[K12OSN] office suite interoperability

[David Hopkins]

Hopefully the plug-in will work really well and the migration to open
standards can begin.  However, I am a pessimist on this.  Another really big
pet peeve of mine are requests for full versions of Adobe Acrobat so that
pdf's can be created.  Typically, they want Adobe distiller installed, and
the full version of Adobe Acrobat.  They have no issue with editing in MS
Office document, creating a pdf with distiller, and then having to use
Acrobat to edit that.  When I mention just creating pdf's directly with
OO.org or StarOffice instead, it is like I have 3 heads or something because
that is too complicated and is not the corect way.  Oh well.

Sincerely,
Dave Hopkins


On 7/8/07, James P. Kinney III <jkinney at localnetsolutions.com> wrote:
>
> I hear repeatedly "We MUST use Microsoft office because that's what
> everyone has". I guess "lemmings" comes to mind...
>
> It really bothers me that people who in general will be writing just a
> few pages with a picture or two are brainwashed into believing they MUST
> have an application that will cost each pc more than the value of the pc
> each year in licensing.
>
> Thus enters OpenOffice.org
>
> What a fabulous application. Cross platform so Windows, Mac and Linux
> (and Solaris and SGI and...) user can all share files seamlessly.
>
> Yes I _still_ hear the argument "But people don't have OpenOffice at
> home so we can't use it".
>
> ?????
>
> It costs $0 to obtain a legal copy.
>
> So the often used rule in K12LTSP is to setup OpenOffice so the default
> output format is Microsoft Office format.
>
> Personally, I think that is a bad idea. It's just a short term kludge
> workaround to not having the resources to train people in how to "Save
> As".
>
> But Sun has stepped up and released the best solution - a plugin to
> Microsoft Office that can read and write OpenOffice format files.
>
> The file format of OpenOffice is an ISO standard right now. Make sure
> everyone keeps hearing that mantra - OpenOffice is standards compliant
> but Microsoft Office is not.
>
> Then offer the plugin to help bring Microsoft Office up to current world
> standards:
>
> http://www.sun.com/software/star/openoffice/
>
> Be sure to remind everyone that open document formats are just like
> knowledge: good for everyone.
>
>
>
> --
> James P. Kinney III
> CEO & Director of Engineering
> Local Net Solutions,LLC
> 770-493-8244
> http://www.localnetsolutions.com
>
> GPG ID: 829C6CA7 James P. Kinney III (M.S. Physics)
> <jkinney at localnetsolutions.com>
> Fingerprint = 3C9E 6366 54FC A3FE BA4D 0659 6190 ADC3 829C 6CA7
>
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