[LINK] Friday Musing: Docx - Open Office versus Microsoft Office

[Rick Welykochy]

Pilcher, Fred wrote:

> Why wouldn't ODF work, Rick? Aren't there ODF-based apps for all the primary OSs?

A quick google found these ODF apps:

     AbiWord
     Adobe Buzzword
     Atlantis Word Processor
     Calligra Suite
     Corel WordPerfect Office X4
     Evince
     Google Docs
     IBM Lotus Symphony
     KOffice
     LibreOffice
     Microsoft Office 2007 (from service pack 2 release)
     Microsoft Office 2010
     NeoOffice
     Okular
     OpenOffice.org
     SoftMaker Office
     Sun Microsystems StarOffice
     WebODF
     WordPad 6.1 (Windows 7) partial support.
     Zoho Office Suite


Of course, most members of my team are not techies, so they need a WSYIWIG
word processor (which I personally detest ... I want typesetting or a text
processor, but I digress).

We tried MS Office, Libre Office, Open Office with the requirement that
they reliably imbed images and interoperate across all three platforms.
Conclusion: Platfail!

A quick perusal of the above list reveals that many of the entrants are
less than stellar performers.

Academics often use Tex or LaTex with good results. Too techy for the team.

Myself, I have good results with XHTML, which can then be rendered any number
of ways. Too techy for the team.

Google Docs "just worked" and we can exchange updates to the documents
in this way. BTW: our docs are short and sweet. I wouldn't advise writing
a thesis in Google Docs. Or any word processor for that matter.


cheers
rickw



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Rick Welykochy || Praxis Services

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