The KDE Project today announced the immediate release of KOffice 1.2, the third major release of KDE’s free, integrated office suite. KOffice utilizes free and open standards for its document formats, component communication and component embedding, and provides a variety of filters to interoperate with other popular office suites.
KDE Ships KOffice 1.2
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
If it can’t read .doc and .xls files 100% does it even matter? Plus there is the fact it requires QT and only runs on Linux. I’m truely am sorry if this all sounds harsh, but It would much better if they all just put their work into OpenOffice.org.
Agreed.
They have a small number of developers working on it, plus most of them don’t own a legal copy (or a copy nontheless) of Office. What do you expect?
OpenOffice.org is way older than KOffice. OOo was first developed by Star Division with full time developers. Then at Sun. Sun still invest a lot of money in OOo.
An comparison of two projects whose developers refuse to compare is sickening.
And there is no way a competitor’s product will be allowed to keep up with the upgrade schedule of MS Office. Microsoft doesn’t release the specs for the newest file formats. Oh well.
“If it can’t read .doc and .xls files 100% does it even matter?”
I guess it doesn’t, if you don’t care about being compatible with the rest of the world.
Truly, I don’t care how good your office suite is … if it ain’t at least compatible with a good amount of Office documents, it’s useless to those of us who live in the real world.
Any chance of this being included in Mandrake 9 ? 😉
If it can’t read .doc and .xls files 100% does it even matter?
>>>>>>>>>>
Yes it does, to me and all the other KDE users! I don’t work with .doc files anymore. My friends long ago learned to send me stuff in open formats and most of the “official” documents I deal with are in PDF. I’ve had word 2000 on my XP partition for months now, and its only been used once, to open a Plug and Play specification.
Plus there is the fact it requires QT and only runs on Linux.
>>>>>>>>>
Which suits the hundreds of thousands of KDE users just fine
I’m truely am sorry if this all sounds harsh, but It would much better if they all just put their work into OpenOffice.org.
>>>>>
1) OpenOffice.org is slow.
2) OpenOffice.org is complex.
3) OpenOffice.org is huge.
4) OpenOffice.org doesn’t integrate with KDE.
5) OpenOffice.org doesn’t do anything I need that KOffice doesn’t.
That’s the nice thing about KOffice and other open source apps. They don’t try to be all things to all people. KOffice serves its niche (KDE users who don’t need 100% of the power of MS Office) and serves it very well.
Rayiner, you forgot number 6.
6) OpenOffice.org codebase is bloated, almost impossible to work with.
Besides, you guys, KOffice is made to be a nice productivity app among KDE users. This is the office suite I use most. When I want to do something more complex that kOffice can’t handle, I switch computers and use Office. I avoid OpenOffice.org. Not only is its UI ugly (lack of AA, especially), it is so slow.
So I agree with Rayiner that KOffice is only supplying a niche. It is made by a small group of developers, very small group of developers. You can’t expect something so young with so little developers to match Office (something needed to be 100% compatible with its formats), which is developed by thousands of developers, in which Microsoft invested billions of dollars.
If it can’t read .doc and .xls files 100% does it even matter? Plus there is the fact it requires QT and only runs on Linux. I’m truely am sorry if this all sounds harsh, but It would much better if they all just put their work into OpenOffice.org.
First of all, .doc and .xls formats are importable so you can read files sent from dorks who obviously don’t want EVERYONE to read the files they send, and then you can save the documents in XSLT format, which everyone in the world can read. Thus, you aren’t impared in the recieve and share documents department.
Secondly, KOffice is much newer code that OpenOffice. I like StarOffice better because it has more features, but there is some room for improvement.
Lastly, I always hear the comment that people run Windows because of the application available for it that people want to run. If you want to run KOffice, shouldn’t the reverse hold true as well? Since MS doesn’t have a version of Office for Linux, does that mean it sucks? It seems a little hypocritical to rail on one product for being exactly the same as another product that you praise (except Word doesn’t have any KOffice import filters). KOffice is for KDE. To my knowledge, this is not limited to Linux.
KOffice is a very nice office suite. I haven’t used it for a while because I settled on StarOffice a while back, but I am going to try out 1.2 and see if I like it. Perhaps I will switch. The feature list for 1.2 looks very nice.
“I avoid OpenOffice.org. Not only is its UI ugly (lack of AA, especially), it is so slow.”
I personally prefer OpenOffice.org over MS Office. The UI isn’t that different from MS Office, and it has some extra niceties like the floating Navigator and Styles windows. Its interface does support AA (I have an AAed OpenOffice.org window open right now).
I guess it doesn’t, if you don’t care about being compatible with the rest of the world.
Did that stop people from using Word when WordPerfect was THE word processor the world used?
Truly, I don’t care how good your office suite is … if it ain’t at least compatible with a good amount of Office documents, it’s useless to those of us who live in the real world.
PDF, XML, HTML, plain text, etc. are the real world. Why? Because everyone can read them. .DOC is Microsoft’s world. If that’s where you live, and the only people you want to communicate with, fine. If not, your going to have to communicate using open formats.
Weren’t you complaining the other day about people not supporting IE on their websites (may have been somebody else)? How is sending a .DOC file any different (note: I don’t care anything about marketshare so please don’t mention it)?
The main reason why I avoid OpenOffice.org is speed. Stuff like out-of-the-box AA is secondary. It is way faster for me to reboot or switch computers to do something is Office than on OOo. Plus, I find the interface ugly (lame attempt to look native on Windows 9x).
Besides, I find the Navigator and Styles windows annoying. Because I have 800×600 resolution on my Linux machine. Yes, I once used only OOo for a period of two months, and I practically got used to it. Yet Office is so much better for me.
For example, when I add a table, OpenOffice.org would do it in 5-10 secs, Office in less than a sec.
I also like Gnumeric and Abiword. But I use Koffice primarily because it integrates with KDE.
I hope they continue to improve it.
I never use any office suites.
Either plain text when I need to write something, HTML if I want to make something look pretty. I never use spreadsheets. Good old calculator will do to run my (simple) life…
I do have OOo and gobeProductive3 installed, just in case someone sends me any .doc files for osnews business. But I do not really load them more than once a month or so…
I have to admit that I used gobeProductive 3 weeks ago, to write the osnews media kit though. But I saved it as PDF.
>>only runs on Linux
Well, not really. In fact, you can conpile the QT sources on any Unix-like operating system with an X server. This includes *BSD, as well as Darwin with XFree86. In fact, I much prefer running FreeBSD with KDE than running it on LInux.
— Rob
The list of improvements sounds *very* nice.
Just recently, I removed Windows XP from my mother’s PC and installed Linux with KDE 3.0.3. She now uses KOffice to write her letters/eMail and feels pretty comfortable with it. Considering that she’s a bit older and doesn’t have much experience with computers, I’d call that a very positive example of how far the Linux platform has come. KOffice 1.2 will sure come in handy.
I’m glad to see that KOffice isn’t a ms office clone. MS Office SUCKS!!! The impression I get every time I sit down at someone’s computer with ms office is that ms hires morons for programmers & analysts. It’s not just me either, *everyone* complains about it. Why are people afraid to dump ms? No brass I guess.
KOffice is very nice: small & fast and a corrupted file won’t crash it, unlike ms word (the rotten POS that it is).
For example, when I add a table, OpenOffice.org would do it in 5-10 secs, Office in less than a sec.
That’s weird. Tables work for me at pretty much the same speed.
>MS Office SUCKS!!!
I wouldn’t say so. Office is a truly powerful set of apps.
I use Office at work, and it is okay for the most part. I’m not too thrilled with Access or Powerpoint (not because PP isn’t a good program, but I hate going to meetings where some dimple is presenting something using PP. Just say what you want to say for crying out loud).
Some complaints I do have with Word is that I’ve had tables that are longer than one page corrupt when I resize them, graphics don’t display too well in Office XP, Word crashes if there is a problem with a document, VB for applications is too easy to write viruses with (well, that and it is after all VB), and probably some other things like disliking the toolbars in Office XP.
Anyway, in spite of these asthetic flaws, defects, quirks, foibles and such, Word isn’t that bad to use at work. I certainly would never buy it for personal use though.
> I hate going to meetings where some dimple is presenting something using PP. Just say what you want to say for crying out loud.
haha… funny… Some people, huh?
… is an IMPOSTER!
You, sir, will be hearing from my lawyer. I demand you cease and desist immediately and pay reparations not less than US$1 trillion.
Anyway, I love KOffice. I’ve been using the Release Candidate for a while now, very nice. I guess I’m one of the lucky few who doesn’t care about/need Office compatibility, so I dunno how well it handles Office formats. It can work with pretty much any standard, open format quite easily, though, including LaTeX, and that’s pretty much all I need.
Now I just have to wait impatiently until the release version makes it into the portage tree …
“Lastly, I always hear the comment that people run Windows because of the application available for it that people want to run. If you want to run KOffice, shouldn’t the reverse hold true as well?”
Yes, it should. But that is assuming that you absolutely were anal about running KOffice, and didn’t want Word Perfect Office, ThinkFree Office, Easy Office, or any of the other probably 12 million different other office suites available on the Linux platform.
“Since MS doesn’t have a version of Office for Linux, does that mean it sucks?”
No, because I don’t know a single person who uses anything else besides Word. And if I did, I could certainly find another format to send them stuff in. Of course, I’m somewhat technical when it comes to that stuff and know how to do that. There are many others that don’t .. I work with many of them on a daily basis
“It seems a little hypocritical to rail on one product for being exactly the same as another product that you praise (except Word doesn’t have any KOffice import filters).”
Are you trying to tell me that KOffice is exactly the the same as MS Office? Are you feeling well?
“PDF, XML, HTML, plain text, etc. are the real world. Why? Because everyone can read them. .DOC is Microsoft’s world. If that’s where you live, and the only people you want to communicate with, fine.
Yeah right .. ask the average Joe to type up a document in HTML, PDF, plain text (notepad, what’s that?), etc .. I’m sure they’ll get right on it.
“If not, your going to have to communicate using open formats.”
Do you actually work in a business enviroment? And if so, do you dictate to your clients what formats they send you stuff in? And do you refuse to accept .doc format, something that pratically IS the standard in the business world?
“Weren’t you complaining the other day about people not supporting IE on their websites (may have been somebody else)? How is sending a .DOC file any different (note: I don’t care anything about marketshare so please don’t mention it)?”
Actually, that was Eugenia
But I did comment on it, only to scoff at webmasters who do things to break compatibility with IE on purpose (and I have seen it done), and then bitch at you when you call them on it … (ie: they say “use the standard!”, when like 90%+ people are using something that they refuse to support.)
“Considering that she’s a bit older and doesn’t have much experience with computers, I’d call that a very positive example of how far the Linux platform has come.”
Well, I’m sure it helps when you have a resident Linux guru nearby too
Even after reading something 3 times “12 million different other office suites available on the Linux platform.” should read “12 million different other office suites available on the WINDOWS platform.”
Eugenia, when are you going to add a feature that lets us edit our own posts ? 😉
golly, there really is two sides at osnews these days. We’ve got the lot who idealize linux, and the side who are so irratated by blind following of the free path that they seem to go go to the opposite extreme..
The reason so many people use Word is because it is generally bundled with PCs – it is there by default. Most home computers seem to come with a few ‘productivity’ apps like Word and possibly Frontpage express as standard (and Works, but I can’t think of anyone I know who knows what it is, let alone uses it). The thing is a few years ago you’d have to use Wordpad, which was really too light to be good (ah, I remember the good old days of Write, which was plenty adequate back then). This left a vacum for people to go buy non-MS word processors etc, and this didn’t suite the oems (if you can’t write letters when you unpack your computer, people perceive it is the fault of the computer) and it didn’t suit MS; bundling Word really helps the oem sell the kit, and makes people naturally progress to other Office apps if they need to, rather than look to a new complete solution. So, when does Word become part of the OS instead of an app?
People say that one of the strengths of Windows is the number of apps – but by percentage of the working day, I wonder how many of those Windows apps people use are written by MS?
Anyways, a .doc importer/exported would be a great boon to any alternative office suite, even if it wasn’t perfect with all the formatting, as long as it can get the body of the text in. Lets hope they can get such a piece of code into a future release.
On a side note, maybe, Eugenia, you might look at jedit http://www.jedit.org if you haven’t already – it is worth it for folding alone. As the users of this site are probably not representative of ‘users’ but more ‘programmers’, it might be an interesting division and plenty good enough to compare to the recent pepper etc coverage. I can’t see the ‘os’ tie-in, but I often don’t for other osnews articles anyway.
Sorry for the long rambling post
Nice: The reason so many people use Word is because it is generally bundled with PCs – it is there by default.
It isn’t loaded on desktops by default. Some makers place it on their machines, but they are a minority. Microsoft makes bulk of their money from the enterprise. Besides, if you buy a Dell now, for example, you would get WordPerfect Office. or if you buy a IBM, the default choice is SmartSuite. And if you buy a brandless PC (what most PC users buy anyway), you get nothing.
If you primarily work with MS Office documents, or you collaborate with MS Office users, then Office will ALWAYS be your best choice, no matter how much work KOffice or OpenOffice developers put into import and export filters.
Use MS Office, maybe buy CrossOver, stay in your proprietary world and pay your Microsoft tax. They locked you in, and until you stop supporting them by using their file format, you have to pay. But if you want to exchange documents with other KOffice users or, with the supposed open XML file format, other users of free office suites, or you just want to write a letter or create a PDF, KOffice is a nice collection of apps.
The reality is that people _will_ send you documents in Word .doc
format, with graphics and tables and footnotes. You are not in a
position to say “Please export this in PDF” or whatever, when the
whole company or university is using Word as its standard.
Any word processor must have a working filter for ,doc files. We all
know that MS have intentionally made this as difficult as possible,
but without it the word processor is of little practical use.
There must be quite a lot of code around in the Open Source world that
would give these developers a start on that filter.
For export, RTF is well documented and usually loads OK into Word.
http://www.biblioscape.com/rtf15_spec.htm
>>Nice: The reason so many people use Word is because it is generally bundled with PCs – it is there by default.
>It isn’t loaded on desktops by default. Some makers place it on their machines, but they are a minority. Microsoft makes bulk of their money from the enterprise. Besides, if you buy a Dell now, for example, you would get WordPerfect Office. or if you buy a IBM, the default choice is SmartSuite. And if you buy a brandless PC (what most PC users buy anyway), you get nothing
I was talking from personal experience. When I was in the mood to buy a new computer, I went and visited all the highstreet sellers. All offered packages, invariably including Works and Word. Maybe it was just a fashion at the time (about 2 years ago now). You might be able to avoid it if you are savy, but I think the ‘packaging’ of PCs is quite big business for highstreet shops. You end up leaving the shop with a colour deskjet and a flatbed scanner and some cables for your digital cable and whatnot, and Word, when you only went into the shop to buy a computer..
> Plus there is the fact it requires QT and only runs on Linux.
That it requires Qt cannot be an argument against it. Openoffice.org uses more space on my drive than Koffice and Qt together.
Cheers,
Andreas
Far more fun than Kword etc. Sure xforms interface is ugly, but nothing beats LaTeX for papers.
Never got docbook integration to work though.
This is the future of word processing: WYSIWYM. The ‘Word’ component in office suites always seems kludgey as it’s physical formatting. What would be cool would be for such ‘word processors’ would be to apply WYSIWYM editing to XML/XSLT. Lyx is IMHO the closest thing out there, only with a TeX base.
Abiword, Gnumeric, GIMP, DIAG, and openoffice provide for my every linux office need without having to use QT.
Heh – I second that Pete. Pretty much the only thing I (and most people) used my Office XP install for is writing documents in Word – now rendered moot.
If I’m writing a short document, then AbiWord, vim, or KWord will do – and I can print to PS or PDF.
Anything longer, or if I want sectioning (e.g. long academic paper) then I use LyX – I pity my fellows who are writing their reports in Word. They look horrible!
Of course, some features are missing – but I don’t really use them anyway.
Now, if I could find something that could replace Outlook… much as I hate to, I have to say that that is an excellent program (as is Office as a whole, though OTT for me).
Nice: I was talking from personal experience. When I was in the mood to buy a new computer, I went and visited all the highstreet sellers.
But what you said about Word being bundled with PCs is wrong. It may be presented to you as an option, or the saleman forced it down your throat, but a lot of people manage to avoid getting Word, even if they wanted it.
Besides, the trend today is WordPerfect Office, which gives OEMs a better deal than Staroffice nor Works.
Andreas: That it requires Qt cannot be an argument against it. Openoffice.org uses more space on my drive than Koffice and Qt together.
Quite a bad comparison, because OpenOffice.org provides much more features than Koffice. Yes, KOffice is bloatless, but this comparison is really really stupid.
Pete: This is the future of word processing: WYSIWYM.
If you are writing something like a thesis or an acedemic report, Lyx is really good, where content only matters. But if you want everything presented your way to the last detail, you would probably prefer to use a WYSIWYG word processor.
Biggyp: Abiword, Gnumeric, GIMP, DIAG, and openoffice provide for my every linux office need without having to use QT.
What exactly do you have against QT? It is Free Software, it is good, it is stable etc.
Besides, AbiWord is lame compared to KWord. For example, can you put in a table in your document in the latest stable release? The only good thing it has over KWord is the theasurus. Gnumeric is quite good too, I admit, but all you need to do is change the GTK+ theme to something that looks like Windows, change the name of the app (to Excel), and viola, you can fool somebody into thinking that is Excel. As for Dia, I admit, it is better than Kivio, but using GIMP to compare with anything KDE is stupid and idiotic. Many KDE developers (especially the artist) uses GIMP. There isn’t any KDE altenative, and quite frankly, there isn’t a need for one.
While supporting OpenOffice.org just to get away from QT is the lamest thing I ever heard. And you even seen the code behind OpenOffice.org, or use full featurd office suites like Office and WordPerfect Office to compare with OpenOffice.org?
Rich: Now, if I could find something that could replace Outlook… much as I hate to, I have to say that that is an excellent program (as is Office as a whole, though OTT for me).
Evolution works fine with my dad, but then again, he isn’t that advance in using Outlook’s features.
The “tech geek” crowd never ceases to amaze me. There are, in my opinion, only 3 compelling reasons not to use MS Word
1. It’s too expensive
2. You don’t like Microsoft
3. You don’t have a platform to run it on (Windows or MacOS)
Anything else is BS. It’s the fastest thing for Windows. OOo takes what feels like forever to start, even though it’s a great program. You KNOW that everyone else will be able to open your documents. It’s close to intuitive in that if the menu layout is poor, it’s at least consistent with other Windows apps and I can usually GUESS where something should be.
My personal preference is AbiWord, and I store all my personal files in abw format, but I know that ANYTHING I need someone else to read must be either .doc or .html. And truthfully, usually .html scares them. I can’t even really use OpenOffice.org, simply because I find myself “checking” every document before I send it. I’m a professional and it’s not valid to say, “The paper doesn’t look goo because I wrote it in OpenOffice.org and the doc filter didn’t pick up the tables.”
MS Word is a great app, it’s just, unfortunately, from Microsoft. Excel is fantastic. Access put database power into the hands of the layman.
Projects like KOffice are fantastic, but, for me at least, it’s little more than an app for personal use only.
>Many KDE developers (especially the artist) uses GIMP.
>There isn’t any KDE altenative, and quite frankly, there
>isn’t a need for one.
Actually a lot of new KDE Icons in SVG format get made under Windows because there is no good SVG app under Linux.
Adam Scheinberg: MS Word is a great app, it’s just, unfortunately, from Microsoft. Excel is fantastic. Access put database power into the hands of the layman.
Strangely enough a lot of layman does things that are better off in Access in Excel.
Anonymous: Actually a lot of new KDE Icons in SVG format get made under Windows because there is no good SVG app under Linux.
There is one SVG icon theme for KDE that I know, Crystal. And IIRC, it uses Sodipodi.
rajan r:
If you are writing something like a thesis or an acedemic report, Lyx is really good, where content only matters. But if you want everything presented your way to the last detail, you would probably prefer to use a WYSIWYG word processor.
One thing to note, however, is the way that later versions of Word encourage you to just use Styles rather than setting fonts etc. – so it automatically does the indenting, fonts, etc.
A move towards ‘what you mean’ word processing (a la LyX), but also a reason to use Word… versatility.
people can use apps from various sources on various os’s to do the stuff they want to do, the good thing is there is lots of choice
Threaded posts would be nice.
I think QT is great!
Rich: One thing to note, however, is the way that later versions of Word encourage you to just use Styles rather than setting fonts etc. – so it automatically does the indenting, fonts, etc.
A move towards ‘what you mean’ word processing (a la LyX), but also a reason to use Word… versatility.
I use MS Word. Styles is in a step towards WYSIWYN like LyX, but the only Office application that fully takes the formating task from you is PowerPoint. Either that or I haven’t fully pushed the limits. If you use LyX, which I would use next year for my school project, BTW, you absolutely be hidden from formating during the process of creating the document.
But then again, maybe you are right. Word is coming like LyX.
//…But if you want to exchange documents with other KOffice users…//
Yah, I’m going to abandon MS Office (with it’s *millions* of users) so that I can exchange documents with KOffice (with its *dozens* of users).
Makes sense.
Time for you to come out of your parent’s basement, and breathe the real world.
I’m sorry, perhaps I didn’t express myself clearly enough. Let me try again.
Yes, it should. But that is assuming that you absolutely were anal about running KOffice
Wasn’t running KOffice your point? You said that KOffice only ran under Linux (which isn’t true) so I commented that people run Windows (apparently) for the apps it supports, so if a favorite app is reason enough to run Windows, shouldn’t it be enough to run another OS? I said nothing about the many other office suites because it was not my point nor yours as far as I could tell.
No, because I don’t know a single person who uses anything else besides Word.
We operate in different circles apparently.
Are you trying to tell me that KOffice is exactly the the same as MS Office? Are you feeling well?
No, you were complaining that KOffice didn’t support Word and Excel file formats (which it indeed does) and that it only runs under Linux (which is incorrect). So I merely asked if, since Word doesn’t support KOffice open formats and only runs on Windows, it wasn’t a bit hypocritical to praise Office and rail on KOffice for the exact same things. To be intellectually honest, don’t you have to treat the same behavior in the same way? It’s like praising one child for painting a pretty picture on the wall and slapping another for doing the same thing if you don’t isn’t it?
Yeah right .. ask the average Joe to type up a document in HTML, PDF, plain text (notepad, what’s that?), etc .. I’m sure they’ll get right on it.
It’s really no big deal if you simply tell them how to do it. It’s not like people were born instincively knowing how to use Word either.
Do you actually work in a business enviroment? And if so, do you dictate to your clients what formats they send you stuff in? And do you refuse to accept .doc format, something that pratically IS the standard in the business world?
Yes, I do work in a business environment. Yes, I do dictate what formats I expect documents in (usually PDF) and yes, I do absolutely refuse to accept .DOC format. Why? Because I deal with documents in English, Japanese, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese on a regular basis (I only actually understand Japanese and English).
Word absolutely sucks when formatting documents across languages; it always loses its formatting. Since the approximate cost of re-doing this formatting is $200.00 per language per document, Word gets the boot; and the finger. FrameMaker is a good program, and others are good as well. .DOC is utter crap when it comes to international support. So yes, I do dictate what I will accept. If it is in Word format, it won’t be read.
Actually, that was Eugenia
But I did comment on it, only to scoff at webmasters who do things to break compatibility with IE on purpose (and I have seen it done), and then bitch at you when you call them on it … (ie: they say “use the standard!”, when like 90%+ people are using something that they refuse to support.)
Actually, I see a lot more sites that only support IE. How is it any different, other than there are more of the IE only sites than IE unfriendly sites? My feeling is if Microsoft is only going to half-assedly support standards, why support their browser? If your getting the traffic you want on your page without IE users, who cares?
Well, I’m sure it helps when you have a resident Linux guru nearby too
It is the same with Mac and Windows too. I’m always bailing people out of their computing problems.
In my experience the average Word user thinks a carriage return is a new line. Uses the space bar to align things, and advanced users will use tabs instead of tables. These people will also put on their resumes that they know ‘Office’.
Lets just give them notepad.
The true is people used office not because it’s a best office suite, but because people don’t have a choice. I really appreciate the efforts of koffice folks who already produce such a nice office suite (considering the fact that, it’s a free software). Althougth I never use Koffice but I think I’ll use it later on in the future….
Well, currently I’m just use Vim as my text editor. Office just make my documents getting bloated with “thousands of hidden characters”
what ever happened to the supposed open source release of gobe productive?
In two months time. It is not the right time to get open yet. It is still getting “prepared” for.
>The reality is that people _will_ send you documents in Word .doc
>format, with graphics and tables and footnotes. You are not in a
>position to say “Please export this in PDF” or whatever, when the
>whole company or university is using Word as its standard.
Dear sir self-emasculator,
You can certainly make such a request. The worst they can say is “no.” Does bill gates ask if he can change file formats for the new version of word? No. So why do you assume such a weak, sterile pose of helplessness?
Sorry for the time lag between posts, sometimes we in the Asia-Pacific require ‘sleep’.
Naturally I use Word for sending out my CV; it’s the only thing job agencies understand.
Perhaps it’s my legacy of hand-writing an academic paper in LaTeX that helps me appreciate LyX but writing such documents is a, relative, breeze with said software.
Is it suitable for everyday use, one might ask? I guess that depends on the template you use. Being constrained by a rigid format takes a bit of re-training. Particularly due to the visual temptation of tabbing here and there for indenting.
All of us have succumbed to the frustrations of re-formatting naively laid-out ‘visual’ pages. Most annoying is the nightmare of post editing it in some other format, e.g. plain text and ‘fixing’ all the tabs and extra spaces.
Obviously there are feature limitations of using a product written by volunteers instead of a rich corporation such as table support. I guess one has to judge whether such problems are terminal or whether the ‘next release’ will measure up.
Sure, Word has a million features, but how many of them does the average person (as opposed to ‘power-secretary’) consciously make use of?
Being the ‘computer person’ in the house, I’m frequently asked for support of Word97, when this great visual tool mysteriously renders something strange on-screen. Seems the complexity of Word is beyond many people who, unfortunately, do treat a word processor as a typewriter. At least ‘paper clip’ provides advice to fix things, but it’s me the computer literate one consulting the friendly wizard, not the typical end-user.
Anyway I realise that LyX is not for everyone. A couple of features which other tools have that Word seems to lack:
Codes: A Wordperfect user I knew used to swear by them. The document stored its formatting info in vaguely human readable tags, so that even when the visual formatting had stuffed up you could pop up a window to fix the document by hand.
Multi-metaphor documents: I had an early version of ClarisWorks, which despite its overall deficient feature set (not to steal sales of MacWrite Pro) had a nifty modeless editing where the integration of the various modules (text, spreadsheet, drawing etc) was seamless in the one document. I hear from you BeOS devotees that the GoBe suite has a similar legacy.