Hi Everyone! My girlfriend and I have been doing various projects for customers over the last week. However, we just became aware of a possible issue with our first customer. We proofread the project's content perfectly before submitting to the customer. Our first issue was with the annoying touch pad on the laptop Jen used to type the projects with. We found it intermittently would dance around if her's, or my hands got lazy from typing. That issue is under control, and shouldn't present a problem again. The big problem is with OpenOffice. This piece of crap WP is terrible. It does not convert to .doc files well at all. We noticed many problems before submitting our projects to the one customer, and hope we corrected them all. However, it was a huge project (15 articles in one day), and we made the mistake of zipping these projects up, in order to make it easier for the customer, and fear the mistakes we just witnessed may have got through to him. He gave a great rating, and said they were wonderful. So we are hoping we may have inadvertently opened the tainted documents since then, thus causing the damage. After that long-winded story...Is there any open source software that converts, or writes in .doc format? I'm used to Word, but we don't have, nor can we afford it right now. Jen wants to keep going, and building up customers, and we need to find something that works well. It only applies to times when a customer wants the documents in file form - which hasn't come up since. Thanks for any advice, Chad
Hi, I use a MacBook and love it totally. For the "doc dilemma" I purchased Microsoft Office for Mac. Four years ago that package cost me $300; last month it cost me $150. Very, very reasonable. And a huge help for my clients - especially since Word now offers the choice of saving your document as a .pdf file. Being able to submit your work to a client in a format that's convenient for the client is (imho) part of being a professional copywriter. Dot
Technically, the problem is actually with the "piece of crap" MS Word and its undocumented doc format (you should see the mess when an incompatible version of Word appears in an office). To solve your problem, you might try Google Docs. I think OpenOffice's native format is ODF. Upload that to Google Docs, then download a Word version. At least you'll have a different flavor of secret sauces.
try abiword wordprecessor its opensource. and is default in puppy linux and its fast. download it here http://www.abisource.com/download/
I have just had a quick look around and I have found these links for you, I hope they maybe of use to you. You don't say whether you are using macs or pc's so here are some links for both. Bean is a simple user-friendly word processor is designed for Mac OS X users. http://www.bean-osx.com/Bean.html KWord is a frame-based Word processor and desktop publisher which can help you create professional layouts. http://www.koffice.org/kword/ NeoOffice software is tailormade for mac users http://www.neooffice.org/neojava/en/index.php NotePad++ a lightweight software is an open source alternative to Microsoft NotePad. http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm RoughDraft Windows, RoughDraft boasts features that make it easier to format creative writing projects, such as novels and screenplays which may appeal to bloggers. http://www.salsbury.f2s.com/rd.htm Scribus is both a word processor and desktop publisher, Scribus can be used with Windows, Mac and Linux. http://www.scribus.net/ yWriter5 this word processor makes it easy to organize large amounts of text. With yWriter5, you can easily lay out your large projects, novels and more. Everything is saved in RTF format, just in case you want to conduct some more editing with a different word processor. http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter5.html It sounds as if you collaborate on your projects together, maybe these might be of some use to one of these programs, so you could share your thoughts together should you have to be away from one another. Zoho Writer http://writer.zoho.com/home?serviceurl=%2Findex.do Writeboard is a text collaboration application from 37Signals. Although it does not have usual formatting tools found in other online word processors, this beast has excellent collaboration and revision tools which could be an excellent tool for students too. http://writeboard.com/ Peepel WebWriter lets you import your documents and spreadsheets into your Peepel account so that you can share files and work on them with your team. Peepel also offers a RSS feed update for revisions of your shared documents. Peepel’s contact manager will organize your members so that you can easily invite them to do specific tasks. http://peepel.com/ Shutterborg is another minimalist word processor with some formatting tools and saving options. http://shutterb.org/ So I hope one of these applications could be of some use to you. Take care for now. Tanya
Thanks to everyone for the advice. Especially you, TanyaPetrena..that is an awesome list to get started with. I've thought about Google docs to SwimFan, I'm just a little leery about having my work stored on their server. I know Google is secure, and I trust them - It just doesn't sit right with me for some reason. I'm going to have a look at Tanya's list and see if anything jumps out to me. Thanks again, Chad
If you want .doc files, you're better off with Microsoft Word. Open source software will not save the file correctly, and even if it where not open source, I think there would still be slight changes in formatting. You could always export PDF through open office. But if you want complete compatibility you should go with Microsoft Word. If you are a college student (or know someone who is) and live in the US, you could get a legitimate copy of Office 2007 for $59.95 directly from Microsoft. Here is a link http://www.microsoft.com/student/discounts/theultimatesteal-us/default.aspx You need a valid university email though.
Another vote for Openoffice here. I love google docs, but it isn't quite as complete as open office. I use it more like a notepad facility than a proper writing tool. Openoffice can read all Microsoft files word files iirc.
I'm going to have to go with Open Office. I did my own comparison test with Open Office and Google Docs. While I like the idea of Google Docs, I just don't like the idea of my docs in the cloud. I dont care if its Google or not. Ill feel much better with things on my own machine.
This may not be what you're looking for, but I have found it helpful to use a program called DarkRoom (URL is they.misled.us/dark-room) to write. It's minimal regarding features, but it's very helpful to avoid distractions. It saves your files in .txt format, which anyone can open in Word and format easily. I say this, even though it's not directly what you asked for, because I have had writers I've hired save work in a supposedly .doc compatible format. Sometimes, when I pull it up in Word, it's still a jumbled mess because of the formatting. In the absence of Word, .txt files are easier to deal with for me and can easily be converted to .doc files. Hope this helps.