I hate MS like pure poison, but....

Rolfe · 14th June 2012, 05:59 PM

But actually I'm quite a fan of PowerPoint.

I'm trying to create a PowerPoint presentation which isn't work-related, but I only have PowerPoint on my work computer, which is putting a crimp in my style. On my home computer I only have a really crappy PowerPoint viewer which displays incredibly badly and doesn't allow viewing of the notes at all.

What's the best and cheapest way to acquire PowerPoint for home use? Needs to be fully functional, and doesn't really need to be the absolutely latest version.

But if it's some deal where I have to acquire Word as well, I'll pass, thank you.

Rolfe.

Gord_in_Toronto · 14th June 2012, 07:20 PM

I have been using LibreOffice extensively for both documents and spreadsheets its seems to be very compatible with Office 2003 and Excel.

I just checked and the presentation component says it saves in a variety of PowerPoint versions. I have used it for a couple of presentations but just kept the LO format.

YMMV & etc.

Sam.I.Am · 14th June 2012, 11:42 PM

Libre Office does a pretty good job, especially for free.

Rolfe · 15th June 2012, 04:03 AM

Thanks for that. I just tried it, and it is indeed a huge improvement over what I had. It's still not perfect though - it's not displaying exactly as it does in PowerPoint - and there is a problem with the notes. I have quite extensive notes in the presentation, and these aren't displaying at all. Blank pages where notes should be.

Any idea why?

Rolfe.

nathan · 15th June 2012, 04:39 AM

Originally Posted by Rolfe

But actually I'm quite a fan of PowerPoint.

That's because PP is the autistic child in a family of ADHD microsoft products. It does /one/ thing and only /one/ thing.

Belz... · 15th June 2012, 04:43 AM

Originally Posted by Rolfe

But actually I'm quite a fan of PowerPoint.

Why do you hate MS so much ? Sure, they've made some crap along the way, but "like pure poison" ?

Rolfe · 15th June 2012, 05:13 AM

In a word, Word.

Rolfe.

BenBurch · 15th June 2012, 05:44 AM

In a decade or so, Microsoft will be gone except for it's office suite, which will have atrophied due to changes in the way work gets done. I'm sure the Apple Store will sell quite a few of them at $19.95.

UNLoVedRebel · 15th June 2012, 05:54 AM

I take it you're not a supporter of this party: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti_PowerPoint_Party

UNLoVedRebel · 15th June 2012, 05:55 AM

Originally Posted by BenBurch

In a decade or so, Microsoft will be gone except for it's office suite, which will have atrophied due to changes in the way work gets done. I'm sure the Apple Store will sell quite a few of them at $19.95.

Yeah, Microsoft doesn't "skate where the puck is going to be" as Jobs would put it.

aggle-rithm · 15th June 2012, 06:17 AM

Originally Posted by nathan

That's because PP is the autistic child in a family of ADHD microsoft products. It does /one/ thing and only /one/ thing.

It's actually because it was developed at another company that was acquired by Microsoft.

Rolfe · 15th June 2012, 08:44 AM

Originally Posted by UNLoVedRebel

I take it you're not a supporter of this party: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti_PowerPoint_Party

That's funny. I just wish it had been around when I was doing my PhD presentations, and then when I was a university teacher. I'm doing higher education teaching again now, and it's an absolute godsend.

I know at least one person who uses it inappropriately, but used well it's magnificent.

Rolfe.

CORed · 15th June 2012, 08:44 AM

Originally Posted by aggle-rithm

It's actually because it was developed at another company that was acquired by Microsoft.

There's quite a bit of "Microsoft" software that fits that description. Including the original DOS.

Rolfe · 15th June 2012, 08:48 AM

Tell me guys, if I create a presentation and then put it online, how will it look to the average punter on their home computer? It looked like hell on my computer, and still looks far from right on Libre Office (because of the missing notes), but I accept I'm not the average punter.

I haven't yet investigated options to lock the thing when it's finished. Is that possible? My goal is either to make the presentation available to read, with what I would be saying if I were presenting it in the notes field, or to record it as a complete slide-show, audio and all. Will that be OK for most viewers?

Rolfe.

anglolawyer · 15th June 2012, 08:50 AM

Originally Posted by Rolfe

In a word, Word.

Rolfe.

What do you use instead of Word (which I use all the time) and why do you hate it so much? I would like to know in case I am missing something as I have a couple of gripes with it (the dictionary does not work properly and the automatic paragraph numbering is fiddly).

SUSpilot · 15th June 2012, 09:10 AM

Try doing parallel columns (like a nicely formatted aviation checklist) in Word. This is something that WordPerfect did beautifully, but the wonks at MS apparently don't think it's something I need or want.*

Queries against large ODBC databases are fun in Access. MS jet runs the query one row at a time if you do it via linked tables. That's great in my shop, where one of the tables is 800 million rows (and then joining to another that's 30 million!). I've learned how to write very efficient SQL queries in pass-through mode, thank you.

And all I want to do sometimes is copy a part of our network map into PowerPoint. Don't help me format it!! Sometimes, it's actually easier to paste it into an Excel spreadsheet and sent it that way...

*ETA: Yes, I know about the trick using tables. But I couldn't get the dot leaders to work across the cells, which would have been nice.

Rolfe · 15th June 2012, 09:26 AM

I use WordPerfect. I worship the ground it treads on.

Rolfe.

Gord_in_Toronto · 15th June 2012, 10:19 AM

Originally Posted by Rolfe

I use WordPerfect. I worship the ground it treads on.

Rolfe.

When WP ignored the MS paradigm and did its own file lists and etc it was great. The closer it moved toward integration with Windose$, the worse it got.

TheL8Elvis · 15th June 2012, 10:28 AM

Originally Posted by anglolawyer

What do you use instead of Word (which I use all the time) and why do you hate it so much? I would like to know in case I am missing something as I have a couple of gripes with it (the dictionary does not work properly and the automatic paragraph numbering is fiddly).

You have the word lawyer in your user name and don't use WP ??

I thought the legal profession was the biggest industry/group still using WP.

jt512 · 15th June 2012, 10:34 AM

Originally Posted by anglolawyer

What do you use instead of Word...

Vim and Latex.

KoihimeNakamura · 15th June 2012, 10:40 AM

Originally Posted by BenBurch

In a decade or so, Microsoft will be gone except for it's office suite, which will have atrophied due to changes in the way work gets done. I'm sure the Apple Store will sell quite a few of them at $19.95.

I really really doubt that.

KoihimeNakamura · 15th June 2012, 10:41 AM

Originally Posted by Gord_in_Toronto

When WP ignored the MS paradigm and did its own file lists and etc it was great. The closer it moved toward integration with Windose$, the worse it got.

Funnily enough, I have the opposite impression. I don't like WordPerfect or most of the xOffice stuff out. I actually really like Word.

.. although I generally don't use it. Most of what I write I spellcheck in Firefox. I have MS Office primarily for OneNote.

Blue Mountain · 15th June 2012, 11:18 AM

Originally Posted by jt512

Vim and Latex.

More accurately, L^AT_EX (and even that's an approximation.)

[/geek]

Floyt · 15th June 2012, 11:28 AM

Originally Posted by Rolfe

Tell me guys, if I create a presentation and then put it online, how will it look to the average punter on their home computer? It looked like hell on my computer, and still looks far from right on Libre Office (because of the missing notes), but I accept I'm not the average punter.

I haven't yet investigated options to lock the thing when it's finished. Is that possible? My goal is either to make the presentation available to read, with what I would be saying if I were presenting it in the notes field, or to record it as a complete slide-show, audio and all. Will that be OK for most viewers?

Rolfe.

Don't know about locking a PowerPoint document, but how about turning it into a PDF document, one slide per page? Then people can page through it in page-per-screen mode as if it were a slide presentation, and it's also tamper-proof.

BenBurch · 15th June 2012, 11:30 AM

Originally Posted by KoihimeNakamura

I really really doubt that.

OK, I was being optimistic. It's far more likely that IBM will buy their remains for the patent portfolio and sell off the still-marketable bits of software to somebody like Oracle.

Elaedith · 15th June 2012, 11:33 AM

Originally Posted by Rolfe

But actually I'm quite a fan of PowerPoint.

I'm trying to create a PowerPoint presentation which isn't work-related, but I only have PowerPoint on my work computer, which is putting a crimp in my style. On my home computer I only have a really crappy PowerPoint viewer which displays incredibly badly and doesn't allow viewing of the notes at all.

What's the best and cheapest way to acquire PowerPoint for home use? Needs to be fully functional, and doesn't really need to be the absolutely latest version.

But if it's some deal where I have to acquire Word as well, I'll pass, thank you.

Rolfe.

Is it possible to use the OpenOffice version and save it in PowerPoint format?

KoihimeNakamura · 15th June 2012, 12:02 PM

Originally Posted by BenBurch

OK, I was being optimistic. It's far more likely that IBM will buy their remains for the patent portfolio and sell off the still-marketable bits of software to somebody like Oracle.

I don't think that's likely either.

Belz... · 15th June 2012, 12:14 PM

Originally Posted by Rolfe

In a word, Word.

Rolfe.

Well, I don't use Word much.

nathan · 15th June 2012, 01:46 PM

Originally Posted by Elaedith

Is it possible to use the OpenOffice version and save it in PowerPoint format?

It's not accurate enough to view with the other program, unfortunately.

zooterkin · 15th June 2012, 02:17 PM

Originally Posted by Blue Mountain

More accurately, L^AT_EX (and even that's an approximation.)

[/geek]

$\LaTeX$

/nerd

jt512 · 15th June 2012, 02:25 PM

Originally Posted by Blue Mountain

More accurately, L^AT_EX (and even that's an approximation.)

[/geek]

$\LaTeX$

Oops. Beaten to the punch.

Rolfe · 15th June 2012, 02:34 PM

Originally Posted by Floyt

Don't know about locking a PowerPoint document, but how about turning it into a PDF document, one slide per page? Then people can page through it in page-per-screen mode as if it were a slide presentation, and it's also tamper-proof.

My difficulty at the moment is the notes pages. The content of the actual slides is obviously only a framework supporting the presentation. Given as a live presentation it would have me explaining a lot of stuff on top of the slides, and even some places where elements fly in during the explanation.

However, I may not be able to do it as a live gig at all, and in any case the audience would be limited. I need to be able to present the text as well as the slides online, for people to access as and when they want to. I could try recording it in audio format in real time, but in a way it would be more useful to use the notes field for that.

PowerPoint itself is very good in that way. You can just look at the slides if you want to, or you can open up the notes field and read the detailed explanation. Libre Office isn't playing that game. The position of the notes pages is bizarre, and anyway they're showing up blank.

I've been using printouts from PowerPoint with the notes pages, which are very good as hard copy - slides at the top, and then the programme formats the notes to fit on the rest of the A4 page. That would be excellent as a PDF, but I don't know a way to save in that format.

Actually, I suppose my problem is two-fold. One is working on the presentation at home, without PowerPoint on my computer. To be honest Libre Office isn't cutting it - it's no better than what I was doing, which was just typing into WordPerfect, then swiping that off a memory stick into PowerPoint at work. The other is figuring out how anyone might access the finished presentation once I put it online.

If nearly everyone has the real PowerPoint on their computers, the latter solves itself, really. I'm coming to the conclusion I need to get PowerPoint itself on my own computer though.

Can anyone recommend an inexpensive way of doing that?

Rolfe.

anglolawyer · 15th June 2012, 02:42 PM

Originally Posted by TheL8Elvis

You have the word lawyer in your user name and don't use WP ??

I thought the legal profession was the biggest industry/group still using WP.

I have used Word since 1994 (on a Mac). It's OK (guess I am used to it by now) I suppose but they seem to have trouble making the dictionary work. I like to add proper names to my dictionary so I can see mis-spellings at once but in every other iteration of the software this feature does not work. Why?

Can anyone say what's so great WP? Might give it a go.

Rolfe · 15th June 2012, 03:10 PM

I began on Word on a Mac in about 1991 or 1992, but very soon switched to WP for Windows on a PC.

WP is much, much more intuitive than Word. I almost never need to look anything up, I can find out how to do what I want to do by scanning the menus, or just trial and error.

WP does what you tell it to do, not what it thinks you ought to be doing. When I use Word it's always trying to change my font or my formatting or anything else that takes its fancy. WP does as it's told.

WP has a fantastic feature called "reveal codes". A field that allows you to see and edit every single code in the document. So if it is doing something you don't like, you can look at the codes, find out why, and zap it. Basically the codes work very much like html - italics on/italics off, and so on.

The result is much more compact files, by the way. The full wordprocessed document is usually not much larger than the text would be as a simple text file.

You can drag your margins anywhere you want and they'll go there and stay there. It does parallel columns. (I thought I just hadn't found the right command for that in Word, I am gobsmacked it doesn't do it.) Although the default customisation tends to look uncomfortably like Word these days, you can soon get rid of that. It even lets you customise all your menu buttons so they have actual words rather than those stupid icons.

Did I mention it's intuitive?

It's the cat's pyjamas.

Rolfe.

Gord_in_Toronto · 15th June 2012, 03:55 PM

Originally Posted by Rolfe

I began on Word on a Mac in about 1991 or 1992, but very soon switched to WP for Windows on a PC.

WP is much, much more intuitive than Word. I almost never need to look anything up, I can find out how to do what I want to do by scanning the menus, or just trial and error.

WP does what you tell it to do, not what it thinks you ought to be doing. When I use Word it's always trying to change my font or my formatting or anything else that takes its fancy. WP does as it's told.

WP has a fantastic feature called "reveal codes". A field that allows you to see and edit every single code in the document. So if it is doing something you don't like, you can look at the codes, find out why, and zap it. Basically the codes work very much like html - italics on/italics off, and so on.

The result is much more compact files, by the way. The full wordprocessed document is usually not much larger than the text would be as a simple text file.

You can drag your margins anywhere you want and they'll go there and stay there. It does parallel columns. (I thought I just hadn't found the right command for that in Word, I am gobsmacked it doesn't do it.) Although the default customisation tends to look uncomfortably like Word these days, you can soon get rid of that. It even lets you customise all your menu buttons so they have actual words rather than those stupid icons.

Did I mention it's intuitive?

It's the cat's pyjamas.

Rolfe.

And don't forget copying blocks of text (if newer versions still do that).

Rolfe · 15th June 2012, 04:07 PM

Yes, well, we were talking about getting me a cheap copy of PowerPoint for home use. I see MS wants about £120 for it, which is daylight robbery.

I can always figure out how to get on my office Thin Client online and use the bloody programme that way. I don't suppose IT will give me a local copy on my own PC even if I beg....

Rolfe.

BenBurch · 15th June 2012, 04:18 PM

Can you still buy WordPerfect?

Darat · 15th June 2012, 04:21 PM

Yep - http://www.corel.com/corel/category....cat=cat3430081 but it's daylight robbery how much they want for it...

Rolfe · 15th June 2012, 04:33 PM

I seem to remember it turned out much cheaper than the headline price, once I got into the details. They weren't impressed by my position that it was an upgrade from WP7 (which it was), but somehow it became an upgrade from MS Works, which I got with my computer whether I liked it or not. And of course that's the price for the whole caboodle, not just one element. (I agree its presentations element sucks asteroids.)

My God are they on X6 now? I swear it's only five minutes since I upgraded from 7 to X4 (14, basically).

Rolfe.

Rolfe · 15th June 2012, 04:37 PM

Good grief, Darat, go away. I'm now considering upgrading to X6, when I had no such thought in my head five minutes ago.

Built-in eBook publishing now.... I'm drooling....

Rolfe.

14th June 2012, 05:59 PM	#1
Rolfe Anti-homeopathy illuminati member Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: NT 150 511 Posts: 34,340	I hate MS like pure poison, but.... But actually I'm quite a fan of PowerPoint. I'm trying to create a PowerPoint presentation which isn't work-related, but I only have PowerPoint on my work computer, which is putting a crimp in my style. On my home computer I only have a really crappy PowerPoint viewer which displays incredibly badly and doesn't allow viewing of the notes at all. What's the best and cheapest way to acquire PowerPoint for home use? Needs to be fully functional, and doesn't really need to be the absolutely latest version. But if it's some deal where I have to acquire Word as well, I'll pass, thank you. Rolfe.
	__________________ "The way we vote will depend, ultimately, on whether we are persuaded to hope or to fear." - Aonghas MacNeacail, June 2012.

14th June 2012, 07:20 PM	#2
Gord_in_Toronto Penultimate Amazing Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 13,418	I have been using LibreOffice extensively for both documents and spreadsheets its seems to be very compatible with Office 2003 and Excel. I just checked and the presentation component says it saves in a variety of PowerPoint versions. I have used it for a couple of presentations but just kept the LO format. YMMV & etc.
	__________________ "Reality is what's left when you cease to believe." Philip K. Dick

14th June 2012, 11:42 PM	#3
Sam.I.Am Illuminator Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Hunting Moose and Squirrel Posts: 4,154	Libre Office does a pretty good job, especially for free.
	__________________ "Swift, silent and deadly" was a part of my job description Upon hearing me say that my friend asked me "So you're a fart?"... About my avatar.

15th June 2012, 04:03 AM	#4
Rolfe Anti-homeopathy illuminati member Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: NT 150 511 Posts: 34,340	Thanks for that. I just tried it, and it is indeed a huge improvement over what I had. It's still not perfect though - it's not displaying exactly as it does in PowerPoint - and there is a problem with the notes. I have quite extensive notes in the presentation, and these aren't displaying at all. Blank pages where notes should be. Any idea why? Rolfe.
	__________________ "The way we vote will depend, ultimately, on whether we are persuaded to hope or to fear." - Aonghas MacNeacail, June 2012.

15th June 2012, 04:39 AM	#5
nathan Zygoticly Phased Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Arkham City Posts: 3,169	Originally Posted by Rolfe But actually I'm quite a fan of PowerPoint. That's because PP is the autistic child in a family of ADHD microsoft products. It does /one/ thing and only /one/ thing.
	__________________ Crank works have one advantage: they don't really lose anything in translation. Skeptic That's the beauty of Paranormal claims - there are no failures, only newly discovered restrictions on the ability. Ashles

15th June 2012, 04:43 AM	#6
Belz... Fiend God Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: In the details... Posts: 28,531	Originally Posted by Rolfe But actually I'm quite a fan of PowerPoint. Why do you hate MS so much ? Sure, they've made some crap along the way, but "like pure poison" ?
	__________________ The Onmyouza Theatre, An unofficial international fanclub forum dedicated to the Japanese heavy metal band Onmyo-Za: "In the interests of time and space, it is not unreasonable to cite one point at a time. Citing 30 is the equivalent of citing none. Obviously." - Robert Prey "Physical evidence must be observed and interpreted by witnesses which makes it subjective and subject to mistakes and to fraud." - Robert Prey

15th June 2012, 05:13 AM	#7
Rolfe Anti-homeopathy illuminati member Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: NT 150 511 Posts: 34,340	In a word, Word. Rolfe.
	__________________ "The way we vote will depend, ultimately, on whether we are persuaded to hope or to fear." - Aonghas MacNeacail, June 2012.

15th June 2012, 05:44 AM	#8
BenBurch Gatekeeper of The Left Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: The Universe 35.2 ms ahead of this one. Posts: 32,219	In a decade or so, Microsoft will be gone except for it's office suite, which will have atrophied due to changes in the way work gets done. I'm sure the Apple Store will sell quite a few of them at $19.95.
	__________________ Are you IN? Join the IN crowd now!

15th June 2012, 05:54 AM	#9
UNLoVedRebel Hard Knocks Doctorate Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: School of Hard Knocks Posts: 5,507	I take it you're not a supporter of this party: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti_PowerPoint_Party
	__________________ "All the Officialiers here typically have rancid alien avatars or else some kind of violent military-type avatar. Once again affirming my contention that 9/11 Officialiers are the most violent, murderous, group of people in the United States. Both statistically confirmed, but also anecdotally affirmed in almost every case of active pro-Officialers." - FloydGoethe

15th June 2012, 05:55 AM	#10
UNLoVedRebel Hard Knocks Doctorate Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: School of Hard Knocks Posts: 5,507	Originally Posted by BenBurch In a decade or so, Microsoft will be gone except for it's office suite, which will have atrophied due to changes in the way work gets done. I'm sure the Apple Store will sell quite a few of them at $19.95. Yeah, Microsoft doesn't "skate where the puck is going to be" as Jobs would put it.
	__________________ "All the Officialiers here typically have rancid alien avatars or else some kind of violent military-type avatar. Once again affirming my contention that 9/11 Officialiers are the most violent, murderous, group of people in the United States. Both statistically confirmed, but also anecdotally affirmed in almost every case of active pro-Officialers." - FloydGoethe

15th June 2012, 06:17 AM	#11
aggle-rithm Ardent Formulist Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Austin, TX Posts: 14,156	Originally Posted by nathan That's because PP is the autistic child in a family of ADHD microsoft products. It does /one/ thing and only /one/ thing. It's actually because it was developed at another company that was acquired by Microsoft.
	__________________ To understand recursion, you must first understand recursion. Woo's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be adequately explained by aliens.

15th June 2012, 08:44 AM	#12
Rolfe Anti-homeopathy illuminati member Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: NT 150 511 Posts: 34,340	Originally Posted by UNLoVedRebel I take it you're not a supporter of this party: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti_PowerPoint_Party That's funny. I just wish it had been around when I was doing my PhD presentations, and then when I was a university teacher. I'm doing higher education teaching again now, and it's an absolute godsend. I know at least one person who uses it inappropriately, but used well it's magnificent. Rolfe.
	__________________ "The way we vote will depend, ultimately, on whether we are persuaded to hope or to fear." - Aonghas MacNeacail, June 2012.

15th June 2012, 08:44 AM	#13
CORed Illuminator Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 4,292	Originally Posted by aggle-rithm It's actually because it was developed at another company that was acquired by Microsoft. There's quite a bit of "Microsoft" software that fits that description. Including the original DOS.
CORed Illuminator Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 4,292

15th June 2012, 08:48 AM	#14
Rolfe Anti-homeopathy illuminati member Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: NT 150 511 Posts: 34,340	Tell me guys, if I create a presentation and then put it online, how will it look to the average punter on their home computer? It looked like hell on my computer, and still looks far from right on Libre Office (because of the missing notes), but I accept I'm not the average punter. I haven't yet investigated options to lock the thing when it's finished. Is that possible? My goal is either to make the presentation available to read, with what I would be saying if I were presenting it in the notes field, or to record it as a complete slide-show, audio and all. Will that be OK for most viewers? Rolfe.
	__________________ "The way we vote will depend, ultimately, on whether we are persuaded to hope or to fear." - Aonghas MacNeacail, June 2012.

15th June 2012, 08:50 AM	#15
anglolawyer Illuminator Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: surrey, england Posts: 3,305	Originally Posted by Rolfe In a word, Word. Rolfe. What do you use instead of Word (which I use all the time) and why do you hate it so much? I would like to know in case I am missing something as I have a couple of gripes with it (the dictionary does not work properly and the automatic paragraph numbering is fiddly).

15th June 2012, 09:10 AM	#16
SUSpilot Muse Join Date: Sep 2011 Posts: 690	Try doing parallel columns (like a nicely formatted aviation checklist) in Word. This is something that WordPerfect did beautifully, but the wonks at MS apparently don't think it's something I need or want.* Queries against large ODBC databases are fun in Access. MS jet runs the query one row at a time if you do it via linked tables. That's great in my shop, where one of the tables is 800 million rows (and then joining to another that's 30 million!). I've learned how to write very efficient SQL queries in pass-through mode, thank you. And all I want to do sometimes is copy a part of our network map into PowerPoint. Don't help me format it!! Sometimes, it's actually easier to paste it into an Excel spreadsheet and sent it that way... *ETA: Yes, I know about the trick using tables. But I couldn't get the dot leaders to work across the cells, which would have been nice.
SUSpilot Muse Join Date: Sep 2011 Posts: 690	Last edited by SUSpilot; 15th June 2012 at 09:17 AM.

15th June 2012, 09:26 AM	#17
Rolfe Anti-homeopathy illuminati member Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: NT 150 511 Posts: 34,340	I use WordPerfect. I worship the ground it treads on. Rolfe.
	__________________ "The way we vote will depend, ultimately, on whether we are persuaded to hope or to fear." - Aonghas MacNeacail, June 2012.

15th June 2012, 10:19 AM	#18
Gord_in_Toronto Penultimate Amazing Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 13,418	Originally Posted by Rolfe I use WordPerfect. I worship the ground it treads on. Rolfe. When WP ignored the MS paradigm and did its own file lists and etc it was great. The closer it moved toward integration with Windose$, the worse it got.
	__________________ "Reality is what's left when you cease to believe." Philip K. Dick

15th June 2012, 10:28 AM	#19
TheL8Elvis Illuminator Join Date: May 2011 Posts: 3,526	Originally Posted by anglolawyer What do you use instead of Word (which I use all the time) and why do you hate it so much? I would like to know in case I am missing something as I have a couple of gripes with it (the dictionary does not work properly and the automatic paragraph numbering is fiddly). You have the word lawyer in your user name and don't use WP ?? I thought the legal profession was the biggest industry/group still using WP.
TheL8Elvis Illuminator Join Date: May 2011 Posts: 3,526

15th June 2012, 10:34 AM	#20
jt512 Critical Thinker Join Date: Sep 2011 Posts: 389	Originally Posted by anglolawyer What do you use instead of Word... Vim and Latex.
jt512 Critical Thinker Join Date: Sep 2011 Posts: 389

15th June 2012, 10:40 AM	#21
KoihimeNakamura Creativity Murderer Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Graham, WA Posts: 6,867	Originally Posted by BenBurch In a decade or so, Microsoft will be gone except for it's office suite, which will have atrophied due to changes in the way work gets done. I'm sure the Apple Store will sell quite a few of them at $19.95. I really really doubt that.
	__________________ Don't mind me.

15th June 2012, 10:41 AM	#22
KoihimeNakamura Creativity Murderer Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Graham, WA Posts: 6,867	Originally Posted by Gord_in_Toronto When WP ignored the MS paradigm and did its own file lists and etc it was great. The closer it moved toward integration with Windose$, the worse it got. Funnily enough, I have the opposite impression. I don't like WordPerfect or most of the xOffice stuff out. I actually really like Word. .. although I generally don't use it. Most of what I write I spellcheck in Firefox. I have MS Office primarily for OneNote.
	__________________ Don't mind me.

15th June 2012, 11:18 AM	#23
Blue Mountain Resident Skeptical Hobbit Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Waging war on woo-woo in Winnipeg Posts: 3,642	Originally Posted by jt512 Vim and Latex. More accurately, L^AT_EX (and even that's an approximation.) [/geek]
	__________________ The social illusion reigns to-day upon all the heaped-up ruins of the past, and to it belongs the future. The masses have never thirsted after truth. They turn aside from evidence that is not to their taste, preferring to deify error, if error seduce them. Gustav Le Bon, The Crowd, 1895 (from the French) Canadian or living in Canada? PM me if you want an entry on the list of Canadians on the forum.

15th June 2012, 11:28 AM	#24
Floyt Chordate Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Cape Town! Not mugged yet. Looking for chameleons. Posts: 1,428	Originally Posted by Rolfe Tell me guys, if I create a presentation and then put it online, how will it look to the average punter on their home computer? It looked like hell on my computer, and still looks far from right on Libre Office (because of the missing notes), but I accept I'm not the average punter. I haven't yet investigated options to lock the thing when it's finished. Is that possible? My goal is either to make the presentation available to read, with what I would be saying if I were presenting it in the notes field, or to record it as a complete slide-show, audio and all. Will that be OK for most viewers? Rolfe. Don't know about locking a PowerPoint document, but how about turning it into a PDF document, one slide per page? Then people can page through it in page-per-screen mode as if it were a slide presentation, and it's also tamper-proof.
	__________________ They had no god; they had no gods; they had no faith. What they appear to have had is a working metaphor. - Ursula K. Le Guin, "Always Coming Home"

15th June 2012, 11:30 AM	#25
BenBurch Gatekeeper of The Left Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: The Universe 35.2 ms ahead of this one. Posts: 32,219	Originally Posted by KoihimeNakamura I really really doubt that. OK, I was being optimistic. It's far more likely that IBM will buy their remains for the patent portfolio and sell off the still-marketable bits of software to somebody like Oracle.
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15th June 2012, 11:33 AM	#26
Elaedith Critical Thinker Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 467	Originally Posted by Rolfe But actually I'm quite a fan of PowerPoint. I'm trying to create a PowerPoint presentation which isn't work-related, but I only have PowerPoint on my work computer, which is putting a crimp in my style. On my home computer I only have a really crappy PowerPoint viewer which displays incredibly badly and doesn't allow viewing of the notes at all. What's the best and cheapest way to acquire PowerPoint for home use? Needs to be fully functional, and doesn't really need to be the absolutely latest version. But if it's some deal where I have to acquire Word as well, I'll pass, thank you. Rolfe. Is it possible to use the OpenOffice version and save it in PowerPoint format?
Elaedith Critical Thinker Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 467

15th June 2012, 12:02 PM	#27
KoihimeNakamura Creativity Murderer Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Graham, WA Posts: 6,867	Originally Posted by BenBurch OK, I was being optimistic. It's far more likely that IBM will buy their remains for the patent portfolio and sell off the still-marketable bits of software to somebody like Oracle. I don't think that's likely either.
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15th June 2012, 12:14 PM	#28
Belz... Fiend God Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: In the details... Posts: 28,531	Originally Posted by Rolfe In a word, Word. Rolfe. Well, I don't use Word much.
	__________________ The Onmyouza Theatre, An unofficial international fanclub forum dedicated to the Japanese heavy metal band Onmyo-Za: "In the interests of time and space, it is not unreasonable to cite one point at a time. Citing 30 is the equivalent of citing none. Obviously." - Robert Prey "Physical evidence must be observed and interpreted by witnesses which makes it subjective and subject to mistakes and to fraud." - Robert Prey

15th June 2012, 01:46 PM	#29
nathan Zygoticly Phased Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Arkham City Posts: 3,169	Originally Posted by Elaedith Is it possible to use the OpenOffice version and save it in PowerPoint format? It's not accurate enough to view with the other program, unfortunately.
	__________________ Crank works have one advantage: they don't really lose anything in translation. Skeptic That's the beauty of Paranormal claims - there are no failures, only newly discovered restrictions on the ability. Ashles

15th June 2012, 02:17 PM	#30
zooterkin Nitpicking dilettante Moderator Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Berkshire, mostly Posts: 24,600	Originally Posted by Blue Mountain More accurately, L^AT_EX (and even that's an approximation.) [/geek] $\LaTeX$ /nerd
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15th June 2012, 02:25 PM	#31
jt512 Critical Thinker Join Date: Sep 2011 Posts: 389	Originally Posted by Blue Mountain More accurately, L^AT_EX (and even that's an approximation.) [/geek] $\LaTeX$ Oops. Beaten to the punch.
jt512 Critical Thinker Join Date: Sep 2011 Posts: 389

15th June 2012, 02:34 PM	#32
Rolfe Anti-homeopathy illuminati member Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: NT 150 511 Posts: 34,340	Originally Posted by Floyt Don't know about locking a PowerPoint document, but how about turning it into a PDF document, one slide per page? Then people can page through it in page-per-screen mode as if it were a slide presentation, and it's also tamper-proof. My difficulty at the moment is the notes pages. The content of the actual slides is obviously only a framework supporting the presentation. Given as a live presentation it would have me explaining a lot of stuff on top of the slides, and even some places where elements fly in during the explanation. However, I may not be able to do it as a live gig at all, and in any case the audience would be limited. I need to be able to present the text as well as the slides online, for people to access as and when they want to. I could try recording it in audio format in real time, but in a way it would be more useful to use the notes field for that. PowerPoint itself is very good in that way. You can just look at the slides if you want to, or you can open up the notes field and read the detailed explanation. Libre Office isn't playing that game. The position of the notes pages is bizarre, and anyway they're showing up blank. I've been using printouts from PowerPoint with the notes pages, which are very good as hard copy - slides at the top, and then the programme formats the notes to fit on the rest of the A4 page. That would be excellent as a PDF, but I don't know a way to save in that format. Actually, I suppose my problem is two-fold. One is working on the presentation at home, without PowerPoint on my computer. To be honest Libre Office isn't cutting it - it's no better than what I was doing, which was just typing into WordPerfect, then swiping that off a memory stick into PowerPoint at work. The other is figuring out how anyone might access the finished presentation once I put it online. If nearly everyone has the real PowerPoint on their computers, the latter solves itself, really. I'm coming to the conclusion I need to get PowerPoint itself on my own computer though. Can anyone recommend an inexpensive way of doing that? Rolfe.
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15th June 2012, 02:42 PM	#33
anglolawyer Illuminator Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: surrey, england Posts: 3,305	Originally Posted by TheL8Elvis You have the word lawyer in your user name and don't use WP ?? I thought the legal profession was the biggest industry/group still using WP. I have used Word since 1994 (on a Mac). It's OK (guess I am used to it by now) I suppose but they seem to have trouble making the dictionary work. I like to add proper names to my dictionary so I can see mis-spellings at once but in every other iteration of the software this feature does not work. Why? Can anyone say what's so great WP? Might give it a go.

15th June 2012, 03:10 PM	#34
Rolfe Anti-homeopathy illuminati member Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: NT 150 511 Posts: 34,340	I began on Word on a Mac in about 1991 or 1992, but very soon switched to WP for Windows on a PC. WP is much, much more intuitive than Word. I almost never need to look anything up, I can find out how to do what I want to do by scanning the menus, or just trial and error. WP does what you tell it to do, not what it thinks you ought to be doing. When I use Word it's always trying to change my font or my formatting or anything else that takes its fancy. WP does as it's told. WP has a fantastic feature called "reveal codes". A field that allows you to see and edit every single code in the document. So if it is doing something you don't like, you can look at the codes, find out why, and zap it. Basically the codes work very much like html - italics on/italics off, and so on. The result is much more compact files, by the way. The full wordprocessed document is usually not much larger than the text would be as a simple text file. You can drag your margins anywhere you want and they'll go there and stay there. It does parallel columns. (I thought I just hadn't found the right command for that in Word, I am gobsmacked it doesn't do it.) Although the default customisation tends to look uncomfortably like Word these days, you can soon get rid of that. It even lets you customise all your menu buttons so they have actual words rather than those stupid icons. Did I mention it's intuitive? It's the cat's pyjamas. Rolfe.
	__________________ "The way we vote will depend, ultimately, on whether we are persuaded to hope or to fear." - Aonghas MacNeacail, June 2012.

15th June 2012, 03:55 PM	#35
Gord_in_Toronto Penultimate Amazing Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 13,418	Originally Posted by Rolfe I began on Word on a Mac in about 1991 or 1992, but very soon switched to WP for Windows on a PC. WP is much, much more intuitive than Word. I almost never need to look anything up, I can find out how to do what I want to do by scanning the menus, or just trial and error. WP does what you tell it to do, not what it thinks you ought to be doing. When I use Word it's always trying to change my font or my formatting or anything else that takes its fancy. WP does as it's told. WP has a fantastic feature called "reveal codes". A field that allows you to see and edit every single code in the document. So if it is doing something you don't like, you can look at the codes, find out why, and zap it. Basically the codes work very much like html - italics on/italics off, and so on. The result is much more compact files, by the way. The full wordprocessed document is usually not much larger than the text would be as a simple text file. You can drag your margins anywhere you want and they'll go there and stay there. It does parallel columns. (I thought I just hadn't found the right command for that in Word, I am gobsmacked it doesn't do it.) Although the default customisation tends to look uncomfortably like Word these days, you can soon get rid of that. It even lets you customise all your menu buttons so they have actual words rather than those stupid icons. Did I mention it's intuitive? It's the cat's pyjamas. Rolfe. And don't forget copying blocks of text (if newer versions still do that).
	__________________ "Reality is what's left when you cease to believe." Philip K. Dick