Open Office Writer Sucks. Alternatives?

HadjiQuest

One of my teachers is very precise about how he formats his hand-outs, and they just don't work at all in OpenOffice because he uses so much Word2007-specific formatting.

Is there another freeware word processor out there that won't just chew my papers up and shit them out?

kanaesin

If you're using OpenOffice because you're on Linux, both Abiword and KWrite are excellent word processors that don't share a codebase with OO. Windows word processing is pretty much completely dominated by MS Word, to the best of my knowledge. There may be some online services worth looking into, such as Google's offering.

That said, Microsoft does everything they can to ensure that nothing but Word can handle Word 07 formatting, so you'll probably be boned with any non-Word option (this is why free software activists get so worked up over Microsoft; the problem is .docx, not OpenOffice).

Sadly, your best bet is probably to use a school computer's copy of Word, unless you want to try to lean on your professor/school to use open document formats (good luck with that one).

Adross

The easiest option would be asking him or a friend to provide them to you in pdf format

SniperGuy

Wait what? Exactly what is he asking you to do? To my knowledge OpenOffice can do everything Word can.

Vars

Alternatively, you can get the word 2007 trial. It lasts a long time and when it's up just clear your registry and use a new hotmail account to get another trial.. I've done that for two semesters now. That is, unless you have some crazy problem with word.

stawk

i get all of my school stuff from office 2007 users and i have never had a problem with open office... although it really pisses off your teacher when you send in your work in the wrong format.

Trus

It is a constant worry of mine that I will send in an assignment in odt format

I'm a bit confused, are you having trouble opening the docx or are there some formatting things you need to be able to do but can't in open office?

SniperGuy

And open office can save in every format word might need to use as well.

HadjiQuest

This guy uses a lot of tables.

But he uses them for aesthetic purposes, to create his own stationary design. OpenOffice can't handle it. The set up is ridiculous, and when I try to paste into an answer cell, it cuts off my text when the page ends. Nothing I do will extend the box beyond the page without completely uber-fucking the entire document (it normally vomits text all over the entire document).

Ponge

I'm pretty sure that MS offer student packages on their office programmes, but I think they still cost like $60.

embrik

Ponge wrote: »

I'm pretty sure that MS offer student packages on their office programmes, but I think they still cost like $60.

Which is a pretty good price for Office 2007 Ultimate -
http://www.microsoft.com/student/discounts/theultimatesteal-us/default.aspx

brandotheninjamaster

If you are just using his documents as reference sources then you can just get a MS word reader. Thats free, and you can just write your own stuff in OO.