Calc corrupted an Excel xlsx file, should I report a bug?

[krackedpress]

e-letter wrote:

Solution #1:
Send back an xls version of that file and ask them to exchange
spreadsheets in that format.

Better still, send in ods and ask the recipient to use LO. If the
suggestion is declined, buy m$o. When minor incompatibility is
discovered between m$ hardware and software, such bugs should be
published to m$ and not here!

at0mic
You can't be serious. LibreOffice/OpenOffice has such low use in the

corporate world that I would be remiss to ask the other user to download a
~200MB software package just to view the document I send them.>You just
don't play those kinds of games in the business world, not unless you want
to aggravate others for no gain (no, you won't increase LO/OO uptake by only
using non-Office formats, you'll just piss people off if>you ask them to
install another software package for no discernible reason).

Sending an .xls version and asking the person on the other end to keep the
document in that format is a valid point and can be substantiated by the
fact that even different versions of MSO have trouble reading each other's
version of .xlsx formats. Try swapping an .xlsx document with complex
formulae between office 2003 and office 2010. Sometimes it might work.
Trying to coerce or force others into using international standards instead
of MS standards will have a negative effect in the acceptance of these
international standards.

For increasing the awareness and take up of LO in business, the best results
I've had is by pointing out the extra functionality of LO that can't be
provided by MSO, such as the ability to load and modify and re-save .pdf
documents. This has been a big selling point in my organisation with around
twenty new users this year already. (only 380 users to go) The biggest
obstacle I have in promoting LO is younger IT staff who tried Open Office
several years ago during their uni days and have been scared off from trying
later versions by repeated and continuing MS propaganda.

I find the same attitude towards GIMP. Today I had our Helpdesk manager call
GIMP unusable rubbish. I asked him what his preferred Microsoft alternative
was and when did he last try GIMP. No answer, was the stern reply.

I do not like GIMP as much as Paint Shop Pro 5 [old and Win only], but I use GIMP now since I use Ubuntu as my default system. IF I have problems with doing what I need with GIMP, I fire up my Vista laptop and do the editing with Paint Shop Pro [5 and/or 9].

[Chris_Morgan]

e-letter wrote:

Solution #1:
Send back an xls version of that file and ask them to exchange
spreadsheets in that format.

Better still, send in ods and ask the recipient to use LO. If the
suggestion is declined, buy m$o. When minor incompatibility is
discovered between m$ hardware and software, such bugs should be
published to m$ and not here!

You can't be serious. LibreOffice/OpenOffice has such low use in the
corporate world that I would be remiss to ask the other user to download a
~200MB software package just to view the document I send them. You just
don't play those kinds of games in the business world, not unless you want
to aggravate others for no gain (no, you won't increase LO/OO uptake by only
using non-Office formats, you'll just piss people off if you ask them to
install another software package for no discernible reason).

I agree. Supporting MS formats is essential. They are the de-facto exchange
formats, and much as we would like to change this, it ain't going to happen
quickly. Full support for XLS/XLSX and DOC/DOCX is likely to *increase* the
takeup of LO, especially in the business world, where spreadsheets get
emailed around a lot.

cheers,

Chris

[Marcello_Romani]

I'll throw in my 2 cents about how to introduce OOo/LibO in otherwise "hostile" business enviromnents. If they have a MS Office version that cannot read new "...x" (xlsx, docx, etc.) formats, tell them they have the option to upgrade to the new version (which often means thousands of $$) or download that free office suite which will very probably open the document just fine. That has happened to me and the customer was impressed

[At0mic]

Bruce Carlson wrote:

Sending an .xls version and asking the person on the other end to keep the
document in that format is a valid point and can be substantiated by the
fact that even different versions of MSO have trouble reading each other's
version of .xlsx formats. Try swapping an .xlsx document with complex
formulae between office 2003 and office 2010. Sometimes it might work.
Trying to coerce or force others into using international standards
instead
of MS standards will have a negative effect in the acceptance of these
international standards.

For increasing the awareness and take up of LO in business, the best
results
I've had is by pointing out the extra functionality of LO that can't be
provided by MSO, such as the ability to load and modify and re-save .pdf
documents. This has been a big selling point in my organisation with
around
twenty new users this year already. (only 380 users to go) The biggest
obstacle I have in promoting LO is younger IT staff who tried Open Office
several years ago during their uni days and have been scared off from
trying
later versions by repeated and continuing MS propaganda.

I find the same attitude towards GIMP. Today I had our Helpdesk manager
call
GIMP unusable rubbish. I asked him what his preferred Microsoft
alternative
was and when did he last try GIMP. No answer, was the stern reply.

(e-letter's use of the $ sign in M$ is quite amusing and to the point.)

cheers,

Bruce Carlson

If I know I'm going to be working with older versions of Office I will use
the 2003 format for things, however the newer version of the format not only
produces smaller file sizes but is extractable (2007+ formats are basically
.zip files which can be useful at times). In practice I can't comment much
on Excel since I haven't used it much myself, but when I was working as IT
support for a number of schools we'd sometimes encounter a mix of 2003/2007
installations (the 2003 ones with the compatibility pack for 2007 formats),
and no-one complained.

I must admit though I've never been aware of the fact you can actually EDIT
PDFs in LibreOffice. That's a damn nice feature that I'm sure to remember
now, thanks! Maybe it needs to be marketed more that this feature even
exists, since there aren't many free alternatives that work quite as well
for editing PDFs.

As for the GIMP, it's finally managed to replace my pirated version of
Photoshop the moment version 2.7.3 was released (the version which now has
stable single-window mode). Things are looking up.

[Bruce_Carlson]

Bruce Carlson wrote:

Sending an .xls version and asking the person on the other end to keep
the document in that format is a valid point and can be substantiated
by the fact that even different versions of MSO have trouble reading
each other's version of .xlsx formats. Try swapping an .xlsx document
with complex formulae between office 2003 and office 2010. Sometimes it

might work.

Trying to coerce or force others into using international standards
instead of MS standards will have a negative effect in the acceptance
of these international standards.

For increasing the awareness and take up of LO in business, the best
results I've had is by pointing out the extra functionality of LO that
can't be provided by MSO, such as the ability to load and modify and
re-save .pdf documents. This has been a big selling point in my
organisation with around twenty new users this year already. (only 380
users to go) The biggest obstacle I have in promoting LO is younger IT
staff who tried Open Office several years ago during their uni days
and have been scared off from trying later versions by repeated and
continuing MS propaganda.

I find the same attitude towards GIMP. Today I had our Helpdesk
manager call GIMP unusable rubbish. I asked him what his preferred
Microsoft alternative was and when did he last try GIMP. No answer,
was the stern reply.

(e-letter's use of the $ sign in M$ is quite amusing and to the
point.)

cheers,

Bruce Carlson

At0mic wrote

If I know I'm going to be working with older versions of Office I will use

the 2003 format for things, however the newer version of the format not only
produces smaller file sizes but is extractable (2007+ formats are >basically
.zip files which can be useful at times). In practice I can't comment much
on Excel since I haven't used it much myself, but when I was working as IT
support for a number of schools we'd sometimes >encounter a mix of 2003/2007
installations (the 2003 ones with the compatibility pack for 2007 formats),
and no-one complained.

I must admit though I've never been aware of the fact you can actually EDIT

PDFs in LibreOffice. That's a damn nice feature that I'm sure to remember
now, thanks! Maybe it needs to be marketed more that this >feature even
exists, since there aren't many free alternatives that work quite as well
for editing PDFs.

As for the GIMP, it's finally managed to replace my pirated version of

Photoshop the moment version 2.7.3 was released (the version which now has
stable single-window mode). Things are looking up.

Bruce Carlson replied

Hi At0mic,

Not wanting to keep this thread over active but with respect to LO opening
and editing and resaving .pdf files, in my job I receive a lot of files in
.pdf format.
It is my job to make sure these are correct before collating and sending up
to senior management.
Many times I find I have to open and edit these .pdf's to correct silly
mistakes and resave as .pdf before sending to management.
Also with LO I can open and merge .pdfs with extreme ease. In fact it has
made my job so much easier that I almost feel guilty about it.

I now have several staff creating these files in LO impress or writer or
calc and converting them to .pdf for transmission.

Very clever.

Try it. I hope you'll be as impressed as I am.

Since the release of LO 3.3.3 my job has become much easier and I have not
had one problem opening and editing a .pdf up to now.

The LO release notes claimed that LO could do this seamlessly and so far
that claim still stands for me.

The extractable (.zip) functionality of MSO 2010 is useful but remember LO
had this function before MSO and still does and is another valid marketing
point in my opinion.

One point we must always remember in business is the importance of
communication. We should always try to communicate to others in a language
and format that the receiver is capable of

Oh! and please don't get too upset with folks who have an over passionate
view of the world.
I know they end up doing themselves more damage than good but hopefully they
will eventually learn the error of their ways.

Cheers From

Bruce.