Quickie guide to making OpenOffice.org more Office-friendly

If you're a fan of OpenOffice.org, chances are you've come across a document that just won't cooperate with you — either something you've been sent from a Microsoft Office user, or something you're sending to an Office user that he can't use — and you've pulled out your hair in frustration, vowing to stick with your open-source solution, but fretting that it isn't quite as MS-compatible as you had hoped. Fortunately, there are ways to address most such situations, as long as you're willing to do a little advance planning — and sometimes sacrifice some formatting features. Bruce Byfield at NewsForge has posted a good cheat sheet on preparing documents for OO.o to MSO sharing, which could save you hours of effort and not a few gray hairs. It won't solve all your problems, but could keep you happily open source, while your MS-using contacts will never know the difference.

Check it out.
 

Tags: commercial, opensource