Using Kubuntu because of Koffice.

[perspectoff]

Re: Using Kubuntu because of Koffice.

Interesting. I've always felt Koffice lacked the look and feel of professionalism that comes with OOO and MS Office. Perhaps this will be the impetus the project needs to finally propel KOffice to the next level? I know Flow (formally Kivio) could use a *major* overhaul. I'll keep an eye out for Calligra and try it a few times.

One of the problems with OOO is that it mimics MS Office so closely.

I strongly dislike all the automatic formatting and bulleting, etc., that MS Office, and now OpenOffice do.

It makes editing very painful, instead of the opposite.

Supposedly all this "automation" makes it more "professional" or something, but I hate it.

Often, simpler is better.

[oblivion]

Re: Using Kubuntu because of Koffice.

Well, I use OO mainly because I need a good, stable and versatile word processor which can and should handle doc & docx formats well (For, I have to write academic papers and I work as an editor). Unfortunately, KOffice/Calligra - KWrite/Words is not very productive at its current state and every time I try it, I have to revert back to OO - Writer because of it having an awful doc to odf conversion, index creation, awful footnotes/endnotes support and incomplete change tracking system. They should focus on improving these features becasue these are the key features of a decent word processor. Other than that I thik KOffice/Calligra is very fast, native and have a great potential. Let's hope the developers won't spoil that potential...

Regards.

[woodsmoke]

Re: Using Kubuntu because of Koffice.

Hi guys, thanks for the comments, and both are valid Koffice does have it's problems and OO is often too much a clone of MSO....

I'm just banging the drum for Koffice in the hopes that more folks might try it!

woodsmoke

[lcorken]

Re: Using Kubuntu because of Koffice.

Hmm. I just copied content from a kate text file to koffice and OOo.
Kword used 6.1KiB and OOoword used 22.8KiB. Big difference but not very rellavent.
Kword put an outline theme in that I haven't figured out yet ,but am curious about.

Fun to play with.

Ken.

[woodsmoke]

Re: Using Kubuntu because of Koffice.

Hi
VERY nice commment I had NOT thought about file size...hmmmmm something to fiddle with...
thanks
woodsmoke

[darkduck]

Re: Using Kubuntu because of Koffice.

Maybe a little offtop:
http://www.go2linux.org/linux/2011/0...-times-3-8-899

[woodsmoke]

Re: Using Kubuntu because of Koffice.

Hi DarkDuk

No, not at all, right ON topic!

Those are very nice write ups.

I would comment on two of your comments and add a third about Kpresenter and compatibility with, ultimately MS ppt.

a)
The comment about Koffice "layout" being "confusing" is a word that I have seen used quite often in reviews.

And, yes, indeedy, I was "confused" at first using Koffice because of the layout.

I "wanted" to use Koffice for quite a while but didn't because of "compatibility problems". When the compatibility with OO was resolved (don't know what version) I sat down to really "use" Koffice and discovered that the whole "panel on the side" thing works very well for me for one really big reason.

For the particular uses that I have there is a greatly reduced amount of "mouse movement".

By that, I mean, that the panel to the right allows one to "swing the mouse" to the right to do most functions that are used a lot as opposed to moving "up and to the left" across the whole "window".

For me, this is a GREAT advantage because I do so much word processing and my hands get numb.

I've written on this at other places and had people comment: "well, you can move the panels and bars wherever you want even with MS products."

I agree, but the "integration" of things is, to me, "cumbersome".

Koffice seems, to me at least, to have put a lot of thought into the layout and the "integration" of things so that they work well and even better, are very "snappy" in response.

So....yes you are spot on in your comment, the layout is, indeed confusing at first.

b) the comment about not having much working room in the word processor window when you rearranged stuff.

Yes, I OFTEN run across that when I am working in several windows the big panel to the right "gets in the way" when multiple windows are open. I tend to use the wordprocessor on the left side of the screen so that the other windows can "lay over it".

c) A comment on exporting(saving as) Koffice presenter files to MS Office ppt.

The real TRICK is to keep the slides VERY SIMPLE.

And that is the real trick to a "presentation" no matter what system is used.

Most teachers I have seen just jam all of their lecture notes onto the slides and the students have to deal with miles and miles of text on a display rather than an overhead projector.

The POINT of a "presentation" is that there is ONE idea on the slide, with maybe a sub idea, and a relevant image of some kind and then the teacher "lectures" ...."around" the information.

One almost cannot go from a MS ppt to OO and then Kpresenter and cannot at all go from MSppt directly to Kpresenter.

All that will be left is possibly the text. Everything else will be gone.

What I do is:

a) start with Kpresenter and have: i) one image ii) one large(paragraph head type thing) sentence and iii) one or two(possibly) smaller sentences. I do not "bullet".

b) This then easily saves to OO Impress with no formatting problems.

c) this then easily saves to .ppt or .pptx.

I know, there are those who say that the woodsmoker is probably OCD about this, but it is my little effort to advocate FOSS.

In about half, maybe, of my presentations I use a "Koffice" background so that the students can often "see the words" and maybe consider using Linux/etc.

But.........no.........SPOT ON linky!!!!

woodsmoke

[darkduck]

Re: Using Kubuntu because of Koffice.

Woodsmoke!
Thanks for comments!
It would be nice if you leave this comment in blog itself!
Maybe go2linux (link above), maybe my blog (http://linuxblog.darkduck.com/2011/0...nd-visits.html)

[woodsmoke]

Re: Using Kubuntu because of Koffice.

Hi Darkduk.

I don't know that my comments are worth that much but I'd be glad to do so if you will be more explicit about which part, or all, of the comment, since it is kinda longish.

woodsmoke

[darkduck]

Re: Using Kubuntu because of Koffice.

Hi Darkduk.

I don't know that my comments are worth that much but I'd be glad to do so if you will be more explicit about which part, or all, of the comment, since it is kinda longish.

woodsmoke

Do you have limits in your copy-paste buffer?

[woodsmoke]

Re: Using Kubuntu because of Koffice.

lol
ok
woodsmoke

[woodsmoke]

Re: Using Kubuntu because of Koffice.

done as done!

I don't know that my comments are worth that much but they are posted for they are worth.

woodsmoke

[darkduck]

Re: Using Kubuntu because of Koffice.

done as done!

Yes, I see that! Thank you very much!
Appreciate!

[darkduck]

Re: Using Kubuntu because of Koffice.

Kontinuing the song...

http://linuxblog.darkduck.com/2011/0...g-in-open.html

[axel668]

Re: Using Kubuntu because of Koffice.

Wow, sometimes threads take really interesting turns :P
@woodsmoke: great that you like Kubuntu and Koffice, happy to hear someone say something nice from time to time

@rest: to add another dimension to this flamewar discussion:

Both KOffice and OpenOffice are doomend (MS Office as well), with "computer" usage fragmenting on different devices (smartphones, tablets, PCs, TV set top boxes, younameit) with every household using several of them in parallel - The future is in web applications like Google Docs&Spreadsheets. A local office suite is getting more and more useless, because the document you need is always on the other device, and setting up syncronization, if possible at all is a major pain to configure.

So don't get too dependent on ANY local office suite, except if you are indeed producing paper - in this case you can just pick the suite you like best, because even if it's forked or development is discontinued, you will still be able to use it for a VERY long time (look at all the people out there who are still happily using KDE 3.5, Office 2003 or Windows XP).