> I do see it's value as a superb free alternative though, but office is
>really worth every penny.
I haven't tried OpenOffice yet, but I probably will soon since for the time being the sole word processor/etc. on my laptop aside from WordPad is... Microsoft Works. I don't know why, the machine came with it. BUT I actually prefer, for the time being, Works to Office, because Office drives me crazy. The word processor I'm USED to using is Corel's WordPerfect suite, and I find it so much easier to use and more streamlined than Word ever will be.
WordPerfect has a much better spelling/grammar checker than Word has ever seemed to, even though I only usually use it to catch a couple mistakes, and overall I feel like I can find features and change attributes FAR more easily in WP. One of the little things that has always bugged me about Word, without even having to use the program to see it, is the way they represent margins. I really hate not being able to see on the page itself where my page is supposed to end if I'm going to have to play around with the margins to get something to fit. WP shows your margins with a light line along them on the page, and makes it very simple to change both vertical and horizontal margins. To my knowledge, Office still has yet to do anything like this, and it feels pretty wonky to type on what looks like an entire page but... has "secret" margins you find when you reach them.
Then again, I pretty much started out using WordPerfect anyway... I think early on I had the choice, though, since I'm currently using an Office 95 CD case (with the CDs still in it, since they haven't been used in ages) as a coaster on my desktop computer, here. I have also almost NEVER found ANY Microsoft program to be very intuitive to me (like IE, Outlook, or-- yep-- the whole Office suite) except for MSN... and even it still feels a little awkward to me. I have no troubles with the operating systems (barring Vista, naturally), but for as long as I can remember I haven't been able to stand using something that's by Microsoft for more than a brief time unless there's no alternative that's better.
That's just my two cents, though. I will go give OpenOffice a shot, anyway! I've been meaning to.
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Yes, I'm female, gaming is my hobby, and I'm going into programming. Not taken, either, but seeing as how the law about girls on the internet is "Single, attractive, sane: choose two"... well...</P>