Enterprise open source Toolkit

Closing the Office door on Microsoft

Brien M Posey Tech Republic

Published: 15 Jun 2004 11:20 BST

This means that if you have a Microsoft Office document that you want to convert to OpenOffice, and the document contains macros, you'll have to completely recreate the macros once the conversion process is complete. You can open a Microsoft Office document containing macros into OpenOffice, but the macro code will not do anything. You can view or edit the code, but you can't execute it.

Even though macros are the biggest cause of incompatibilities between Microsoft Office and OpenOffice, there are other types of things that are sometimes included in Microsoft Office documents that tend to cause problems with the conversion process. Other document features that are not supported by OpenOffice vary among document types. For example, a Microsoft Word document may not be converted to an OpenOffice document correctly if it includes AutoShapes, revision marks, OLE objects, indexes, tables, frames, multicolumn formatting, hyperlinks, bookmarks, Microsoft WordArt-based graphics, animated characters, animated text, or certain controls and Microsoft Office form fields.

Likewise, there are also some features that might be found within a Microsoft Excel document that may not convert correctly. These features include AutoShapes, OLE objects, pivot tables, new chart types, conditional formatting, some functions and formulas, and certain controls and Microsoft form fields. There are also restrictions on PowerPoint documents, although there are not as many restrictions for PowerPoint documents as there are for Word and Excel documents. OpenOffice has trouble converting PowerPoint documents that include AutoShapes; tab, line, or paragraph spacing; master background graphics; grouped objects; and certain multimedia effects.

Migrating to OpenOffice
If you have read the previous section regarding OpenOffice's various limitations and you still want to migrate from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice, then there are a few challenges that you'll face. One challenge is the actual deployment process. When you install OpenOffice, the installation program does not offer to uninstall Microsoft Office, and the installer does not attempt to configure OpenOffice based on your Microsoft Office settings.

1 2 3

Did you find this article useful?
126 out of 274 people found this useful

More In Enterprise open source

Company/Topic Alerts

Create a new alert from the list below:

Install Flash Player Plugin

Featured Talkback

Its the applications and device drivers that run on windows that cement its dominance. How many people would fork out hundreds of pounds for Vista if Linux ran all the software and kit they wanted to use.