Microsoft Starter 2010 vs. Apache OpenOffice 4.1.1

[ChrisGreaves]

Please see also Open Office 4.1.1 Release ( 05 Oct 2014)
I have just returned from a short trip to help a volunteer with spreadsheet and word processing.

In their office (in Catalina 20 minutes drive away) they use Apache OpenOffice 4.1.1. I used Libre/OpenOffice in 2014 & 2016, so I know that the applications are quite similar to MSOffice. And I am happy to report that I fixed several problems in the spreadsheet and the document.

In the home (in Bonavista) the volunteer has Microsoft Starter 2010 (Office?) which is obviously old, and now I know, somewhat limited.

The volunteer works in Catalina, emails an Apache OpenOffice wpd document to their home in Bonavista, and that night at home, opens and continues editing the document, saves the document, and emails it back to the office in Catalina, where the next day they open the emailed document and continue working.
Of Course!

MS Starter 2010 saves as a DOCX, and I could not get it to save as wpd. My guess is that MS did not want people to migrate documents to WordPerfect format, for marketing reasons.

Question 1 Am I doing something wrong? Is there, In MS Starter 2010 some sort of saveAs export option that I missed seeing?

Question 2 Am I doing something wrong? Is there, In Apache OpenOffice 4.1.1 some sort of (File, open) import option that I missed seeing?

Question 3 Failing that, is there a current form of DocX/WPD converter that might be easy enough for the volunteer to use?

I am on exceedingly good terms with this volunteer, but am limited in my access to the computers in each place. I can certainly telephone her and walk her through any process. She goes on a month's holiday next Sunday, and the panic is over. I would like to get a feel for the situation before next we meet, is all.

Right now, I haven't told her, but I am thinking of recommending she install Apache OpenOffice 4.1.1 on her home laptop, then she needs master only one application when we get around to discussing Styles etc.

Thanks for any general pointers.

Cheers
Chris

[HansV]

Office 2010 Starter was a free but severely limited version of Office. It wouldn't surprise me if it can't handle .wpd files (the full version can).
But both OpenOffice and LibreOffice should be able to open, edit and save .docx documents, so why not use that all the time?

[ChrisGreaves]

Office 2010 Starter was a free but severely limited version of Office. It wouldn't surprise me if it can't handle .wpd files (the full version can).
But both OpenOffice and LibreOffice should be able to open, edit and save .docx documents, so why not use that all the time?

Thanks Hans.

I don't know the office well enough to recommend DOCX; I suspect that there are other volunteers who would object to "having to learn a new tool" (when they don't really know how to use the existing tool).

As an ardent user of Word2003 I am not equipped to tell the volunteer to "... install a more recent version ..." of Starter2010, but my top suggestion is to get LibreOffice 7.2.0 (August 25th 2021) on both systems which would reduce the learning curve.
The lady is ultra-keen to learn better computing (and is a good learner)

Failing that/if the office manager won't allow LibreOffice, I would recommend installing Apache OpenOffice 4.1.1 on the home computer so at least the volunteer is using the same suite at home as she does in the office. This would apply to any other volunteer who would rather work from home than brave the icy roads.


Down the road, of course, it would be great to whip the entire world to MY way of thinking; in the meantime I will try to help this lady spend more time at home, and less time in the office, a solid 40 minutes of traveling to edit a document.

Thanks again
Chris

[HansV]

Switching to using only LibreOffice or OpenOffice is a goof idea. There is no later version of Microsoft Office Starter Edition - it was a one-off that hasn't been repeated. Anyone can now use feature-limited online (browser-based) versions of the Office applications for free - no need to install anything.

[ChrisGreaves]

Switching to using only LibreOffice or OpenOffice is a goof idea. There is no later version of Microsoft Office Starter Edition - it was a one-off that hasn't been repeated. Anyone can now use feature-limited online (browser-based) versions of the Office applications for free - no need to install anything.

goof?

I have installed LibreOffice 7.2 and discovered:-
(1) I can run my Word2003/VBA code, including my utility library (hello!!!!!)
(2) There appears to be no wpd option on the saveAs, But I can let that go for now for a month or so, and then sound out exactly what the status is with the other users. There seems little point in sticking to wpd if there is no pressing need for it.

Thanks again
Chris
[later] The more I think about it the more I feel that you are right: this IS a goofy way of looking at it..
As far as I know, no one in this crowd is running WordPerfect as a word processor.
Why then save in WPD format?!!???

My guess would be that a million years ago when WP5.1(DOS) was all the rage, the (then) secretary upgraded to WordPerfect for Windows and saved the newsletter in WPD format (so far so good), and then quit or died, and those who grabbed the baton thought that newsletters had to be stored as wpd files.

Chris

[PJ_in_FL]

I'd recommend using the Word 97-2003 (.doc) as the common format. IIRC some versions of OpenOffice/LibraOffice could read/write .doc, but not .docx.

Double plus-plus on your report of your VBA working! I didn't realize LibraOffice had added VBA in addition to Python. Might have to give it another look and finally cut my MS Office strings.

[HansV]

The current versions of both Apache OpenOffice and LibreOffice can read/write .docx documents. Old versions might not, but the same holds for Microsoft Office...

The .docx format produces significantly smaller files than the .doc format; this is an advantage if you have to transfer the document frequently.

[ChrisGreaves]

I'd recommend using the Word 97-2003 (.doc) as the common format. IIRC some versions of OpenOffice/LibreOffice could read/write .doc, but not .docx.

Hi PJ; I agree, certainly a better choice than WPD based on what I know; but there is a catch, explained in my response to Hans.

Double plus-plus on your report of your VBA working! I didn't realize LibreOffice had added VBA in addition to Python. Might have to give it another look and finally cut my MS Office strings.

Indeed yes! The thought has not crossed my mind as much as started to cross, then decided to take up residence there.
The only downside would be that I would no longer be able to complain about Word2003

The .docx format produces significantly smaller files than the .doc format; this is an advantage if you have to transfer the document frequently.

Hans, I think that for the majority of word-processing documents this (size factor) is not a prime consideration.
In this particular case, the church newsletter is emailed while the lady is in Catalina. Then she drives 25 minutes to her home in Bonavista. Even online banking isn’t that slow!

I need to wait a month until the volunteer is back from Labrador, and discuss the office itself: Is anyone using WordPerfect? Who makes executive decisions on the format? Would they need to convert their old newsletters to the new (whatever it is) format?, and much more.

@All. Before a decision or even a recommendation is made on formats of the newsletter, I have a deeper agenda: Backing up their data.
You know the story.

I have an ace up my sleeve, a Backup/RoboCopy expert in a place called “Temple”, highly recommended for a church office, don’t you think? I figure the congregation could take up an extra collection to pay for the air fares and lodging expense for the expert and, of course, his lovely wife, who will have to supervise his diet and make sure that he and I don’t stay up too late yarning about the good old days of mainframes ...

Cheers
Chris

[jonwallace]

The advice on the OpenOffice/LibreOffice forum is that round-tripping docx file from Libre to Word and back can lead to data corruption and can grow the file sizes accordingly as word styles are converted to Libre styles and back again. If both ends are using Libre/Open office, then saving in native odt format is recommended and only saving as docx (or one of the other options) should be done when a copy is needed for someone with MS Office.

Recent versions of MSO can read odt files, but my experience with trying to open odt files in whatever version of MSO we had at work (2010 I think) generally resulted in the old corrupted file dialog, before reluctantly opening the file pretty well.

Various font differences between systems can also cause problems. Some of those I solved by installing a Word viewer that Microsoft supplied, which brought some MS fonts with it (notably colibri, I think -- it was all so long ago...)

[stuck]

I'm a bit late to this party...

I'm possibly the only other person on the planet who has access to Word 2010 Starter Edition. It came with my Acer Netbook that I bought in 2012. The screenshot shows all the file formats Word Starter can save in.

Ken

[ChrisGreaves]

The advice on the OpenOffice/LibreOffice forum is that round-tripping docx file from Libre to Word and back can lead to data corruption and can grow the file sizes accordingly as word styles are converted to Libre styles and back again....

JonWallace: an EXCELLENT point, and I remember the lady mentioning that they had had problems with layout and/or formats. More ammunition in favour of the argument for abandoning WPD format for historic reasons.
I think if we probed we would find that an earlier church newsletter editor had WordPerfect at the office and edited the newsletter in the lunch-hour, then died, quit, or was fired, and when the church office was forced to take over editing, found that a WP license was $600 or so, Open Office was free, and the rest is history.

Speaking of which, not many of you know this, but I was raised on 80-column punched cards, and self-taught in FORTRAN II, made repeated compilations each night. My favorite card was the one-card self-loading reproducing program for the IBM 1620 by which I could turn out a pristine copy of the 2,000-card deck and start over with my colored marker pens, My source programs grew ragged around the edges even in those days ...

Cheers
Chris

[ChrisGreaves]

I'm possibly the only other person on the planet who has access to Word 2010 Starter Edition.

Hi Ken. Would you care to submit your resume to edit the church newsletter in Catalina?

Your list matches the one I saw on Wednesday. I am in an ideal position to negotiate remuneration for, 10% commission ...

Cheers
Chris

[stuck]

...10% commission ...

Would I be right in thinking that would be 10% of nothing?

Ken

[ChrisGreaves]

...10% commission ...

Would I be right in thinking that would be 10% of nothing?

Only if you have lost your customary optimistic attitude. See the foot of this post ("I have an ace up my sleeve,...") for a glimpse into the attractive benefits being taken under my wing offers to the young and budding entrepreneur.
Cheers
Chris