Solved: Open Office Writer

Anyone use this and have comments. I thought this would be a cheap (free) text writing software for my 92 year old Dad but it may not be all that it is cracked up to be. I think it is advertised as being a greate "generic" for Word, Excel, power point, etc. but I find the Writer part of the software a little odd. It has an odd way of introducing it's own format after a "carriage return" when you don't want it (specifically outline form format) and it can oddly wrap information off the page altogether.

When all is said and done maybe I should buy him a copy of Word 2003 ( wouldn't need all of Office either, just Word).

pete

 

Does it work EXACTLY like Microsoft Word? No, but- like MSWord, there is a learning curve--- If he is experienced in MSWord-- at his age I'd buy him what he is used to-- BUT if he is learning whatever program you give him-- OpenOffice is a great Office Suite. I have used it for several years and do not miss MSWord at all.

The specific feature you mention can be turned off-- again, it is a learning process.

If all he needs is a very good word processor and you want it to be capable of reading and writing in the MSWord (.doc) format-- another consideration might be AbiWord. No spreadsheet, no presentation software, no database--- just a quick loading word processor that can read/write .doc format---- And it is totally FREE also
http://www.abisource.com/

Good luck in your choice
letchworth

 

and can you tell me how to turn the feature(s) off? I relay most stuff to him over the phone.

 

I'm away from home right now & no copy of OOo on this machine-- (Perhaps someone else who uses OOo can correct me)-- I would look under Tools> Options> Writer> Auto-format.

You can definitely turn it off (I hope I have gotten you somewhere near the right spot-- I'll check it & update the suggestion if I'm far off).

Good luck (Over the phone?? Wow, that's good)
letchworth

 

1. Go up and click on "Format"
2. Come down to "Autoformat"
3. A little menu will open up and you may see a checkmark by the word "while Typing"
4. Click on the "while typing"
5. You should now be able to type and do Returns without seeing outline form

 

Good job- thanks for the correction (now you're the expert!)

letchworth