Re: [tlug] Stand Up for OpenOffice!!

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

burlingk@example.com writes:

 > My biggest gripe with MS Office is that it doesn't want to let me format
 > things the way I want them formatted.  It makes assumptions about
 > how things are meant to be done, based on how "they are usually
 > done" by whatever group they use for their research.

That is a fundamental problem with all office suites in "normal
operation" though.  Convenience means making assumptions about what
the user wants, and giving that to her.  If you're an unusual user or
fashions change, this will cause screwage, as everybody has experienced.

How does OOo address this concern?

Note that TeX and friends also make it quite painful to get the format
*you* want.  Don Knuth is quite explicit about why this is so: average
users simply don't know enough about typography (especially
mathematical typography) to get good results by hand.  It's not
obvious to me that this is really such a bad thing.  (Especially in
Japan, where "fine typography" means 40x40 bricktext. ;-)