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List:       openoffice-users
Subject:    Re: [users] file Associations
From:       Daniel Carrera <dcarrera () math ! umd ! edu>
Date:       2003-06-13 14:43:08
Message-ID: 20030613144308.GA1183 () math ! umd ! edu
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Hello,

> I don't like this product. I realize it's free, but that doesn't mean I 
> have to like it.

I'm sorry that you've had such a bad experience.  No, you don't have to 
like OpenOffice.

> It loads slowly.

You are right.  We're working on it.  Version 1.1beta2 loads faster (but 
still slow).

> It took over my default .doc association even though I didn't want it 
> to. It won't let me disassociate it or if it does, I can't find it. 

If you told it to not associate .doc files with OO and it did, that's a 
bug and we need to fix it.  OpenOffice.org does let you disassociate it 
with .doc files.  I don't know how to do it because I don't use Windows.  
File associations are a Windows thing.


> Pages don't display exactly the same as the did with MS Word.

100% Word compatability will never happen.
MS Word uses a secret propietary format.  Essentially, the OOo team has to 
guess around to figure out how to read it.  Worse yet, the .doc format 
itself is very bad.  That's part of the reason why even a different 
version of MS Word might not be able to read it.

Consider, for example, that OpenOffice.org reads Word XP files better than 
Word 97.


> The web site sort of sucks. It's too hard to navigate and get help. You 
> have a million items in the preferences but I can't find a thing about 
> associations.

The website is not the place to go for that kind of help.
OpenOffice.org is a huge program.  It would be impossible to put 
information about all of it on the web.  The ways to get help are:

  1.- Ask in this list.
  2.- Go to the Help menu.
  3.- Buy a book.

I personally think that (1) is the best option.  If you have problems just 
ask here and we will try to help you.


> I don't even know why I'm bothering to write this, now that I am reading 
> it. I'm just going to uninstall the damn thing and be done with it. 

Please don't swear.

One good thing about your writing your email is that it helps us know what 
people find most frustrating about OOo so we can fix it first.

> Star Office didn't have it and neither does this. I don't like MS Word 
> as much as the next guy, but at least I can get help easily for it. 
> Getting help for this is a task.

If I may ask.  What help do you get from MS Word that you don't get from 
OpenOffice?
It'd be good to know.

Personally, I have never found the help-paperclip thing of MS Word of any 
help.  MS Word and OpenOffice both have a help program, neither is good, 
but I have found OOo's slightly better.

-- 
Daniel Carrera         | OpenPGP fingerprint:
Graduate TA, Math Dept | 6643 8C8B 3522 66CB D16C D779 2FDD 7DAC 9AF7 7A88
UMD  (301) 405-5137    | http://www.math.umd.edu/~dcarrera/pgp.html

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