my microsoft word which was installed by the shop who installed my hard drive is apparently not genuine according to a window which keeps popping open each time I start it up.
Don't really fancy paying £100 for the software nd considering downloading open office, which I understand does all the same things but is free.
Anyone use it?> is it any good? Or is there maybe even something better?
thanks for any help.
JW
Yes, it's just as good as MS's. It is free and can be easily uninstalled again. Plus, I think it is more compatible than Word. I haven't used it for a while, but I can't think of any disadvantages of having it.
I briefly had Open Office at work and I couldn't get on with it, but thousands do.
There is Google Docs as well.
I've not really used it, but might use it for some collaborations (as you give others access to the doc itself, then you are all working on the latest version at least.)
Also means someone else is ensuring they're backing it up for you!
I have no experience of Open Office so can't comment.
Dan
I always use OpenOffice, very reliable and easy to use.
I have Open Office on my netbook and it works fine. You can also save files as different versions of Word. Only downside is I use BBC Scriptsmart as my template and Word templates don't work in Open Office, so I have to cannibalise old documents or transfer stuff back to my laptop.
Quote: jdubya @ October 7 2009, 5:16 PM BSTmy microsoft word which was installed by the shop who installed my hard drive is apparently not genuine according to a window which keeps popping open each time I start it up.
Don't really fancy paying £100 for the software nd considering downloading open office, which I understand does all the same things but is free.
Anyone use it?> is it any good? Or is there maybe even something better?
thanks for any help.
JW
Open Office is fine and generally does hassle-free conversions of MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) files. Though I ended up buying Microsoft Office because I have to deal with lots of Excel spreadsheet files for work and people without Open Office got annoyed when I sent them Calc (Open Office's spreadsheet program) files. You should be able to get MS Office for under fifty pounds, no?
You can actually disable the "this is not a genuine copy of Office/MS Word" notification, though doing so might technically be illegal.
I always use Open Office, except when I need to use Word templates.
In fact, I've just finished writing a 250-page document in Open Office, with pictures, diagrams, tables, et cetera, and found it all extremely intuitive. Piss-easy to export to PDF also.
The only pisser I can imagine will be the occasional compatibility problem. Oh, and a couple of the default settings with regards auto-completion as you type can be annoying.
Open Office pissed me off a lot. The biggest pain the arse was when it used to draw a line across the page every time I hit return. I just couldn't work out how to stop it doing that (yes I'm an idiot) and so I deleted it and went back to Word. Which doesn't draw a line across the page every time I hit return.
As we're on the subject I am about to buy a £650 mini mac which doesn;t come with word processing software and am deliberating between iwork and the Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac. Mainly for issues of compatability etc, sending and receiving documents, scripts and novels that kinda thing. Anybody Macced up with an opinion?
Do I get a commission?
There's Word 08 on the Mac Mini I'm using right now, it runs fine with the occasional bug and restart, but to be honest, I don't think this was installed properly.
Not sure about iWork though? It might be installed on here, but I haven't used it before.
If you're not a computer whizz, pick yourself up a copy of iLife as well, I bet you'll like it, for creating quick but effective movies an websites.
Scrivener on the Mac is lovely. That and Montage.
Google docs (backed with Google Gears)is also ace for basic editing.
Quote: Leevil @ October 8 2009, 12:22 PM BSTIf you're not a computer whizz, pick yourself up a copy of iLife as well, I bet you'll like it, for creating quick but effective movies an websites.
Yeah that is one of the main reasons I am going to get one, it comes with iLife bundled in I am pretty sure. 
Quote: Marc P @ October 8 2009, 12:15 PM BSTAs we're on the subject I am about to buy a £650 mini mac which doesn;t come with word processing software and am deliberating between iwork and the Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac. Mainly for issues of compatability etc, sending and receiving documents, scripts and novels that kinda thing. Anybody Macced up with an opinion?
I've always had Microsoft Office on my Macs over the years and didn't realise there was any alternative. Because Word & Excel are what everyone else uses, they're what I use.