[OPLINTECH] Open Office

[shivelri@oplin.org]

We have a mostly now switched over to OO, however there have been a few 
staff and some patrons that just refuse to use OO because they are 
familiar with Microsoft Office. One staff member even brought in there 
own copy of office to install, however she couldn't open a Microsoft 
word doc and called me down to help I opened it with OO and it worked 
fine, lol. The menu's in OO are different enough to be confusing to a 
new user, however it is no more so than switching to MS Office 2007. In 
my opinion if I were looking at changing to MS Office 2007 anyway I'd 
just switch to OO, I have used MS Office 2007 and it is like all the 
Vista programs graphic heavy and a little confusing to navigate. I have 
not however had any experience with how well OO does with MS Office 2007 
docs. Hope this was helpful.



> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Subject:
> Re: [OPLINTECH] [OPLINLIST] Open Office
> From:
> "John Springer" <springjo at oplin.org>
> Date:
> Fri, 16 Nov 2007 10:34:40 -0500
> To:
> "Craig Heaton" <heatoncr at oplin.org>
>
> To:
> "Craig Heaton" <heatoncr at oplin.org>
> CC:
> OPLINTECH <oplintech at oplin.org>
>
>
>
> We are investigating Open Office as well. So far, I only have a few 
> staff members trying it out. I uninstalled Microsoft Office 2003 from 
> my computer 2 months ago, and have not missed it.
>
> We currently have Microsoft Office 2003 installed on our public 
> computers. We are reticent to upgrade to Office 2007 because of the 
> numerous command changes reported by users. I'm concerned there will 
> be a steep learning curve for both patrons and staff. We'll be doing 
> an ILS system migration over the next 6 months, so we won't have time 
> to deal with additional training or migration related to Microsoft 
> products.
>
> We intend to leave Office 2003 on our computers for at least the next 
> 9 months. We have installed a Microsoft conversion tool 
> <http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=941B3470-3AE9-4AEE-8F43-C6BB74CD1466&displaylang=en> 
> that will allow opening of 2007 format files in Office 2003. After our 
> ILS migration, we will seriously consider migrating to an Open Source 
> solution (Linux/Firefox/OpenOffice) for at least our Public 
> Workstations, and probably staff workstations as well.
>
> It's easy to explain to both staff and patrons that less money sent to 
> Redmond means more money for books.
>
> I'm also interested in hearing if anyone has had compatibility issues 
> with OpenOffice and Office 2007.
>
> -- 
> John Springer
> Computer Services Manager
> Geauga County Public Library
> (440) 286-6811 x124
>
>
> Thanks
> On 11/15/07, *Craig Heaton* <heatoncr at oplin.org 
> <mailto:heatoncr at oplin.org>> wrote:
>
>     Hello,
>       Our system is investigating migrating to Open Office as an
>     alternative to
>     upgrading to Microsoft Office 2007 and I've been asked to
>     investigate what
>     other library systems are doing.
>         Is your library presently using Open Office and if so, in what
>     capacity
>     (staff workstations, public workstations, etc.)?
>         Have you had any compatibility issues with the later versions
>     of Office
>     (in particular Office 2007)?
>         What other issues or other problems have you encountered?
>         How well received was it by your patrons and staff (assuming
>     they were
>     already familiar with Microsoft Office)?
>
>     Thank you very much for your input and help.
>     Craig Heaton, System Administrator, Clermont County Public Library
>     heatoncr at oplin.org <mailto:heatoncr at oplin.org>
>     (513) 735-7151
>

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