Open Office vs. MS Office? Excel/Calc Compatible?

Question

I'm starting a new job next week in which I will be going through a company's MS Excel and MS Word files and making little changes to them for a new project. I'll be working from home on my computer and also from the office at my job, using a flash drive to get the documents and spreadsheets back and forth from work and home.

Problem: My home computer does not have MS Office, but instead has Open Office.

Now I've heard the two are compatible with very slight differences, but for the work I'm doing I need to know exactly what kind of differences there will be and if it will affect the documents and spreadsheets I'm working with.

Because if I make mistakes, then I don't get paid, and that's the real problem.

I need to know what to do to transfer the files between the different software and make this work.

Thanks!

Answer 1

With excel and calc there are issues with macros (different scripting language) and charts that I know of. I'm not aware of a detailed comparison that covers specific compatability issues.
This article on sharing between the two may be useful, though it's a little old:
http://software.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=05/07/21/1834257&from=rss

You may also find some specifics in the comments here:
http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/24/0058209

Make sure that you have the latest version of Open Office, and just verify any changes you make at home are OK in MS. Keep backup copies of everything so you can always go back to a previous edit copy.

Answer 2

I have opened and saved files back and forth between MS Office and OpenOffice.

There are many little differences that may jump up and bite you. The two programs are not 100% compatible. For your safety, and since you are getting paid to do this - buy MS Office. Don't screw around with this or spend any more time thinking about it. Just buy it.

Buy the version that the company uses if it is Office 2007, or 2003. If it is older than 2003, buy Office 2003.

Answer 3

You can only get a free trial of MS Office within 1 month while you still have to pay licensed fee after that... But there's a free substitute which features nearly all functions available in MS Office and supports the files published by it, too. Just search for "Open Office" in Google and you will get it.

Answer 4

They are supposed to be compatible, but do you really want to create files at home, then have to reformat and/or monkey around with them at work to possibly reformat?

Speaking from personal experience, It was worth it to me to put out the money for Office 2000 (which is what we are still using) to be able to take my work back and forth without problem. I work in a busy office, people coming and going, and when I need to concentrate it makes my life easier to do some things at home. I like my job and intend to stay there. If you plan on moving ahead in the near future, you may not want to spend the money. Think about it.

Answer 5

Hello,

if you edit a word (.doc) or excel (.xls) file and then reopen it with either office or openoffice the document will be the same,
the differences you might encounter are the actual size of margins and cell sizes, you will not make any mistake for sure, just check with your company if they have any issues with it.

Ciao.

Answer 6

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