Home Forums Discussions General Discussion Open Office Software

I use "Open Office" which is an open source knockoff of Microsoft Office. It works quite well and the price is right. However, I've noticed it doesn't work very well w/AC especially the Spreadsheet program. Any thoughts? Or am I going to just have to send Bill Gates $500 per computer to use Microsoft Office?

What in particular is the spreadsheet doing? How are you using it? Maybe you will need to mix and match. I don't know where I would use Outlook or other office products there. Also, are you using laptops at all? That would be key.

I'm curious. What would I have to do to duplicate the problem? I think Open Office is a fine program. (Though I like the new Office navigation. I must be the only one.)

They do have a free program one can download to allow Office to go back and forth from ribbon navigation to dropdown.

And, about the laptops?

I didn't like the drop down menus. They weren't intuitive for me. When things could be two places I would always search in the wrong place first. But others learned it so thank you for the tip. I have one computer at the clinic that might be better off with the dropdown menus.

I'll post back back on the other thread about the laptops. Don't want to hijack this one.

Oh, lol, my mistake. I didn't realize that GK had started this thread. I only bring up laptops, because Microsoft allows some software to be installed twice if one is a laptop. I am not sure if it is their OS or Office suites or both. I am almost certain you can with the OSs. Not really fair to us desktop people, but it is what it is.

Has anyone used Quatro Pro with Amazing Charts? On a prior discussion Bert had talked about creating a master EXCEL spreadsheet and importing it into AC and using this to track various pieces of data regarding a patient. As I transition to an electronic office and use AC more and more I now understand why this trick is a good one. However, I've been using Quatro Pro (COREL/WordPerfect) for almost 20 years, and it is a lot less money usually than EXCEL. Any one else's thoughts?

(I started on Lotus 123 and have used EXCEL yet I never really developed my spreadsheet skills and preferred building machines and tweaking operating systems when I was younger)

Hi Bert:

Actually I looked this EULA thing up on GOOGLE and I too thought that the crazy desktop/laptop installation limitation existed for MS Office 2003, but on one website they quoted the following for MS Office 2003:

"1.1 Installation and use. You may install a copy of the Software on three personal computers or other devices in your household for non-commercial use by people who reside in your household."

This text also applies for MS Office 2007.

URL on this discussion: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=108257

(This only caveat is that the guy had the "student/teacher" edition of MS Office. It should have the same EULA on installation, though.)

>>> On a prior discussion Bert had talked about creating a master EXCEL spreadsheet and importing it into AC and using this to track various pieces of data regarding a patient.

If you wish to program in MS Access/Excel/Word, during the next few weeks I'll be uploading permanently a free on-line tutorial on how to make/extend an EMR using MS Office here- http://msofficeemrproject.com/Page6.htm. I'll be reviewing especially how to work with VBA and how to link the front-end platforms to back-end MS Access tables. Although the focus will be on using MS Word, it's interesting that the best stuff on the 'net on programming with VBA comes from the MS Excel websites... until now. <g>

I used to love to discuss this stuff at emrupdate, but alas, the recent shifts have made that impossible, so that's the reason I got my son to help me out with my new website endeavor. It was actually easier than I thought! You can use the information as you wish, but if you quote it significantly, all I ask is that you attach my name as the originating author.

AL

Al,

That is really cool. I think Microsoft, though, probably figures not too many people will have three desktops at home. Were you able to see what Microsoft says about installation of the program on a work computer and a home computer. That SHOULD be allowed.

My Adobe Acrobat on my PC at work is paid for and has been used for a year and all of a sudden it tells me it is not valid. And, they are so fun to work with. At least Microsoft tends to believe you. But, you know these companies are hurting for cash.

GKMD,

You can thank 'scslmd' from the Problem with Acrobat thread for solving this for you. It seems that the file import window is a browser pain and if you can view a file in IE you can view it in AC. -This may prove to be useful to some of you in the future- Assuming you do not have the latest version of OO.o you should download it. When installing be sure to do a custom install and choose the "intstall ActiveX plugin for viewing OO files in IE" option from the Optional tab.

This just worked for me, though I'm not sure I'll need this.


Good luck,

Benjamin Serrato


PS Someone should add this to the wiki, I found the examples for template organization helpful.

PPS May be of limited use. It seems the file is read only. I'll leave that solution to another.

I find Open office works great. I have 3.0. It is free and I like it better than MS office. Of course, I have only been using it for about a month, so I suppose things could still crop up.

I finally gave up on Open Office. It's a good program but the Microsoft Office products still work JUST A LITTLE BIT better. I've gone back to Microsoft Office.

does oo open .doc files?

I believe it opens any files microsoft office does.

You should download it at openoffice.org and try it. You can't beat the price (free)