Word look alike?

On 9/17/2020 12:10 PM, VanguardLH wrote:
"Carlos E.R." wrote:

The worst of this is that my friend "needs Word" for working at home
because of the pandemic, thus her employer should be providing any
software needed at their expense, but apparently they will not :-/

You sure MS Word is a mandate dictated by her employer? Maybe she just
thinks it is a mandate from her employer? More likely they just want
her to work on Word documents.


Or create documents in .doc or .docx format. As long as she did, her
employer would be highly unlikely to know what program she was using.


--
Ken

On 9/17/2020 10:28 AM, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 17/09/2020 18.18, Ken Blake wrote:
On 9/16/2020 5:28 AM, Carlos E.R. wrote:

If I'm not mistaken, Word comes with the full Office suite;


Assuming that you are talking about the Microsoft Office suite (there
are other Office suites), yes it does. But it not only come with the
full suite, it comes with all the smaller editions too.


Is it possible to get Word alone?


Yes.


--
Ken

On 17/09/2020 21.10, VanguardLH wrote:
"Carlos E.R." wrote:

Ah, yes, I'm the support guy that drinks the beer or coffee :-D
but not these days with a face mask, we both have risk factors.

A straw fits under a mask. Yeah, you don't look manly drinking beer
through a straw, and guzzling won't work through a straw.


Neither of us will risk it.

--
Cheers, Carlos.

On 17/09/2020 21.10, VanguardLH wrote:
"Carlos E.R." wrote:

The worst of this is that my friend "needs Word" for working at home
because of the pandemic, thus her employer should be providing any
software needed at their expense, but apparently they will not :-/

You sure MS Word is a mandate dictated by her employer? Maybe she just
thinks it is a mandate from her employer? More likely they just want
her to work on Word documents.

No, the employer, AFAIK, doesn't mandate anything. They just say "now
you have to work from home. Arreglatelas"

The last word I don't know how to translate. It is like get it done in
any manner you can, at your cost. We will not provide anything. So they
have to buy the laptops, the internet connection, the software...

The choice of "Word" comes from everybody else using Word, both other
teachers and the parents.

To me, with the employer not paying anything, they should be using
Linux. Or tablets with Android (students often do that, use tablets).
Anything with zero cost.

At least (being the education administration) they could have some kind
of rebate plan, but apparently they don't. If you are curious, they
contracted gmail for group or enterprises, thus google documents is
certainly an enticing idea.

Not sure how her employer would know she was not using MS Word at home
if the alternative word processors could read and save in .doc[x]
format. Her employer would just be getting a file as the result of her
home-based work. Although possible, it is unlikely her employer's
documents (if not using VBA for scripting) use features available in MS
Word that are not available in the alternatives. If Wordpad, as
suggested by others, is a viable candidate for an alternative word
processor to MS Word, the scripting and esoteric features in MS Word are
non-issues to selecting alternatives to MS Word.

As far as I know, the documents are just home work for the students, not
provided or sent to the employer. And as far as I know, they are sent as
PDF. But, when working together with other teachers, they share the
..docx files. I have never seen anything sophisticated in those
documents. Just formatted text, bold, underline, paragraphs... very
simple stuff. Ah, and links. I think WordPad could do.



Do any of these documents she is supposed to work on incorporate VBA
macros (i.e., dynamic documents)?

Nay. No, no way. :-)

....

I'd say, if she has a decent always-on Internet connection, to have your
friend try the free online Office web apps to see if they are sufficient
for her use.

I did suggest that.

If so, and if offline access is needed, then consider
offline alternatives, like Softmaker's FreeOffice or LibreOffice, but
she'll still have some learning to adapt to the alternatives. Just
showing a ribbon bar similar to MS Word doesn't compensate for all the
differences between different programs.



--
Cheers, Carlos.

On 17/09/2020 21.16, nospam wrote:
In article , VanguardLH
wrote:


Not sure how her employer would know she was not using MS Word at home
if the alternative word processors could read and save in .doc[x]
format. Her employer would just be getting a file as the result of her
home-based work.

the alternatives are not 100% compatible.

the moment she sends a file that doesn't render properly for her
employer or that she has problems reading a file sent to her, it will
become quite obvious she's not using the real thing. this is most
commonly seen with tables.

Yes, but in that case the employer should be supplying the computer, the
software, and the training. They don't do any of that, so they can not
demand anything in that respect.

--
Cheers, Carlos.

On 17/09/2020 22.06, Ken Blake wrote:
On 9/17/2020 12:10 PM, VanguardLH wrote:
"Carlos E.R." wrote:

The worst of this is that my friend "needs Word" for working at home
because of the pandemic, thus her employer should be providing any
software needed at their expense, but apparently they will not :-/

You sure MS Word is a mandate dictated by her employer?Â* Maybe she just
thinks it is a mandate from her employer?Â* More likely they just want
her to work on Word documents.


Or create documents in .doc or .docx format. As long as she did, her
employer would be highly unlikely to know what program she was using.

They could look at the properties of the file :-)

No, the demand for Word comes from peer pressure; all other teachers and
parents using Word (I doubt they paid for it), and also the abhorrence
of non-computer-geeks to even try different software.

And I hate the idea of pirating software, I will not do it when there
are alternatives.

--
Cheers, Carlos.

On 17/09/2020 21.06, VanguardLH wrote:
"Carlos E.R." wrote:

Ken Blake wrote:

Carlos E.R. wrote:

If I'm not mistaken, Word comes with the full Office suite;

Assuming that you are talking about the Microsoft Office suite (there
are other Office suites), yes it does. But it not only come with the
full suite, it comes with all the smaller editions too.

Is it possible to get Word alone?

Yep, but that will be more expensive than the payware alternatives
already suggested, and infinitely more expensive than the free
alternatives. She can afford $100 to get the standalone edition of Word
2019?

Wow. I think the whole suite is about 200, it does not make sense. And I
fear she will get at some point a presentation to read. Is it "Impress?"


Remember that working from home was the big change because of Covid-19
(aka SARS 2). We all geared up for the changes to distance ourselves.
When there's an effective vaccine, and especially when the death rate
from Covid drops below that for the common flu, we'll be gearing back to
working at work. She could pay $70 for a 1-year subscription to
Microsoft 365 Personal. Then she'll have MS Word without any worries
about document or feature compatility with the alternatives. In less
than a year from now, she might be back at her workplace using whatever
software they choose.

Yes, I agree.


The only reason to look at offline alternatives is she doesn't have a
decent Internet connection, or security mandates from her employer
require no documents be stored online (but then just how is she going to
get these documents in the first place if not transmitted over the
Internet)?

No such mandate.
The employer contracted Gmail for enterprise or groups. :-D

With a decent Internet connection, have her try the free
Microsoft web apps for Office.

I suggested that. Or the Google one.

In OneDrive (assuming the aggregate size
of her documents don't exceed the 5 GB default quota), she gets to
decide with whom she shares the documents. Presumably you came here
trying to find a solution at the least cost, if any, for your friend.
Start free, then decide if payware is needed because additional features
are needed.

Right.


Sorry, but I don't see a school teacher will be viewing or editing
documents that the free solutions won't support (online MS Office web
apps, LibreOffice, FreeOffice, or WPS).

I agree, of course.

Does she have or would qualify
for Microsoft Office Certification to know everything about MS Office to
know all of its esoteric features that might become problematic with the
free or cheaper paid alternatives?

Nay :-)


How much time can she afford to learn a free or paid alternative?
Learning a new program, regardless of how compatible it claims, will
take time. LibreOffice isn't just something you just jump into and
immediately know how to do everything within it that you did in MS Word.
Same for the other free/paid alternatives. If she has to work on the
documents *NOW*, have her sign into https://www.office.com/ (and not get
lured into buying Microsoft/Office 365). Been about 2 years since I had
MS Word, but I suspect the web GUIs even Microsoft's online Office web
apps will be slightly different than the offline/standalone cousins, so
expect some clumsiness in using anything other than what she did before.

Simple things like choosing the font, size, boldness/underline etc.
Perhaps lists, and I suspect they don't use the "list" feature. It is
rather similar to typing with a computer, really simple. They don't even
use "styles".

And I'd be prepared to spend some time providing the training if required.

--
Cheers, Carlos.

On 16/09/2020 14.28, Carlos E.R. wrote:
Hi,

I'm looking for a simple free (or gratis) program to replace Word. Me, I
use LibreOffice without a doubt, but it is not for me. I need something
simple, that ideally saves in word 97-2003 format by default, so that
the user doesn't have to think.

They have just learnt that the employer has now an option to provide
Office. Nobody knew.

Ufff! Good news for once. :-D


(I did tell: you must ask your employer...)

--
Cheers, Carlos.

On 9/17/2020 1:36 PM, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 17/09/2020 22.06, Ken Blake wrote:
On 9/17/2020 12:10 PM, VanguardLH wrote:
"Carlos E.R." wrote:

The worst of this is that my friend "needs Word" for working at home
because of the pandemic, thus her employer should be providing any
software needed at their expense, but apparently they will not :-/

You sure MS Word is a mandate dictated by her employer?Â* Maybe she just
thinks it is a mandate from her employer?Â* More likely they just want
her to work on Word documents.


Or create documents in .doc or .docx format. As long as she did, her
employer would be highly unlikely to know what program she was using.

They could look at the properties of the file :-)


There's more than one way to find out. I didn't suggest that it was
impossible, just that it was highly unlikely for them to go to the
trouble to check, if the format was what they wanted.


--
Ken

In article , Carlos E.R.
wrote:

Not sure how her employer would know she was not using MS Word at home
if the alternative word processors could read and save in .doc[x]
format. Her employer would just be getting a file as the result of her
home-based work.

the alternatives are not 100% compatible.

the moment she sends a file that doesn't render properly for her
employer or that she has problems reading a file sent to her, it will
become quite obvious she's not using the real thing. this is most
commonly seen with tables.

Yes, but in that case the employer should be supplying the computer, the
software, and the training. They don't do any of that, so they can not
demand anything in that respect.

they can demand using software that is fully compatible with the rest
of the company, which is almost always going to be the same software
the rest of the company is using.

ms office alternatives are not 100% compatible and can easily cause
problems. as i said, this is most commonly seen with tables, but even
moderately complex documents may have issues.

On 2020-09-17 09:29, Neil wrote:
PhotoStyler and PageMaker

Take a look at Inkscape

On 2020-09-17 11:48, Neil wrote:
On 9/17/2020 2:02 PM, VanguardLH wrote:
Neil wrote:

On 9/16/2020 10:17 PM, VanguardLH wrote:

How is a 32-bit program going to manage a data block (with the
document)
in memory that is over 4 GB in size?Â* Yes, the program can, as you
implied, use a buffer to load part of the over 4 GB file into memory,
but, say, a search that scans the 4+ GB memory for the data block is
going to dump one buffer to move it into later bytes of the file.Â* That
is for direct memory access to the file's contents.

The techniques used by professional graphics apps in the 1980s made the
size limitation of files based on disc size rather than memory.
PhotoStyler was one such app that only loaded the portion of the file
that filled the screen, and did so in a way that enabled detailed
editing on enlarged portions or viewing the full image at screen
resolution (which was minuscule by today's standards) without any
noticeable delay. After Adobe purchased PhotoStyler, mainly to eliminate
competition for PhotoShop which at the time was quite an inferior
product, they began integrating the programs methods and features into
PhotoShop. So, a 4GB file wouldn't be a problem.

Do any of these techniques apply to MS Word, and its, so far, suggested
alternative word processors?

My response to your question about how a 32-bit program is going to
manage a data block that is over 4 GB in size was just that, not about
Word, which is why I clipped that portion of the discussion. IOW, the
size of a file that a program can manage depends on how the program is
written.


I really do not think what Carlos is describing needs a full
heavy weight suite. But if heavy weight is what you are after,
just get a site license to Office.

Just reading and writing simple docx Free Office is perfect.

On 17/09/2020 23.02, Ken Blake wrote:
On 9/17/2020 1:36 PM, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 17/09/2020 22.06, Ken Blake wrote:
On 9/17/2020 12:10 PM, VanguardLH wrote:
"Carlos E.R." wrote:

The worst of this is that my friend "needs Word" for working at
home because of the pandemic, thus her employer should be providing
any software needed at their expense, but apparently they will not :-/

You sure MS Word is a mandate dictated by her employer?Â* Maybe she just
thinks it is a mandate from her employer?Â* More likely they just want
her to work on Word documents.


Or create documents in .doc or .docx format. As long as she did, her
employer would be highly unlikely to know what program she was using.

They could look at the properties of the file :-)


There's more than one way to find out. I didn't suggest that it was
impossible, just that it was highly unlikely for them to go to the
trouble to check, if the format was what they wanted.

Dunno, I always look at the properties of a document I get when I did
not do it, so I assume everybody does :-D


--
Cheers, Carlos.

On 17/09/2020 23.11, nospam wrote:
In article , Carlos E.R.
wrote:

Not sure how her employer would know she was not using MS Word at home
if the alternative word processors could read and save in .doc[x]
format. Her employer would just be getting a file as the result of her
home-based work.

the alternatives are not 100% compatible.

the moment she sends a file that doesn't render properly for her
employer or that she has problems reading a file sent to her, it will
become quite obvious she's not using the real thing. this is most
commonly seen with tables.

Yes, but in that case the employer should be supplying the computer, the
software, and the training. They don't do any of that, so they can not
demand anything in that respect.

they can demand using software that is fully compatible with the rest
of the company, which is almost always going to be the same software
the rest of the company is using.

Only if they supply it. Law here.
If they are not paying the software, I decide.


ms office alternatives are not 100% compatible and can easily cause
problems. as i said, this is most commonly seen with tables, but even
moderately complex documents may have issues.



--
Cheers, Carlos.

Ken Blake wrote:

On 9/17/2020 12:10 PM, VanguardLH wrote:
"Carlos E.R." wrote:

The worst of this is that my friend "needs Word" for working at home
because of the pandemic, thus her employer should be providing any
software needed at their expense, but apparently they will not :-/

You sure MS Word is a mandate dictated by her employer? Maybe she just
thinks it is a mandate from her employer? More likely they just want
her to work on Word documents.

Or create documents in .doc or .docx format. As long as she did, her
employer would be highly unlikely to know what program she was using.

True *if* the documents had no feature that is in MS Word but missing in
the alternative, especially the freeware ones. I gave an example where
charts and perhaps pivot tables were missing in FreeOffice, but those
might certainly be objects used in a company document. Any use of VBA
in the documents make alternatives a no-go. Looks like Carlos can make
suggestions, but it'll be his friend that needs to decide.