Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic Microsoft Word (Windows 7)

Mona wrote:

Oops. Sorry about that. If you are referring to my technobabble about virtual machines (VMs), the point may be moot, after all. I did a little more research and found that, at least under the beta version of Windows 7, Word 2000 would run in a VM, but it was *painfully* slow. (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/05/01/windows_7_xp_mode_review/) So that wouldn't have been a good solution, after all.

Yup. That's the bottom line. In any event, it is certainly worth giving OpenOffice a try, since the price is right.

Google Docs is another free option, but it has two drawbacks:

1) You must have a Google account
2) Your documents are all kept online

I personally have both privacy and security concerns about entrusting my documents to Google, but a lot of people do use their service.

cheers,
Lynn

Thank you for the MIL clarification, Carol. There sure are a ton of internet speak abbreviations out there! Lol, I agree with you on '07.

Lynn, hug, no problem. My PC knowledge is some, but basically limited to what I do daily. Yep, can't beat "free." I have to admit though before reading your latest post the temptation was there to try my old '00. I won't. I don't want to take any chances with new pc, that this time is working just fine. One last question, I don't suppose there's a way (to save Hard drive space, especially while I try it out)to only download the Word Processing Component of Open Office?

Enough Office Word-ing for tonight! Now the three of us should relax, meet up for a milkshake or something, better talk than PC.

Mona

/sigh/

I could so do a milkshake! Except that I'm doing a Makeover/Biggest Loser type contest and I can't /cry/.

I'm one of 60 contestants and have 10 weeks to lose as much weight/fat as I can [that's half the points], plus go to 5 meetings/keep a diary/journal [the other half the points]. *IF* I somehow manage to win, I get a personal trainer, nutritionist, shopping spree at the end of a 9mo makeover etc.

So... a virtual milkshake to all of us =D. No calories in those!

I'm with Carol's MIL--I like things to stay the same.

My experience sounds a lot like everyone else's. I had to reload all software after my computer crash last week and my MS Office 2003 (3-computer license) CDs were with my son at college, so I bought a copy of Office 2007. It is driving me crazy--I was trying to complete a project at 3:00am and I had to go through all the menus before I could figure out how to print and save a file! I feel like I am learning a whole new program. My husband, who has never been terribly computer literate, just got a new Windows 7 laptop and he loves the new version of Office. He seems to be learning it a lot more quickly than I am, since he has less to unlearn.

[Edit] Just read what others wrote while I was posting. A milkshake sounds good right now!

You would have to download the installation program for the entire suite; it's about 160 MB in size; that's fairly small by today's standards. And once you have completed the installation, you could delete that program.

After you download it and start to run it, it will ask you whether you wish to make a complete or a custom install. If you choose the latter, you can specify which components of the OpenOffice suite you want to install. "Writer" is their word processor.

And it may be morning here, but a chocolate milkshake still sounds good to me. (I never actually indulge in chocolate until later in the day; but it's never too early to think about it. I can relate to Lois in that regard...) And virtual milkshakes are nice and calorie-free. ;-)

cheers,
Lynn

Carol,

May you be a winner at losing! :-)

cheers,
Lynn

OpenOffice works well and is compatible with Word documents. It has its own file format but you can tell it to save as a doc/docx (Word format) easily.

By the way, WildTangent isn't a virus, it's just considered adware. It shouldn't harm the computer, but it will pop up ads on your screen, and possibly track your usage to target ads to you. It's still bad and its horrible that HP is putting it on computers, but its not ultimately harmful.

I'm a user of OpenOffice and find it more intuitive than Word. I find especially better than Office "Non-descriptive icons only" 07.
Try to explain someone who isn't very computer literate what do with that programme, with older versions one could go "menu A-> submenu B -> toggle switch f", picture description just doesn't work ("Hit the button with Windows logo" "Uh?").

I'd like to fry the person responsible for getting that programme for that user, because it's sure as hell not them who has to the troubleshooting when something is wrong. Not that I think they'd be able to.

But, yes, test drive OpenOffice, try your old Word install, you can always fork over money later.

I have to use Office 2007 at work and don't like it much, but it's usable if you persevere - at home I use Office 2003 under XP, it's also OK under Vista / Windows 7. Office 2000 isn't supported at all any more, and is increasingly unstable under all versions of Windows, so I really can't recommend relying on it.

If you're going to be working on non-Windows PCs e.g. Linux your best bet is definitely Open Office, since it supports pretty much every operating system around. The learning curve can be steep since it sometimes LOOKS like it will behave the same way as Word but doesn't, but for most routine writing purposes it's fine.

Carol, good luck from me, too, in losing.

Cookiesmom and Lynn, chocolate shakes are wonderful things at any time of day! I especially love Rite Aid Mint n Chip Ice Cream blended with Hershey's Syrup and Milk. Yummy stuff.

Karen, thanks for the info on WildTangent. I am still glad this time the Geek Squad removed it before I brought the PC home. This Scan, thankfully, did not find any viruses. Yay.

Chaos and Marcus, thank you both for the added OpenOffice/Word info.

2 questions:

I took a chance and tried my first disk of Office 2000. It was a little slow to download but did so. I tried my Flash Drive, it worked, opened everything on it. (word files) However, when going to the Computer File, it did not seem to register that I had documents on my Flash Drive. I think it said something like 1.86 of 1.86 available. I assumed that meant trouble, so I un-installed.

I then installed OopenOffice. I again tried my Flash Drive, it worked but will not open any of my Word documents. Does this mean I need to re-try the old Office 2000? I was always told that as long as I didn't open Outlook there'd be no trouble with it, if that was the main concern on the old version.

What should I do? I would still prefer to nix O.O. and stick with the old Word because I am familiar with it but again don't want to risk the pc.

Thank you so much (again). I really do appreciate all everyone's advice on this.

Mona