Will I be able to open files created in MS office normally? xls and doc formats?

Yes, but don't expect them to be perfect, especially if you use document models.

What about the spreadsheet formulas?

[ 01-15-2007, 03:01 AM: Message edited by: ZFR ]

They work the same way.

<font color=8fbc8f>Are you going to be editing the documents and 'saving-as' M$ Orfice ~ format?

If so, this gets tricky. What I have found to work, create and name document. Save as. Then format doc, then save. For every major formula, or format change, save again. You will probably get the usual message about M$-Orfice may not be compatible with, yada, yada, is normally ok, but is never guaranteed.

What I have found to be the major issue starts from MS. If you don't allow OO to convert it OO format, then OO has a hard time displaying some of the formulas, and crashes out upon first save. The work around on this is to have everybody use OO, and eliminate the issue [img]graemlins/biggrin.gif[/img] . However, if you open it, save-as into OO, work on it, then save it back to MS, you, or the recipient may have a format issue. I did this to my English Professor, she could not edit my paper, so had to re-write it, [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img] I'll take an A- any-day in English! But if you are doing this in the business world, they should provide you with all the software you need!

The last major update on OO really helped with the M$ Orfice XP, but did very little to the '03 version. I tend to use the XP format as default. This sends a two fold message. Not everybody has '03, and if the recipient does, it is up to them if they chose to allow '03 to update the file or not. This also allows them that the creator is a step down from the boss, issuing a nasty to the IT department to get "everybody" up to date. then you get your corporate provided take home package [img]graemlins/cool.gif[/img] . </font>