Open Office Calc 4

[RWF7437]

Anyone using OpenOffice.org's FREE spreadsheet and other alternatives to Microsoft's versions ? Problems, comments and suggestions would be useful additions to this forum.

 

[swertel]

It's awesome. I use it for home/work use. Of course, my employer is fully entrenched in MS products, so I don't get to use it as much as Excel to become more proficient, but it's all there. Like any other software comparison, some things I like more, some things less. It's a matter of personal taste.

The biggest issue I find is with spreadsheet solutions. Programming in VBA for Excel is more common due to the nature of VB. OpenOffice is a little more difficult to find compatible programs.

--Scott

http://wertel.eng.pro

 

[MikeHalloran]

Yeah, I use 'em at home on my 'mostly Linux' computer.

No compatibility/ interchange problems to report. Fair warning; I keep stuff simple.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[MortenA]

I use it at home - but i find that the differences in script /VB makes me consider how to get a cheap M$ office - i think my wife can get an reasonable discout through her workplace.

Anyway for the rest it works fine.

Best regards

Morten

 

[RWF7437]

Thanks to all for the replies.

I'd also be interested in problems you've encountered. I've had several recent crashes with one particular fairly large spreadsheet. Can't figure out what caused the crash. Or why the files became corrupted, if that is what happened.

 

[MikeHalloran]

I've used one spreadsheet that has >5000 rows and >256 columns, but the linkages between cells are localized and it doesn't do anything particularly fancy; it just does pretty much the same thing for hundreds of different cases. I've taken it back and forth between OO and Excel hundreds of times, and the only glitch is changes in border/ background colors.

I exchange another smaller spreadsheet occasionally, and encountered one glitch where OO displayed a cell without trouble, and Excel reported a #REF error for that cell and every dependent cell. I think it had something to do with a leading space or something trivial like that. I couldn't debug it in OO until I saw it in Excel.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[KiwiMace]

That VBA issue mentioned above was the end of OO for me. I have written functions into a sheet that I add-in and autoload each time I use excel. I found that practically every sheet I had ever used failed under OO due to references to this age old custom VBA add-in.

But... I hear that the Linux version is supporting VBA now.

But... I married a corporate who has access to the more than reasonable discount mentioned above. Legal, status quo and ONE MILLION rows for $20. Sold.

 

[GregLocock]

I used an earlier version, probably around 1.0 of calc to develop a 1500 line by 60 column spreadsheet, with a lot of lookup tables and circular calcs.

By the time I gave up it was taking about 20 minutes for a reresh.

To OO's credit, it exported as an xls perfectly, where it runs very quickly.

Yes, the lack of VBA and the poor graphing is the day-to-day killer for me, but not being able to handle large sheets is no good either.



Cheers

Greg Locock

SIGlease see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[RWF7437]

KiwiMace,

Thanks for the suggestion and comments:

"But... I married a corporate who has access to the more than reasonable discount mentioned above. Legal, status quo and ONE MILLION rows for $20. Sold."


I would gladly pay $20 for a good spreadsheet. Where does one find such a thing ???

 

[swertel]

From Microsoft.

Certain corporations have agreements with larger companies to offer home use licenses to all employees of all the software the corporation licenses. The cost of the home use license (the same functionality as the corporate license) is $20 per.

--Scott

http://wertel.eng.pro

 

[RWF7437]

Thanks Swertel.

Now if I understood why I have to pay $200 for the same thing someone else can get for $20...............

 

[francesca]

Linux users typically prefer GNU Calc, but be warned, the Windows version sucks. I haven't used Open Office Calc in over a year and used to get frustrated with graphing.

Something which seriously bugs me about OO Write and Calc is that it capitalizes your initial letter and you have to trick it to let you keep your text as you entered it.

 

[KiwiMace]

I think MS call it the 'home user program', and it is basically aimed at letting people who use MS in the office a low cost way of getting MS Office at home. I think the company has to be huge to get on this program tho.

$200 adds to profit, $20 is intended and licensed in a way that the software is really an at-home extension of the seat you occupy in the office.

Anything to avoid a VPN i am in favour of.

 

[rb1957]

my experience with VPN is that it's the 2nd best thing since sliced bread ... there has to be something better, just can't think of it now ...

 

[rn14]

I have only used OO Calc a little and am basically in the same boat as the rest of you (VBA). I havent had a chance to play with it much but aparently VBA support has become one of thier big objectives. Here is a quick and old article

http://www.linux.com/articles/58348

.

You might also want to look into Lotus Symphany. It's IBM's free package based off the Open Office code.

 

[joerd]

Wow, Symphony brings back memories of 1989 or thereabouts!

Cheers,
Joerd

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[IRstuff]

The home license is a limited time situation, i.e., only valid for the duration of the employment.

However, if you have student, you can get the student edition for around $100, which does not include Access, at Costco and other stores.

TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[IFRs]

I use OpenOffice for everything (no VBA used here) and I still have to use Excel when copy/paste into AutoCAD drawings. I had hoped that Version 3.0 would fix it but alas and alak it has not.

 

[DonPhillips]

I have not used OpenOffice but does it provide object linking and embedding (OLE)? I typically use this to insert a Word or Excel document into AutoCAD. Updating the document is simply double clicking the object and the application opens for editing the file. When finished, you close the file and AutoCAD is updated.


Don Phillips

http://worthingtonengineering.com

 

[IFRs]

OpenOffice seems to support OLE, but AutoCAD does not recognize the stuff in the clipboard as a spreadsheet, so it brings it in as a picture, useless. It does recognize the same cells when copied from Excel.