Can I use OOo instead of MS Office 2010?

[mnshepherd]

I need to know if Open Office has everything that Office Professional Academic 2010 does. I need it for my MGMT class but do not have the $100 for the software.

[acknak]

[Moved to start new topic; this is a different question]

It's hard to make a prediction. OOo and MS Office are very similar but not identical. If your course requires some specific feature of MS Office that is not supported in OOo, or that works differently, you can run into trouble.

It's always best to get some assurance that using some other software is acceptable. Otherwise, your work can be rejected outright.

[Hagar Delest]

Remember that OOo cannot save in .docx, .xlsx, .pptx. So if you're required to give something in that format (even if OOXML should be avoided), you'll have problems.

[Nikos]

Remember that OOo cannot save in .docx, .xlsx, .pptx.

Without wanting to flame, keep also in mind, that libreoffice can save in the aforementioned formats.

[RoryOF]

Straight forward text documents will transfer from Writer to Word and vice versa with minor problems (e.g., difficulties with headers/footers). When documents become more complex, with frames, tables, illustrations, transfer becomes much more unreliable and frequently unfixable. Best advice is that if your institution requires MS Office format submissions, you should inquire if they have an MS Office offer for pupils and take that up. Your current purpose in life should be to do your courses and assigned tasks, not spend valuable time trying to sort out transfer problems between one software and another.

[Villeroy]

You may also find somebody who overcomes the copy protection of MSOffice 2010. Thanks to OOo they removed their strict protection system ("Genuine Advantage") from their latest office version.
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/microsof ... ogram/2798