On Mon, 24 May 2004 16:14:03 +0100 CHAPMAN - Ian Paul <i.p.chapman@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > I don't want to use Windows but I still NEED a > program capable of viewing word documents through no choice of my own. >
So use either OpenOffice (Free and gratis) or Sun StarOffice (non-Free and $80). I personally use StarOffice 7, also used 6.0, and love them. Read and write MS Office file formats extremely well; not perfectly, but close! But their native file formats are heaven: compressed XML that can be read, written, and edited by anything under the sun, and usually are 1/2 to 2/3 the size of the same document in DOC format. And it is my understanding that OpenOffice has moved forward quite well and also provides good MS Office compatibility.
There you go: a definite way to move to Linux and reduce the cost and instability of Windows while maintaining compatibility with the outside world *and* getting some very real benefits in the process. The "Save to PDF" function alone is a godsend.
Cheers,
-- Rodolfo J. Paiz rpaiz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://www.simpaticus.com
