clone for Microsoft Office?

[Ramblingman]

I was once told that there is freeware that works with Microsoft Office? I understand that it will work with all the same applications that Office has ...if someone knows could you tell me where to download it from? Thanks in advance for all the help ...we'll see you folks in a few days !!

[Guest ReinyRooster]

Here you go my friend: http://www.openoffice.org/

[Ramblingman]

Thanks Reiny ....did it and dam it works good ...better then spending ...what?? 300 to 500$ now?? maybe more?

[GigaWhiskey]

Nice product, 'specially for free! Just got to figure out and remember the program names in comparison to MS Office.

[juggler]

I've been using OpenOffice exclusively for a few years at home. If you have an Intel based Mac you can now get the OpenOffice 3.0 Beta 2 that runs native on OSX. Of course there is a Linux version, but I'm sure the Linux users here already know that.

[Schlepporello]

Is this something that can be used instead of Microsoft Office?

How does it compare?

[juggler]

Is this something that can be used instead of Microsoft Office?

How does it compare?

 

It compares very well. It can read/write office 2003 and older docs. It handles power point stuff very well. I'm not sure how well the database translates to MS Access. But I never use that anyways.

 

Plus: you can convert any document, spreadsheet, or slide show into a PDF with a single click. If your into Wiki then you can export your word doc as a wiki article. Like I said, I gave up on MS Office and have been using Open Office for years. The last version of MS Office I have is from 2000.

 

It's free so it does not hurt to try it out. It won't interfere with MS Office. (I have both on my computer at work.)

[rod]

How does it compaire in size to Microsoft Office? My old laptop is getting full and a big chunk is Office. Thanks Rod

[Bummer]

It can read/write office 2003 and older docs.

The Linux version, and probably all of them, will read/write "97/2000/XP" doc format. I'm not sure if that refers to "office 2003" or not. What I get out of it, as someone who's never used Windows at home, is that it'll do the latest format. Just thought I'd mention it for those uncertain about changing.

[Bummer]

How does it compaire in size to Microsoft Office? My old laptop is getting full and a big chunk is Office. Thanks Rod

I don't do Windows, so I can't say for sure but most everything is smaller than the Microsoft version isn't it? The Windows install file is a 127mb executable. I don't know what size it'll install to.

 

OpenOffice is free. All you have to do is download it. If you don't have the space right now, can't you uninstall Microsoft Office, install OO.o and see? Then if it doesn't work out just reinstall MO?

[BEER30]

Does it have a feature similar to Microsoft FrontPage ?

 

 

BEER30

[Bummer]

Does it have a feature similar to Microsoft FrontPage ?

 

 

BEER30

Open Office will generate valid web pages from documents. It will also read html documents.

 

I do my web pages by hand in a high-end text editor, so I don't know how good a job it does or how easy it is to work with. I can tell you that it doesn't work as well for a coder as a good editor does, but you have to know what you're looking at to use an editor. As a coder I'd quit before I'd use FrontPage.

[SilvrT]

Does it have a feature similar to Microsoft FrontPage ?

 

 

BEER30

 

The answer to this Q is no.

 

I've used FrontPage many times and even taught courses on it but frankly, there are other programs out there that are much better. I don't do a lot of web work anymore but when I do, I use either Dreamweaver or Visual Sudio (depending on what I'm working on).

 

Dreamweaver is used (by me) here at work to edit and modify our Intranet and our external web sites. Visual Studio I use to make modifications to an in-house, web based Trouble-ticket tracking system built by another company that we bought the source code to.

[Bummer]

The answer to this Q is no.

Care to elaborate? OO.o WILL generate valid html. It WILL also read and display html in a wysiwyg manner as well as displaying source. Are you saying it is not designed primarily as an html generation program?

 

In that you have taugh courses in FrontPage, perhaps you can clear something up for me. A very large percentage of sites generated by FrontPage are unable to pass W3C validation. Is this the result of poor coding by the author, poor template design by Microsoft, or just poor code generation by FrontPage?

 

Thanks.

[SilvrT]

Care to elaborate? OO.o WILL generate valid html. It WILL also read and display html in a wysiwyg manner as well as displaying source. Are you saying it is not designed primarily as an html generation program?

 

In that you have taugh courses in FrontPage, perhaps you can clear something up for me. A very large percentage of sites generated by FrontPage are unable to pass W3C validation. Is this the result of poor coding by the author, poor template design by Microsoft, or just poor code generation by FrontPage?

 

Thanks.

 

Numerous programs will generate valid HTML...even Excel. Nothing in OO operates the same way as FrontPage...guess you'd have to know some about that program to understand what I mean but in a nutshell, it is a site builder/manager/navigator. It does have some nice features that make it easy for a novice to design/produce a somewhat complex website.

 

As for your question re: W3C, I can't give you an answer as it has been nearly 4 years since I've used or taught FrontPage. Frankly speaking, I'm not familiar with W3C and I'm not even sure it was utilized 4 years ago. FrontPage does have it's own built-in validators such as those for broken links, etc ... I can't really say what's available in the current version of the program...the last version I used was, I believe, FrontPage 2003. It could be that sites designed in FrontPage require (or did require) FrontPage extensions be installed on the site server in order to run properly...or at least, in order to do "on-line" changes to the site.

[Bummer]

Numerous programs will generate valid HTML...even Excel. Nothing in OO operates the same way as FrontPage...guess you'd have to know some about that program to understand what I mean but in a nutshell, it is a site builder/manager/navigator. It does have some nice features that make it easy for a novice to design/produce a somewhat complex website.

 

As for your question re: W3C, I can't give you an answer as it has been nearly 4 years since I've used or taught FrontPage. Frankly speaking, I'm not familiar with W3C and I'm not even sure it was utilized 4 years ago. FrontPage does have it's own built-in validators such as those for broken links, etc ... I can't really say what's available in the current version of the program...the last version I used was, I believe, FrontPage 2003. It could be that sites designed in FrontPage require (or did require) FrontPage extensions be installed on the site server in order to run properly...or at least, in order to do "on-line" changes to the site.

I know what FrontPage purports to be. Since I use a standards compliant browser I also know just how buggy sites designed with FrontPage tend to be. That's what lead to my question.

 

The W3C is the organization that sets the standards for HTML, XHTML and the like. The W3C has been there since pretty much the beginning of the web.

 

W3C validation is used to determine if the page is valid HTML/XHTML, etc. It is, more or less, the official version of Tidy.

[SilvrT]

I know what FrontPage purports to be. Since I use a standards compliant browser I also know just how buggy sites designed with FrontPage tend to be. That's what lead to my question.

 

The W3C is the organization that sets the standards for HTML, XHTML and the like. The W3C has been there since pretty much the beginning of the web.

 

W3C validation is used to determine if the page is valid HTML/XHTML, etc. It is, more or less, the official version of Tidy.

 

ya... I did some on-line digging into W3C

 

I'd suggest then that if you're finding buggey sites designed in FrontPage, then it's the developer and not the software simply because I've done a few sites myself and they all seemed to work fine plus I've studied several sites developed by pro's using FrontPage and they all seemed to work fine. dunno what else to say about that other than designing/building web sites was not one of my expertises...more of a "client-driven" task. Similarly, teaching FrontPage was not a mainstream subject but again, a "client-driven" thing .... I'd say I taught it maybe once or twice a year over a number of years ... each time I had to teach it, I practically had to learn it over again, especially those times when Mr Gates came out with a new version (which seemed to be every other year for a while).

 

Having said all that, OO does not have a comparable application to FrontPage; however, that is not to say a person with the proper know-how can't build websites using OO. From my limited knowledge, it seems most "high-end web developers" hard-code most (or at least a lot) of their work. I wouldn't put myself into that category by a long shot but the stuff I now do (which is minimal), I do tend to hard-code a lot of it, especially when using VB or asp or js scripting.

[Bummer]

Personally I've found the "pros" to be the worst. If it works for the guy who signs the check it's good enough. No actual pride of craftsmanship at all.

 

I don't know what Beer30 actually has in mind. That's why I answered the way I did. If he's doing a page or two OO should be adequate. It will generate valid html, so why pay for more? On the other hand, if he's doing more perhaps he should look into a decent tool.

 

That's why I asked about the templates. The site generation programs I've looked at on Linux have all had a startup template that included proper DOCTYPE and character encoding declarations. I've come to wonder if FrontPage simply doesn't have this, or if nobody uses it. If it does not, or the code is inadequate, then it would seem the novice would be well served to look elsewhere.

[FreezyRider]

If you're looking for a free Front Page replacement, try this one:

 

http://www.kompozer.net/

 

I haven't tried it, but did play with its predecessor (Nvu) and it was pretty good.

 

Joe

[Freebird]

I've used Front Page a lot over the years. For somebody new to creating html pages, it is very easy to use. It can cause some problems though if you try to use some of the features included. You can end up with a page that will only display properly with Internet Explorer. Though Internet Explorer is still the number one browser used, there are a lot of people that use other browsers. I use Firefox almost exclusively but I do check any changes that I make to the site with IE also because that's what most of our members are using.

 

Most of the changes and modifications that I make here are actually done with a text editor.

[SilvrT]

If you're looking for a free Front Page replacement, try this one:

 

http://www.kompozer.net/

 

I haven't tried it, but did play with its predecessor (Nvu) and it was pretty good.

 

Joe

 

Joe... one of the things I did not see in Kompozer are Templates, Themes, and Wizards that help a person (especially a novice) create a site. A great feature in FrontPage (and a couple other similar apps I've used over the years). I see there is a "Themes" choice in the Tools menu and when you go there, there is a place to "Get more themes" but the link fails. Am I missing something??

 

Having said that, (and I'm not a Microsoft Employee LOL), if those things don't exist in Kompozer, I can't see how one could call it a "FrontPage replacement".

 

On the other hand, Kompozer appears to be a pretty good program for someone who knows what they're doing.

 

Don't take me the wrong way here... I am always interested in what's available out there for software...especially free stuff.

 

Since I'm on the topic, are there any members here that are MySQL guru's??

[SilvrT]

Bummer... I just created a website using one of the FrontPage 2003 templates. The first line in the index.htm document is...

 

 

Dunno much beyond that and since it's on local machine, I can't run the W3C validator against it.

 

I'll keep playing with this for a while (seeing as it's Saturday morning and I got nuthin better to do for an hour or so lol)

[Gary N.]

Wow! never knew there were so many bilingual folks on here.

What the heck are you guys talk'n about???? And where does it go on the motorcycle?

[SilvrT]

Wow! never knew there were so many bilingual folks on here.

What the heck are you guys talk'n about???? And where does it go on the motorcycle?

 

 

ROFL!! .... right between the thingamajig and the whatchacallit !

[BEER30]

I merely wish to change some text on our main page of our shop's website . A buddy of mine built our site , but failed to instruct me on how to make text changes . Our web hosting guy was going to show me how , but he passed away last month . I now have a new guy I speak too to make these changes and he makes them for me without having to charge me $65.00 minimum , but I feel like I asking to much of him . He has given me my FrontPage username and password and a quick tutorial over the phone .

Other than the main page , the rest of our site is E-Commerce and I can manage that without any issues . It just the main page is what I'm going to screw up on !

I was just merely asking towards if there was an easier way by using another program .

 

BEER30