Open Office, Google Docs, or an old version of Word?

1. 94

   SheilaMilneposted 9 years ago

   Open Office, Google Docs, or an old version of Word?
   
   I have an old XP version of MS Word which, surprisingly, seems to work well enough on my new Windows 8.1.  Until I discovered it would work, I've been trying out Google Docs and Open Office and finding them tricky, especially for printing.  Is it worth persisting? Which would you go for?

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2. 60

   LindaSmith1posted 9 years ago

   If it isn't broke, don't try to fix it.  If what you have is working, keep it.

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   1. 94

      SheilaMilneposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Word XP isn't supposed to work on Windows 8, so I'm waiting and holding my breath.

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3. 85

   Kristen Howeposted 9 years ago

   Before I had Scrivener for my manuscripts, I've used Open Office/Neo Office. For my old mss, they printed out okay, especially for my writing group meetings and queries.  I don't have Word. I use Text Edit for hubs and Scrivener for anything else. I've rarely used Google Documents though.

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   1. 94

      SheilaMilneposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I don't know Scrivener at all

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      Kristen Howeposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Scrivener is a great Word processing document when you can organize your chapters or scenes for your story. It's only $40 for a license to own it. If you're interested, Sheila, I can give you the link.

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4. 74

   Babbyiiposted 9 years ago

   Scrivener more than suffices for most of my projects, but I keep Open Office handy.  It works for most of my miscellaneous documents.  Never tried Google Docs, never had a reason to yet.

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   1. 94

      SheilaMilneposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I'm going to give Scrivener a trial because it does seem popular and useful for projects. I tried Open Office for printing some labels but it gave me a page where the only usable labels were the ones in the middle.

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   2. 74

      Babbyiiposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I had a similar printing problem with some promotional labels I was trying to print. In the middle like you said. Labels are costly.  It (Open Office) does however do okay with formatted labels such as those from the post office.

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5. 71

   Nicole Grizzleposted 9 years ago

   Unless you need to edit stuff on the go, there's no real advantage to Google docs. Open Office's interface takes some time getting used to, but it provides the exact same service (and probably a bit more) than an XP version of Word.
   
   Then again, if you like the XP version of Word, just use that.

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   1. 94

      SheilaMilneposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I'm not convinced Word will work as well as it did on my old machine but I think I'll persist.

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6. 84

   M. T. Dremerposted 9 years ago

   Of those choices, I would say stick with the old version of MS word. If it still works on 8.1, then go for it. If, for some reason, it stops working in the future, I would recommend Open Office as a runner up. It takes some getting used to, but it allows you to save in all of the major document formats.
   
   I'm not sure there is any scenario where I would recommend google docs. The concept is good, but everyone who I've seen use it encounters no shortage of problems when it comes time to submit the document (like a resume to a job site) or printing it (printing from gmail never comes out right and has to be downloaded and opened with MS word anyway).

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7. 59

   Nastya Bronnikovaposted 9 years ago

   My go-to option is MS Word, hands down. I can deal with Open Office, although the interface is still puzzling me a little. Never really got into Google Docs, only ever use it for online group projects.

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