Open Office as Excel alternative

[Richard Schollar]

I have just installed Openoffice onto my PC to check it out - I was pleasantly surprised to see how similar it looked to Excel (I haven't delved at all deeply though - just touched the surface). Would anyone care to share their own experiences of using OO - I would be especially interested to hear from people who write their own macro code, especially JavaScript or Python coding.

Thanks

Richard

 

[riaz]

Thanks for the link, Sydney. The 109 subtotal function started in Excel 2003 and subtotals visible cells only. That is one that I am desperately in need of. I tried a UDF, but that requires either going into the cell and hitting enter to activate it after any changes, or pressing a button. Neither works, as people tend to forget to do that.

One of the requirements I have is that people sign off when they have checked totals before handing files to me for review. Some sign off without checking the totals, which are wrong because hidden cells have numbers in them, and Excel2002 adds them up.

 

[SydneyGeek]

That's a pain. Anyway, the screenshot in the link I sent you seems to indicate that hidden cells are ignored in OO.

Denis

 

[riaz]

That's right, it seems to. And it seems to have all the functions that Excel does, and to have avoided all that Excel does not do (like spellnumber). On that basis, I would recommend going OO, as that one function alone will save us lots of checking time.

I might even suggest we keep the rest of the office suite and only change Excel for Calc! I suppose the final test will be how well it converts our existing Excel sheets - well, one actually, but that has had a lot of development time invested, so if that converts without a hitch, the rest is easy peasy.

Many thanks again, Sydney. Much appreciated.

 

[RoryA]

I read an article recently that suggested there wasn't all that much development going on with OO these days due to Sun's ownership putting others off from investing the time and effort. OTOH, I suppose there's no reason not to simply switch back to Excel if and when OO doesn't meet your needs.

 

[riaz]

Thank you for the link, Rory. Most helpful. I have my recommendation almost finalised now, thanks to all of your inputs. I am going to suggest we try Calc with one or two power users as guinea pigs, and if they okay it, we roll it out for everyone. We do not use Access at all, and Word can stay, as can Powerpoint.

 

[Greg Truby]

Riaz,

You will probably *want* Word 2007 & PowerPoint 2007. I know Excel 2003 too well and so there is a learning curve for me on Excel 2007. I knew Word 2003 & PowerPoint 2003 well, but not nearly as well as Excel. So I do find the ribbon interface helpful. Plus the new SmartArt in PowerPoint kicks a**.

 

[riaz]

Greg, I would agree with you, but two factors are very much against me, the cost of 20+ licences and the training cost of 20+ people, both in time and money. That is why we are looking for an alternative. As I said, the only obvious reason for wanting to go to Excel 2003 is that one function. Otherwise we are happy with all the other modules of 2002.

 

[passinthru]

My specific question, obviously, is Excel related. Do you (or anyone else on this Board please) have any views on functionality and compatibility? We use Excel more heavily than Word, will probably retain Outlook as the mail client, but will probably switch word process and spreadsheet if the general consensus appears to be in favour.

Riaz, I'll try to answer your question from my experience. Full disclosure: I am a Microsoft hater. However, I do love Excel. I'm not a developer by any means; just a user.

I tried to move to OO because I wanted my kids to have the functionality of MS Office but didn't want to pay for 5+ copies to equip everyone in my family. I REALLY, really wanted OO to work, and EXPECTED it to work. I went iinto this with a VERY positive attitude.

Here's what I found:

It's crap.

OO's Calc can't do basic things without making them a huge hassle. You want to copy and paste some cells? You JUST want to do a SIMPLE copy and paste? Nope, can't do that. You have to deal with a stupid dialog box EVERY TIME, to tell Calc WHAT you want to copy. Formats? Borders? Text? Values? Formulas? Click the right checkboxes, and hit Okay, and THEN you get your copy done. Well, yes, it WILL remember what you checked off, so at least your selections are saved.

Oh, wait a minute. You want to copy and paste some merged cells? Nope. Can't do that. At all.

Need a background color on some cells? No problem - Calc can do that. But it won't remember the color you chose. If you want the same color again, you have to go select it from the pallette again. In Excel, the button remembers the last color used, and to apply it, you just click the button. Can't do that with Calc. Same for font colors.

Want to autosum a column of figures by just clicking a button? Nope, can't do that. Okay, how about typing in the formula and having Calc figure out that you want to sum the column of numbers just above your formula? Nope. Doesn't work that way. You have to tell it manually - it won't figure it out for you.

Everywhere you turn, there are BASIC things that Just Don't Work.

I was VERY disapointed in Calc.

I have not explored the other programs. I plan to, because I STILL want this to work, but I am not hopeful.

<sigh>

 

[RoryA]

Can I ask when you last tried OO? Most of what you mention is quite easy in the current version of Calc!

 

[passinthru]

Can I ask when you last tried OO? Most of what you mention is quite easy in the current version of Calc!

Version 3.01. Current download.

If it's that easy, I'd love to hear how it's done.


I AM using it daily, as I have to work with a number of different laptops (for testing) and the company won't spring for MS Office on all of them. I have MS on my own desktop for daily work, and use OpenOffice on the test units (away from the office), so I'm back and forth between them every day. Any real formatting or changing the spreadsheets around gets done on Excel, but I do use Calc for entering data in the field.