Linux Format forums

Re: LXF 76 is here!

shifty_ben — Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:41 pm

Author: shifty_ben

Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:41 pm

The one that always bugged me in Office was when you wanted a comma; and knew fair well you wanted one it would become; and there were a few words it just could not get its head around.

Re: LXF 76 is here!

TheDoctor — Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:37 pm

Author: TheDoctor

Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:37 pm

I use a Windows machine for my "real" data (just beginning a migrate), but I use OpenOffice in preference to MS Office. Yes, it takes forever(well, not quite, but it can feel like it) to load, but, once loaded, it feels faster. I prefer it all round.

And as for the MS grammar checker: most of the things it brings up are wierd and some are just plain wrong. I don't know where the designer of that particular piece of software studied grammar but I don't think s/he was taking notice. It is a totally appalling piece of rubbish.

RE: Re: RE: Re: RE: LXF 76 is here!

shifty_ben — Wed Jan 11, 2006 1:50 pm

Author: shifty_ben

Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 1:50 pm

OOo takes long enough to load on my (fairly high spec) machine for me to go downstairs and make a cup of tea, then I can still get upstairs and decide which music to have running in the background.
Abiword on the other hand, out of habit I started the application, went to get up to make the tea and before my ass had left the seat it was open.
Having said that if I had a choice between OOo or Ms Office it would be OOo even if OOo were as proprietary as Office

RE: Re: RE: Re: RE: LXF 76 is here!

Dave2 — Wed Jan 11, 2006 1:15 pm

Author: Dave2

Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 1:15 pm

There is a grammar checker available for use with OOo: http://www.danielnaber.de/languagetool/ . I've not used it though, so can't comment on how good it is.

RE: Re: RE: Re: RE: LXF 76 is here!

spottedcat — Wed Jan 11, 2006 11:38 am

Author: spottedcat

Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 11:38 am

As a writer only needing fairly basic formatting facilities, I probably use a zillionth part of the features of OOo, but I do use OOo in preference to Abiword. Why? The autocorrect feature. As a crappy typist I find it invaluable. As far as the load time of OOo is concerned, that's not a problem for me. I use the time to think about what I am going to write, or have a couple of coffees and a sandwich - all good stimulation for the brain.

Re: RE: Re: RE: LXF 76 is here!

nelz — Wed Jan 11, 2006 11:26 am

Author: nelz

Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 11:26 am

ladi wrote:

Come on, OOo does have some good things going for it, doesn't it?!

Yes, you get plenty of exercise while pacing up and down, waiting for it to load

RE: Re: RE: LXF 76 is here!

ladi — Wed Jan 11, 2006 10:04 am

Author: ladi

Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 10:04 am

nelz wrote:

Quote:

OOo doesn't have a grammar checker, probably because it would have taken the startup time for OOo beyond the boot time for the distro running it. Abiword has one.

Ouch! that hurt!

Come on, OOo does have some good things going for it, doesn't it?!

Seriously though, that's one of the reasons I was a bit miffed when Zenwalk 2.01 chucked Gnumeric and Abiword in favour of OOo. The argument was that you could always download those two from the repositories, and they are much smaller. I reckon if we took a poll, as evidenced by the spreadsheet review in LXF76, you would find that Gnumeric is more popular than OOo Calc. I would even stick my neck out and venture the same in the case of Abiword vs OOo Writer.

Re: RE: LXF 76 is here!

nelz — Wed Jan 11, 2006 9:32 am

Author: nelz

Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 9:32 am

ladi wrote:

M$ Word will check your spelling and grammar. OOo Wriiter probably does as good a job, if not better. I wouldn't know as I don't use it because of its (lack of) speed.

Grammar checkers are only useful if you have a good grasp of grammar yourself. They check for stupid mistakes, but they won't turned poorly written text into breathless prose.

OOo doesn't have a grammar checker, probably because it would have taken the startup time for OOo beyond the boot time for the distro running it. Abiword has one.

Re: RE: LXF 76 is here!

Flea — Wed Jan 11, 2006 1:41 am

Author: Flea

Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 1:41 am

emyr42 wrote:

Dirty boy!

For this I'd use LaTeX, HTML, or RTF...

RTF? tut, tut. Isn't that developed by Micro$oft? surely you mean Open Document Format?

Dave.

Re: RE: LXF 76 is here!

emyr42 — Tue Jan 10, 2006 3:40 pm

Author: emyr42

Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2006 3:40 pm

ladi wrote:

No excuse, mate!

M$ Word will check your spelling and grammar. OOo Wriiter probably does as good a job, if not better. I wouldn't know as I don't use it because of its (lack of) speed.

At least you've learnt that it's not a good idea to skip English lessons if you plan on becoming a writer!

Dirty boy!

For this I'd use LaTeX, HTML, or RTF...

RE: LXF 76 is here!

M-Saunders — Tue Jan 10, 2006 9:52 am

Author: M-Saunders

Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2006 9:52 am

Cool, glad you like

M

RE: LXF 76 is here!

ladi — Tue Jan 10, 2006 8:51 am

Author: ladi

Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2006 8:51 am

No excuse, mate!

M$ Word will check your spelling and grammar. OOo Wriiter probably does as good a job, if not better. I wouldn't know as I don't use it because of its (lack of) speed.

At least you've learnt that it's not a good idea to skip English lessons if you plan on becoming a writer!

RE: LXF 76 is here!

Flea — Tue Jan 10, 2006 2:44 am

Author: Flea

Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2006 2:44 am

he he, I would also love to write an article, but my English plain sucks! I skipped most of my English lessons in school and just managed to scrape a C! God knows how I managed to at least "pass", I was honestly expecting a U

RE: LXF 76 is here!

jdtate101 — Mon Jan 09, 2006 10:36 pm

Author: jdtate101

Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2006 10:36 pm

I would love to write an article, but the stuff I do isn't that interesting really., just fibre channel storage and SAN networks....not the sort of thing that would interest the "Average Joe" !!! Although they do use embedded Linux (NetBSD) as the main OS.....you can checkout the products here:
www.brocade.com

RE: LXF 76 is here!

jdtate101 — Mon Jan 09, 2006 10:22 pm

Author: jdtate101

Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2006 10:22 pm

Nods at yonder elf maiden..