So far it had been nothing fancy and I had no trouble doing day to day document processing, spreadsheets, drawing, presentation slides etc. Document exchange with Microsoft Office files is also pretty straightforward. There are some glitches in handling duo languages in English and Chinese in the sample document but but not something that cannot be overcome.

My ongoing objective is to extend the use of OpenOffice to other areas and to introduce the Chinese version of this software to my co-workers.

Today, while checking for update, I found OpenOffice.org Solutions on the OpenOffice.org wiki. The wiki itself is a source of excellent information on using OpenOffice.

There is a Chinese wiki as well. From what I can see, much marketing is still needed to get this tool into the hands of the vast Chinese users. Nevertheless a great start!

Have you started using OpenOffice? If not why not?

Related Post:

• No more Office, Open Office

Open Office had been installed on my desktop for close to a year now, begnning with the 1.9 beta version.

From my experience, Open Office is more than capable to handle all the day to day requirement of document processing of a small business owner.

Take a look at Writer, Calc and Impress, they can do all of what you have been doing with Word, Excel and Powerpoint.

Writer, Word replacement.

Calc, Excel replacement.

Impress, PowerPoint replacement.

I have Microsoft’s licensing and activation policy to thank for stiffening my resolve to turn to Open Office.

It was a long story, but it is suffice to say that I have a hard time trying to activate my original Office on a new harddisk. The end result? I gave up, decided to try Open Office and never turn back since. When push comes to shove, resistance to change became strength for change. Looking back I’m glad I made the switch.

The next time you think of buying or upgrading Microsoft Office, give Open Office a try.

What I like about it?

• Create PDF document natively
• Excellent support for Word and Excel format
• Effectively replaced MS Office

What can be improved

• Support for PowerPoint format on Impress
• Support for Access database on Base
• Provide Keystoke binding for Calc that maches Excel
  I learned so many Excel keystokes, it is ashame to have to relearn again

Chinese support

Simplified Chinese version of Open Office is available from http://zh.openoffice.org/index_gb.html

When visiting Openoffice.org using a Chinese system, the chinese page is automatically served and the respective download selected.

Where to get it?

• OpenOffice is at http://www.openoffice.org/
• Current version: 2.0.3
• Function: Office Productivity Suite

Related Post:

• OpenOffice Solutions