Those of you in the business world. What type of office software do you use? I am assuming that most of you use Microsoft Office, correct?

Here is my rant. I am an educator, who teaches computers. We have "free"ware, and it sucks. Microsoft Office taken away from us (money) so that all kids, 9-12, could have a MacBook. We now use NeoOffice, which is a form of OpenOffice.org. There are ABSOLUTELY NO teaching resources (I've found one) when compared to the teaching resources for Microsoft Office. I could have about 20 different classes to teach, if we had Microsoft Office. To me, TEACHING the kids how to use these programs is vital, if they plan to survive in the business world. They ask me to "revamp" the text, whatever, to teach them NeoOffice. If I were to do that, it would take me forever, and it would be a huge disservice to the students, b/c they would not be getting what they should.

Those of you who work in business, own a business, etc. How do you feel about this? If your tax dollars went to buying kids computers, but did not go to actually providing the kids with the resources they need to effectively use the computers, wouldn't you be a little pissed off?

We use Microsoft Office 2003 at work. At home, I split between OpenOffice.org and Microsoft Office XP. They're very similar, and I don't think that teaching on one makes it difficult to learn the other--they're essentially the same thing. If anything, using OOo taught me user styles that made Microsoft Word easier to learn and use.

Office 2007, currently.

A few things i needed to get used to once i switched from 2003, but i love it now.

Especially great for handling large data sets in Excel, much more manageable.

we're still on Microsoft office 2003, and after seeing a comp with 2007 on it, i'm dreading the switch.

For me, NeoOffice is simple to use. But imagine either having to learn it or teach it when you have no resources.

To me, if you ask me to use Microsoft books to teach NeoOffice, it's like teaching you how to fix a Ford with a Toyota Manual.

j_crazy wrote: we're still on Microsoft office 2003, and after seeing a comp with 2007 on it, i'm dreading the switch.

Ditto for us.

Office 2007 at home on Mac
Office 2007 at work
OpenOffice at home on PC

Use Office 2003 at work, and Open Office at home.

Office 2003 at work
Open office at home on Mac

Anyone have an answer to my above question?

"Those of you who work in business, own a business, etc. How do you feel about this? If your tax dollars went to buying kids computers, but did not go to actually providing the kids with the resources they need to effectively use the computers, wouldn't you be a little pissed off?"

"For me, NeoOffice is simple to use. But imagine either having to learn it or teach it when you have no resources.

To me, if you ask me to use Microsoft books to teach NeoOffice, it's like teaching you how to fix a Ford with a Toyota Manual."

ernest_t_bass wrote: Anyone have an answer to my above question?

"Those of you who work in business, own a business, etc. How do you feel about this? If your tax dollars went to buying kids computers, but did not go to actually providing the kids with the resources they need to effectively use the computers, wouldn't you be a little pissed off?"

"For me, NeoOffice is simple to use. But imagine either having to learn it or teach it when you have no resources.

To me, if you ask me to use Microsoft books to teach NeoOffice, it's like teaching you how to fix a Ford with a Toyota Manual."

Not everyone uses Microsoft Office at work. So why worry about teaching them to only use MS Office? They need to be well rounded and learn about software from different vendors and types.

I agree with you 100% You MUST be well rounded. However, when learning/teaching something, don't you think you should first be taught with something that has hundreds of resources? (Microsoft Office)

Once you have learned it, then you can start teaching the troubleshooting end of it. Make sense?

I use MS Office 2007. When the new version comes out next year I'll be upgrading as well.

It's true that your students will be far more likely to use Office (and a PC for that matter) when they get out in the "real world." It seems moronic to switch to Mac's and NeoOffice just to save money because you are doing a huge disservice to the students. I'm beginning to think more and more that computer classes should be a major requirement in high schools just like Math, History, and English.

I work for a software company that does makes software that does MLA and APA formatting. I'd say that at least 95% of the people who use our software are using MS Word. It does amaze me how many college students that I talk to when doing tech support have little to no computer skills.

Also, with APA format, which is what most colleges use, there is an aspect of their formatting that can only be done in MS Word and not in any other word processor. The header is supposed to be formatted differently on the first page than it is on the rest of the pages, and as far as I know you can only do this in MS Word.

It's a great disservice to your students to have them learn anything other than MS Word.

I agree with the above statement! It's all about the $$$ sign right now. SUCKS!

I've been using the Office 2010 Technical Preview for a while and the beta just came out today so I installed that. It's a lot more incremental of an update but I think what they did add is pretty fantastic. Sort of like Vista ---> 7.

I think it would be important to teach them word processing, using spreadsheets and so on. By the time they graduate, whatever they learned on, the version will change significantly. Also, graduated with a business degree and used several different spreadsheet products other than Excel. Knowing the basic layout of those things, the menu bars and being able to think their way through something that isn't exactly what they learned on would be more important than learning a specific brand.

I know a lot of schools are using OpenOffice now. Do you have some kind of professional organization for those that teach the same subjects across the state? I am sure someone out there has create something or knows something you could use.

joehackett... On what software program did you LEARN how to use office tools? I can almost guarantee that almost everyone learned on Microsoft. B/c of what they learned, given the resources to which they had access, they are/were able to troubleshoot other software programs.

I actually learned using Corel products, Word Perfect and Quatro Pro.

Not in a business by any means, but Office 2008 for Mac and iWork '09 at both home and work, and Office 2007 at work, too.

joe.hackett wrote: I actually learned using Corel products, Word Perfect and Quatro Pro.

Yep, I learned those too, but that was in the mid 90's. When I got to college, and I actually learned the in depth stuff, it was all Microsoft.

I work for a Big 4 accounting firm. Needless to say we use Microsoft Office 2007 as I suspect most big businesses do.

I use Microsoft Office Mac edition and also iWorks..

Office 2003 at work, OpenOffice at home. Both do essentially the same thing.

I just downloaded OpenOffice yesterday, my laptop crashed earlier this quarter and I lost my Microsoft Office and didn't have any money to buy another one so I'm gonna give this a try..question: if I typed up a paper on OpenOffice, and emailed it to myself, and opened it on a computer that has Microsoft word, will I be able to open it?

Yes, just save the document as a .docx

You can also save it to a memory stick and load it onto another computer...