Neooffice to the rescue!

travisp11 · Red Pill Joined: Dec 27, 2007 Posts: 5

I am noticing more and more of my high school students using the trial bloatware of MS Works and Office 2007. While this is not a bad thing many of them don't realize that these programs are not compatible with earlier versions of Office and none of our school computers have MS Works.

Unfortunately I have numerous students that forget to save their Office 2007 documents under an earlier Office file format only to come to school and find out that they cant be opened or printed.

With Neooffice however, I was able to help one of my students get past that. In a panic he came to me asking if I could print his Word 2007 file for him since none of the other computers in our school could open it. I opened Neooffice on my ancient iBook G3, and his document and a few minutes later we were able to save it under the rich-text format onto his memory stick. Problem solved!

There are several teachers at the high school where I teach that are pushing for more open source software on the computers even though our district spends thousands of dollars every year on new software and updates yet many of us like the simplicity of open office and Neooffice. I have had great luck with both open source programs on my iBook G3 and it is only running at 500mhz. Amazing that such ancient technology is still useful in today's classroom!

sardisson · Town Crier Joined: Feb 01, 2004 Posts: 4588

Glad to hear that Neo is helping you and your students out of those binds Smile

And 500 MHz G3, wow!

Would you mind if we included your post in a future version of our Press Kit?

Smokey

OPENSTEP · Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 12:35 am Post subject:

Thanks for the great heads up. That's awful that people don't realize that trial software means just that, trial. Watch out...if folk use iWork for its 30 day period, there's nothing that can open its native formats yet aside from itself. Similar to the dilemma of folks with lots of old AppleWorks documents Sad

I'm glad that at least we can help some people that are caught unawares and are in the position where they can't really afford unexpected expenses.

ed

Max · Agent Joined: Mar 15, 2006 Posts: 17 Location: UK

Some of us find ALL software a trial...

Wink

Max

yoxi · Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 4:23 am Post subject:

Like magistrates, these things are sent to try us...

travisp11 · Red Pill Joined: Dec 27, 2007 Posts: 5

Feel free to post my message for anyone who wishes to read it. I am a big supporter of open source software in my classroom simply because I teach in a district which has a poverty level around 70%. These kids barely have money for lunch and even much less for overpriced programs. I have directed many students to openoffice and Neooffice for their old PC's and mac's and most of them have had success. Granted there is a slight learning curve with both programs when you have been raised on the Microsoft's Office products in our school district but when you look at the price you pay for open source software, that being nothing, the idea of learning a new program quickly disappears. HMMM..I am thinking that a generous donation to Trinity might be in order!!