Ok, here are some examples of Open Office butchering Microsoft Office files.
The first is PowerPoint vs OO Impress. The sample file is from a class that I occasionally teach to other agents in our system, Better Real Estate Photography. I skipped the intro slide.
I opened the file up in PowerPoint 2007 and did a simple print screen of the next 2 slides. They look great. Then I opened up the same file in Impress 2.4 (latest version) and did a print screen of the same 2 slides. You’ll notice that the fonts are different, much larger in Impress. This makes the text fall off the bottom of the slide. Also, you’ll notice that the first letters of each sentence is missing. Makes it hard to read.
The next slide also has issues. You’ll notice that the nice faded drop shadows behind the photos are ugly boxes in Impress. Also, for some reason, Impress chose to renumber my bullet points from 1,2,3,4 to a strange 3,5,7,4 numbering scheme. I don’t know why. They are standard bullets in PowerPoint, nothing special. It also lost the outdent that I have set in PPT.
Next I opened a file in Excel, two files actually. This graph uses data from a separate spreadsheet using the indirect function. Apparently OO Calc does not like the indirect function. Therefore the graph is blank. You can see on the data sheet, that there are errors in every cell due to the indirect function not working.
Next I tried opening one of my brochures created in Publisher. Oh, Open Office does not have a publisher equivalent. In fact, it none of its apps can open a publisher file.
Yes, I am running the latest version of Microsoft Office 2007, and I do save the files in the “Office 97-2003” format for compatibility reasons. I can open almost all of my files on my other computers running Office 200 and Office 2003 and have no problems with the formatting. I cannot say the same for Open Office 2.4 (the latest version). I’ve tried many files and most of them have some formatting issue. If Open Office is the only program you use, and you don’t need to share files with anyone else, it may work fine for you.
I’m not the biggest fan of Microsoft, in fact I wish there were other options. I know Office has its problems, but Microsoft Office works, and it works well. It’s not even that expensive. When you buy a computer, you can usually add the OEM version of Office Small Business Edition for something like $279. That’s what I do. That’s my 2¢. Take it for what it’s worth.
Steve Hong
RE/MAX Associates Plus
Minneapolis, MN
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