Hi all,

I was just wondering if anyone uses Open Office for word processing? My version of Word is so old that Vista seems not to like it, so I was hoping to use Open Office rather than shelling out for the new version of Office. However, I'm a bit worried about cross-compatibility, what with using Word in uni, and Open Office at home. Anyone able to shed light on this?

Thanks!

Matt

I've used Open Office in the past but ended up resorting to getting Office. Compatibility was fine (you can save documents in the appropriate word format), but it had a habit of crashing (and not recovering stuff) so I found myself losing quite a bit of work.
S

I generally got on with OpenOffice OK (never used it that much), but formatting went a bit skewy between that and Office occasionally. And I suspect you'll struggle with newer Office document formats.

Personally I'm planning to buy the new version of Office as soon as I get set up with an ac.uk email address (any day now!) to prove I'm eligible for the 'Ultimate Steal' offer... hae you seen this? Under £40 for the whole suite seems pretty good when you consider what the basic Home & Student edition normally costs.

(Sorry if this counts as advertising - I'm not a Microsoft stooge or anything... am I allowed to link to a web page?)

http://www.microsoft.com/student/discounts/theultimatesteal-uk/default.aspx

I also bought a copy of office at a discount - I got mine from Pugh, which was reccommended by someone on here some time ago and also by some universities. They need proof of student status, but have loads of other stuff - including endnote at student rates. i thought about using open office, but decided I would stick to something that I know would work in most places without a problem - such as when doing presentations etc., havinga non-functioning presentation is not good!