open a password protected .xls file, you can modify it in OO 2.3 but not save it.

With OO 3.0 you can open .xlsx and .docx files but you cannot save them back in that file format. Working with a volunteer group, I periodically use mail merge to send out mailings. This was almost second nature to me in MS Office 2000, but I struggled a bit the first time I did it in MS Office 2007, but I have become more accustomed to it now. (If I had purchased a book on it, it would probably have been easier). I did send a .docx file to someone with OO and they couldnot open it. I finally sent it as a PDF file.

OO does not have a mail merge. I posted this comment in another discussion and another member said I had to have Thunderbird installed, as OO has not address book as Office does (from Outlook). Of course Home & Student 2007 does not include Outlook either, but does do mail merge. I could understand OO needing Thunderbird if both were Sun products, but the're not. On top of which, I do not use the e-mail address book anyway, using instead a database listing in Excel.

Office 2003 is very close to Office 2000, but there is a compatibility pack for 2003 where you can read and write the 2007 file format. Whether the school installs this, is another question. You can however, set the defaults in Office 2007 to save the files as .doc and .xls instead of .docx and .xlsx. MS Office also had an add-in where you can directly save a document or worksheet as a PDF file, which I have found very handy.

You should have no problem installing MS Office 2007 H&S on your second computer, simply use the same COA from the box and activate.

[david7]

Thanks for your response. Additional inquires I have made confirm that you are right.

[david7]

thanks for your response.

[rgreen4]

As a matter of fact, this afternoon I am working on a banquet program for a group. Four pages, letter size paper in landscape mode with two columns duplexed. I have had fun pasting and moving things around. Nothing like a good project to learn the changes between Word 200 and 2007. Then when finished I can lock in the changes and send it out for review by saving it as a PDF file. I really like that add-on. I had it when I had Word 2000 installed on my old machine and then Adobe Acrobat installed, but this comes from MS and you don't need Acrobat.

[Adama]

Hi David,

RGreen has given you great advise, he is definitely an expert at MSFT Office and OpenOffice.