"Thanks Ric- the more I experiment with Open Office, the more I like it. I wish they would put it in the cloud, to avoid the necessity of installing it on your computer and to give you universal access. Mike, I haven't explored too much, but it looks like there are a lot of plug-ins out there."
- Kent
I stopped using Word in favor of OpenOffice years ago. Google Docs hasn't quite found that niche for me personally yet, although I have used the spreadsheet a few times for shared spreadsheet purposes.
- Otto
How is OO mutually exclusive from Google Docs? I can upload my OO docs (now I use StarOffice) to GD straight from the application. My husband can open it up and edit them in Word on his computer.
- Anika
I agree and I don't - it has been ignored and in need of updates for some time, and they're only making these claims IMHO because they're about to get killed by a new version of Office. But if they did put more time into it, it would definitely be a real competitor.
- Ciaoenrico
I too, use a combination of Google Docs, Open Office, and also Dropbox. I can't justify MS Office, too much money for too much eye candy, and it doesn't run on Linux either.
- Ian May
Thanks. I think I'll give OO a try while I wait for Docs to catch up. Anika, I'll probably use them together. For me, coming from decades of Office use, it's probably just a psychological desire to have one word processing program. But it sounds like OO and Docs work well together, so that's probably where I'll end up.
- Kent
I liked OO, but it was super frustrating that some basic things (resizing photos in a doc, for one) were nearly impossible. StarOffice is MUCH better and closer to MS Office.
- Anika
Enrico, I think you're exactly right. Clearly Google is focusing on Apps (which I use extensively)- with the Don Dodge deal, etc. Apps have great potential, but there's a lot of work to be done, both superficially and under the hood. Google can win the apps race, but it will take more coding and less vapor.
- Kent
I haven't looked at StarOffice in years. I'll take a new look.
- Kent