Re: Open Office v1.1.5 - 1st Review

© The OS/2 Guy © wrote: 
Spreadsheet

I tried to duplicate a medium-sized spreadsheet.  This was my second
attempt as the first spreadsheet was apparently too large.  I was able
to create the newer spreadsheet and again had problems formatting it.
The drop down menus are absolute hell to deal with because they refuse
to stay viewable long enough to select your feature or option.  This is
more than annoying - it is detrimental.  I couldn't get the spreadsheet
title to center despite the fact that I was able to merge ten cells,
typing and highlighting the title and then selecting the "center"
option from the Alignment menu (which took nine tries before I was able
to get the drop down menu to stay put long enough to select the center
option).

Again the entire program went into a deep freeze when I tried to create
a chart from the simple data collected.  A minute later the entire OS/2
system froze causing a full reboot.  When I came back to OOo v1.1.5 I
received a message declaring the spreadsheet had been saved and asking
if I wanted to bring it back.  I said yes.  It came up and the chart
appeared partially before the program froze once again, followed the
the full system freeze.

I gave up and moved on to the next interesting program:

Presentation Program

I spent a couple of hours with the Presentation program and was
disappointed.

I downloaded some simple Power Point presentations and they did run
without problems.  I tried to edit these presentations by adding  new
pictures and different text without a problem.  I then wanted to add
some sound effects and that function failed to work entirely.  I could
bring up the gallery of sounds and insert them as a link but they would
not preview in the gallery (play) or within the presentation itself
when it was run.  I could open the drive/directory and click on the
sounds and they would play (and some were pretty cool) but I could not
get them to work in a Power Point Presentation or in a
presentation made specifically for Open Office.

I came to the conclusion that the Presentation Program of Open Office
will play Power Point Presentations but it will not give the user the
sound functions.  It may just be my own system but I doubt it since I
can play the sounds outside of OO.

Animations worked.  These are the features that drag or dissolve the
pages.  Adding graphics was a nightmare using the drop down menus
because those menus will not stay open long enough to select the
options I needed.

The failure of the drop down menus to barely work is my biggest
complaint.  You cannot keep them open long enough to get to the feature
or option you need.  Example: to insert a graphic you click on the drop
down menu.  You'll find the graphic function near the bottom of the
menu.  If you can make it that far before the menu collapses then
you've got to get it to open a side menu with more options (insert file
from directory, insert file from gallery, etc).  99 out of 100 times
you can never make it that far before the menu collapses and you have
to start over and over and over - to complete frustration.

Text Document (Word Processor)

This was another disappointment.  I decided to try a three column
landscaped brochure or flyer type document.  The column maker worked
nicely but again the drop down menu failure made the job extremely
difficult.  I tried changing fonts and that was a major chore with the
drop down menus.  Adding a graphic happened by sheer luck using the
drop down menu after many tries.  Once I got that graphic in place I
was able to put a border around it, something I wasn't able to do with
the Presentation program (I couldn't find an option to add a border).

I was unable to move from column to column and not sure why this was
such a chore, perhaps there is an option in the column setup. To move I
had to type additional text until it ran off the bottom and wrapped to
the next column.  I was never able to get a second graphic from the
drop down menus into the second column but I was able to copy the first
graphic and drag it over.  Once there I was hoping I could find an easy
way to click on it and change it to another graphic.  No way Jose.  The
only way I could change the graphic was to try and use that flaky drop
down menu and actually insert a different graphic then delete the
copied graphic.

After several minutes I grew so frustrated I said to hell with it.

Once the document was created I saved it in three different formats:
Open Office format, WordXP format and RTF.  I then opened up SmartSuite
and called each of the documents up.  The OO formatted document would
not open (naturally).  The WordXP formatted document did open without
graphics with an error message stating the graphics were in an
unreadable format (they were jpgs for God sakes!).  The RTF document
opened but again without jpgs although I found a jpg with the same
filename with a number added to it ending in jpg extension.  Perhaps I
was supposed to import it back in and it was an exact copy of the
graphic I originally used.  Although not an ideal RTF solution at least
OO provided me with the option whereas with the DOC format there was no
such graphic.  I know the RTF graphic was for RTF because it had the
file name I used for the RTF document along with an additional number
(testoortf_rtf_3b765af.jpg).

Here are my thoughts on Open Office for OS/2 v1.1.5.

It is by no means worth the $49 Innotek is charging.  I have no idea
how the suite  performs under Windows or Linux but I know that it is a
dismal failure for the OS/2 user.

Oh wait.  I *was* impressed with the fact that it did export to pdf and
did so well, including the graphics.  So that's a plus.  The only thing
good about OOo v1.1.5 for OS/2 is its ability to view a Power Point
Presentation (limited, with no sound tho') and the PDF conversion
feature.

If those two features are worth $49 to you then by all means buy it.
Remember tho', you'd better have SS/2 or some other group of Word
Processing and Spreadsheet programs to get any real work done because
Open Office for OS/2 v1.1.5 is certainly not going to do it for you.

--
Dr. Timothy Martin, The Official and Only OS/2 Guy
Warp City Web Site - http://www.warpcity.com
email:  OS2Guy@xxxxxxxxx OR eCSGuy@xxxxxxxxx


I purchased and downloaded OO 1.1.5 today mainly because of some performance issues I have with OO 1.1.4 and very large spreadsheets. OO 1.1.5 loaded and recalculated changes the largest one, 20,000+ rows, much faster than 1.1.4. So far I am very much impressed with its improvements.

I did not see any of the problems with dropdowns or menues that you said you had. All were very well behaved and functioned as expected.

The increased speed made the upgrade well worth the $29 purchase price. My PC at work is a 650mHz made in 1999 and I was having to take the very large spreadsheets home to work on them there. It was just taking too long for the changes to recalculate. The new version is going to save me a lot of time.
.

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