On Thu, 13 May 2010 20:17:22 +0100, Orchid XP v8 wrote:

>>> I said (or intended to say) that 5 years ago it was awful, and today
>>> it isn't. It just isn't great either.
>> 
>> Well, I find it is actually pretty good - having used MS Office for
>> several years, I'd say that it's pretty much got feature parity (given
>> that it can import most MS Office documents that I've tried without any
>> issues at all, I'd say that's a pretty good way to tell how useful it
>> is).
> 
> For example, I asked Calc to draw a graph, and spent forever trying to
> figure out how to add a secondary axis. As far as I can tell, they just
> haven't got around to implementing that feature yet.

What do you mean by a "secondary axis"?

> I will say this: The chart options layout is superior to Excel. Far more
> logical grouping, options do what you'd actually expect them to do, etc.

That's one of the nice things about OSS development - when you reach a 
critical mass of developers and get a good group of people who look at 
user needs, you end up with software that can meet the needs of more 
users and provide more options.

>>>> As I said, I use it *every* *single* *day* and it *isn't* awful, it's
>>>> quite good, and I find it provides all the functionality that most
>>>> end users need.
>>> I used it to write my CV.
>>>
>>> All of them.
>> 
>> And?
> 
> Writer works for simple tasks. Sometimes it's quite frustrating trying
> to make it do what you want though. (I can't remember a specific example
> right now.)

There again, I don't have an issue with getting it to do what I want.  
You may be running up against a learning curve (don't expect it to be 
like MS Office, that's a starting point).

>>> As I say, I sometimes use OO for fixing broken MSO documents. (MSO
>>> itself is apparently too stupid to do this.)
>> 
>> Indeed, I remember you mentioning that before.
> 
> Trouble is, it tended to chew up the formatting slightly. (I tried it
> with files that weren't corrupted; same issue. It ate the company logo,
> for example.) I imagine this is something they're probably working on
> improving.

What version have you used?  Have you opened bugs on these issues?

Jim

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