Mike Singer wrote:
>I have around me in my not so big town
>hundreds of legal MS products. Who will blame
>(and control) somebody for using at home copy of
>such a thing for non-commercial "home brewing" ?

Lot of people...  And for whatever reason use MS Office?
I certainly don=B4t want to install MS Office again even if i get it for=
 free.

If you really want to use an Office suite, take a look at=
 OpenOffice/StarOffice.

They are file compatible.  Both are about as capable as MSO; some things=
 better, some things maybe worse.

OpenOffice is available not only for Windows, but also for Linux, Solaris=
 and Mac OS X (beta).

Documentations of API, file format etc available.

Help is swift through discussion list (Like PICLIST but wihtout OT... ;) ).
Of course you may buy StarOffice, and then pay for support if you want. =
 Cost is about 1/10 of comparable MSOffice functionality, and Licens is=
 personal: you may install on *all* computers you own (laptop, home, office,=
 on linux/windows...)(but only you may use it).
I actually bought StarOffice, but use OpenOffice too.
With StarOffice there is another database engine, paper manual, samples, ...

Also, the file formats are well documented so it is possible to build=
 further applications working on the files directly.  (MS formats are=
 secret!  Anyway, OOo team have made wonder anyway at importing and=
 exporting in MS formats, however the native format is mostly superior in=
 size; compressed XML)

I never used Visio, but in OOo/SO there is a vector based drawing program=
 that i have used to make nice flow-charts with rubberbanding arrows.  I=
 believe rubberbanding is nice for schematic wires.


I still don=B4t se a good reason to use a Office suite as base for a free=
 layout utility, but if you should, use one that is well documented, works=
 on at least Windows and Linux, and is free, LEAGALLY of course.

I have been part-time teacher, and i=B4d say pupils learn SO a little faster=
 than MSO.  Better organized settings, help, and right click anything work=
 nice.  My impression anyway.  But, they are all very similar, so you should=
 not have a hard time getting up to pace with OOo/SO.
You really shuold try OOo if you have not yet.  http://www.openoffice.org=20

/Morgan

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