# Info. on Open Office



## cummingsea (Jul 15, 2008)

I would like to know if anyone here knows about Open Office, and if I was to install it on my computer would it interfere with Microsoft Office.


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## Lewiy (Jul 17, 2008)

It shouldn’t “interfere” with MS Office.  The only thing it might do is set your default application for opening with Open Office programs rather than MS Office.  (i.e. an xls file might automatically open into Open Office Spreadsheet rather than Excel).  But this can obviously be changed back.


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## Richard Schollar (Jul 17, 2008)

I've had OO installed on my home computer for a couple of years now.  Despite my good intentions, I never use it (Excel IS a drug!).  It has never caused me any grief running along side the 4 versions of Excel I run at home.


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## cornflakegirl (Jul 17, 2008)

RichardSchollar said:


> 4 versions of Excel I run at home.


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## Richard Schollar (Jul 17, 2008)

That's not that many: I believe Tushar Mehta (probably among many others) runs at least 7.

I started off with xl97, moved on to 2003, then Microsoft decided to give me 2007 and then I picked up 2000 at a car boot.  I only have 2002 at work now... - oh and 2007 on two Bloomberg machines (not sure why they are different).


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## cornflakegirl (Jul 17, 2008)

Do you actually use all four versions? Or is it a boy collecting thing?


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## Richard Schollar (Jul 17, 2008)

Lol!!! 

97 is quite different from the rest (it uses VBA5) so it's useful to have that around, but I use 2003 pretty much exclusively on my home desktop.  The home laptop uses xl2007 (and nothing else).  So I make most use of 2003 and 2007 (more use of 2003 than 2007).  I practically never touch 2000.

Are you trying to tell me Emma that you don't collect Excel versions????  Now that has to be a girl foible!!!


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## Domski (Jul 17, 2008)

I feel all girlie just having the one version at a time on my pc's!


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## Stormseed (Jul 17, 2008)

RichardSchollar said:


> That's not that many: I believe Tushar Mehta (probably among many others) runs at least 7.
> 
> I started off with xl97, moved on to 2003, then Microsoft decided to give me 2007 and then I picked up 2000 at a car boot.  I only have 2002 at work now... - oh and 2007 on two Bloomberg machines (not sure why they are different).



Hi Mr. Richard 

How is it possible to install & use different versions of Excel on the same computer ? What about the file associations then ? It will than create an all time high mess on the computer ! 

I have Excel 2000, 2002 and Excel 2007 @ home but I cud only install 2007 on my home PC. Would I be able to install all of these on my home PC as well ? 

I tried once and I ended up in a nightmare trying to configure my Office files back to normal


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## Greg Truby (Jul 17, 2008)

RichardSchollar said:


> ...(Excel IS a drug!)...


Nay laddie. 'tisn't Excel that's the drug.  'tis *MrExcel* that's addicting.  Were there a MrOpenOffice.com, I'm sure you'd find reasons to tinker with it more.

@ stormseed - I don't have a lot of experience with this.  But from what I read before installing 2007 over 2003, as long as you install oldest to newest you're probably okay.  Installing new and then trying to work backwards and install an older version is apparently very bad voodoo.


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## Lewiy (Jul 17, 2008)

Personally, I find it much easier and more straight forward to just have the one on the go at a time. I have just upgraded to 2007 on both my home desktop and laptop and we run 2003 at work. I'm grateful for having used the older versions and subsequently learned the main differences between them, but I can't much see the point of running an older version than your colleagues/customers and I think most people by now have at least 2003 (except perhaps a select few offices that are still running 2000). I may be wrong, but I don't come across that many.
On a slight aside (without meaning to tread on Greg's feet with regard to thread diversion!), having just done the 2007 upgrade and not played with it much, I am trying to decide which application looks the most different to it's predecessor. I'm torn between Word and Excel..........any thoughts?
Oh, and what on Earth is MS Office Groove 2007????!!!!!


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## cornflakegirl (Jul 17, 2008)

Greg Truby said:


> addicting


 
Is that even a word?!


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## Greg Truby (Jul 17, 2008)

cornflakegirl said:


> Is that even a word?!


 
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/addicting

And quit making me thing I *accidentally* misspelled a word!


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## cornflakegirl (Jul 17, 2008)

The link is for addicting as a verb, not an adjective... (Still can't think of a way it could be used - is it an American thing?)


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## schielrn (Jul 17, 2008)

Greg Truby said:


> 'tis *MrExcel* that's addicting.


 
I think in this sense as an adjective it would be:

'tis *MrExcel* that's addictive


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## cornflakegirl (Jul 17, 2008)

Well, I just googled it, and apparently it's fine to use addicting as a participle adjective (like annoying).

Still sounds stoopid though


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## Greg Truby (Jul 17, 2008)

Aye, "addictive" would have been the better choice, though "addicting" is still legal.

Can someone please notify Bryony that she has now finished out of the medals altogether and Emma will replace her on the podium? However the UK is still making a clean sweep of it.


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## cornflakegirl (Jul 17, 2008)

I'm not a pedant. If I were, I would have commented on Dom's errant apostrophe on the last page...


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## schielrn (Jul 17, 2008)

Greg Truby said:


> Can someone please notify Bryony that she has now finished out of the medals altogether and Emma will replace her on the podium? However the UK is still making a clean sweep of it.


I get so much humor fromt his board, it just makes my day that much better.  Hopefully this pedant olympics isn't any consolation of what the real olympics will be like.


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## Joe4 (Jul 17, 2008)

> And quit making me thing I *accidentally* misspelled a word!


Greg,

So did you accidentally misspell "think" as "thing", or were you just trying to be funny and misspell a word in a sentence defending yourself against misspelling words?  

If you misspelled it, how deliciously ironic is that?


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## Greg Truby (Jul 17, 2008)

Joe4 said:


> Greg,
> 
> So did you accidentally misspell "think" as "thing", or were you just trying to be funny and misspell a word in a sentence defending yourself against misspelling words?
> 
> If you misspelled it, how deliciously ironic is that?


 
Aye, Joe, 'twas an  That friggin' ten-minute lockout on editing is a royal PIMA! But thanks for pointing that out. I think I'd managed to sneak that one by Emma.



<HR>


cornflakegirl said:


> I'm not a pedant. If I were, I would have commented on Dom's errant apostrophe on the last page...


 
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_apost.html Scroll to the section entitled _*Forming plurals of lowercase letters.*_ Domski's apostrophe was not errant. [I gotcher back, Domski. :wink: Let's just hope Emma don't bring up the capitalization of it, 'cause then we're screwed.]


_<HR>_
_to self: I wonder if cummingsea is going to be all excited when he sees his thread has twenty replies and then disappointed when he reads them? He shoulda posted in the Excel Discussion forum and not the lounge..._


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## MorganO (Jul 17, 2008)

This thread is really becoming fun! It is just like conversations I've have with friends in the past where you start out talking about the importance of the 10 commandments to the formation of current society and 30 minutes later you are discussing how dust balls are formed!<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>
<o></o>
I've looked back and determined that this thread's conversations are (currently):<o></o>
<o></o>
*Open Office - Do you like it?*<o></o>
_--superseded by---_<o></o>
*Multiply versions of Excel running on one computer*<o></o>
_--superseded by---_<o></o>
*Discussions on grammar rules*<o></o>​<o></o>
The really interesting thing is that the influencer of these conversation changes has been Cornflakegirl! You really do ask great questions that lead to interesting and thought provoking discussion! Keep it up!<o></o>
<o></o>
Owen<o></o>


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## Case_Germany (Jul 17, 2008)

Hi Richard,



RichardSchollar said:


> Excel IS a drug!



*ggggg* Yes it is. That *IS* could also fat be written. OK - however there are still different important things. 

Case_Germany


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## mattrx731 (Jul 17, 2008)

cornflakegirl said:


> Still sounds stoopid though


 
and standing in a field with a cow doesn't?


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## cornflakegirl (Jul 17, 2008)

Greg Truby said:


> I think I'd managed to sneak that one by Emma.


 
Do I have to give my medal back? 



Greg Truby said:


> Scroll to the section entitled _*Forming plurals of lowercase letters.*_ Domski's apostrophe was not errant


 
Yes. One of the examples in that section is "minding one's p's and q's", so I don't think I'm going to take anything it says too seriously!

And wikipedia disagrees with you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acronym (Representing plurals and possessives).

And I just don't like it!


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## RichardS (Jul 18, 2008)

And which Olympics is that, Greg? If we include the thread hi-jacking olympics, Lewiy attempted but Emma succeeded with this one. You just participated.


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## Greg Truby (Jul 18, 2008)

RichardS said:


> And which Olympics is that, Greg? If we include the thread hi-jacking olympics, Lewiy attempted but Emma succeeded with this one. You just participated.


 
Why the pedantry olympics, what else? See post #5 by Bryony (aka Patience) here.

Yes, Emma's thread topic expansion skills are coming along nicely. My understudy (Schollar) gave her a nice opening and bless her heart, she took the ball and ran with it.  And then she did a fabulous job of banking the plane over the fields of grammar based on a post of mine where I didn't even give her much to work with. I heartily approve!


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## Lewiy (Jul 18, 2008)

The Pedantry Olympics Heptathlon<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>
<o> </o>
100 Word Sprint – competitors write down 100 words as quickly as possible without repetition and without using any two words that are directly related to each other.
<o> </o>
5000 Word Essay – similar to the 100 word sprint, except more drawn out and boring to watch, competitors write a 5000 word essay on what makes them more pedantic than the others.
<o> </o>
Period Shot Put – Competitors stand 10m from a huge board containing a sentence and must throw their shot at the board, hitting it as close as possible to where the period/full-stop should be placed.
<o> </o>
Spelling Long Jump – The sand pit is divided into five different 50cm sections each representing a letter of the alphabet.  Competitors are shown an incorrectly spelled word before jumping, they must attempt to land in the appropriate section for the letter that will correct the spelling of the word.
<o> </o>
Infinitive Archery – Various words are scattered across the archery target and competitors must fire arrows to hit firstly an infinitive, followed by it’s matching conjugation.  If one fails to hit a matching pair, their turn ends and the next competitor makes his/her attempt.  Successfully hitting a pair is rewarded with another go until all pairs have been hit.
<o> </o>
400m Tense Hurdles – A 400m sprint over hurdles.  Hurdles must only be jumped if the sentence written on them is in the past tense.  Other hurdles must be navigated around rather than jumped.  Every hurdle jumped in error results in a 5 second penalty.
<o> </o>
Punctuation Pole Vault – Competitors are shown a sentence that is missing one type of punctuation mark.  They then must identify the missing punctuation and select their pole, each pole has a different punctuation mark shaped end and only the correct one will fit in the slot at the end of the runway.  Incorrect poles will fail to connect properly and result in a foul jump.


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## cornflakegirl (Jul 18, 2008)

Mad as a box of frogs!

(Nice mixed metaphor, Greg  )


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## DonkeyOte (Jul 18, 2008)

The most valuable thing I've learnt to date on this site... more important than any of Aladin's formulae ... and that is: you can't trust the C-G...  
(can you trust anyone who refuses to have an avatar for that matter...?  The MrE equivalent of having two first names!)


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## Greg Truby (Jul 18, 2008)

Brilliant post, Lewiy! I assume on *Infinitive Archery* points are deducted if one accidentally splits the infinitive.


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## cornflakegirl (Jul 18, 2008)

Schwing! I believe this is yours!

(Removes donkeyboy from friends list.)

My husband did offer to make a girl out of cornflakes and take a photo of it, so I could have an avatar. But we don't have any cornflakes at the moment.


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## cornflakegirl (Jul 18, 2008)

roffle Greg!


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## Oaktree (Jul 18, 2008)

> I assume on Infinitive Archery points are deducted if one accidentally splits the infinitive.



Only if you're competing in Latin.

From http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/split-infinitives.aspx



> The logic behind the 19th-century rule about not splitting infinitives rests on comparing English to Latin, because in Latin there is no two-word form of the infinitive. They don't have to deal with full verbs versus bare verbs. Therefore, it's impossible to split infinitives in Latin. For some reason, many grammarians in the 19th century got the notion that because it is impossible to split infinitives in Latin, it shouldn't be done in English either.
> 
> 
> 
> But notions change over time, and today almost everyone agrees that it is OK to split infinitives, especially when you would have to change the meaning of the sentence or go through writing gymnastics to avoid the split. English isn't Latin after all.


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## Lewiy (Jul 18, 2008)

Greg Truby said:


> Brilliant post, Lewiy! I assume on *Infinitive Archery* points are deducted if one accidentally splits the infinitive.


 
If you split an infinitive it’s instant disqualification and you’ll be asked “to quietly leave” the arena.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>


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## cornflakegirl (Jul 18, 2008)

Oaktree said:


> almost everyone agrees


 
Everyone except my husband. He doesn't like sentences that end with prepositions either. He came to grammar late in life, and appears to be making up for lost time...


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## Stormseed (Jul 18, 2008)

Lewiy said:


> If you split an infinitive it’s instant disqualification and you’ll be asked “to quietly leave” the arena.<o></o>



@cummingsea

Dude...your thread has become an "ARENA" lately


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## lenze (Jul 18, 2008)

Forgive me for going back to topic, but I've had a chance to play with OO the last 2 days. IMHO, it's a piece of garbage. I would never consider it on my machine. If I want something like that, I can go to Wal-MArt and get it for $20.00

lenze


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## cummingsea (Jul 18, 2008)

Thanks to those who stayed on the subject, and for those who did not thanks anyway.


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## shades (Jul 24, 2008)

Alas, I no longer use Excel, and really no need in my current position. As an avid Mac user (Macbook Pro 15" laptop), I try to find native Mac applications and am basically MS-free. I have not loaded Boot Camp to use Windows and Office 2003/2007, although the system can easily handle it. I still use MS Office 2004 on my older Mac desktop. 

OpenOffice 3.0 Beta now works natively on OS X 10.5 (i.e. no need for X11). So far, it works for all my needs (primarily .doc files sent from Windows and Mac users of MS Office). Overall in my work I find it faster than MS Office 2004. I also use the Java port of OpenOffice to Mac OS X called NeoOffice, which is quite mature and very stable.

Rich


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## riaz (Jul 24, 2008)

cornflakegirl said:


> My husband did offer to make a girl out of cornflakes and take a photo of it, so I could have an avatar. But we don't have any cornflakes at the moment.



Just as well, it might have got a _Frosty_ reception.


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## cornflakegirl (Jul 24, 2008)

: tumbleweed :
(are you my Dad?)


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## riaz (Jul 24, 2008)

Nope, just look old enough to be everyone's granddad.
(mutters to himself - must change my pic, must change my pic...)


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## Stormseed (Jul 24, 2008)

riaz said:


> (mutters to himself - must change my pic, must change my pic...)



m darn sure you wud want to


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