Something compatible to MS Office on Fedora?

[Tim]

Allegedly, on or about 06 September 2013, Tom Horsley sent:
> Well, judging from the office docs we get at work, MS Office
> isn't compatible with MS Office. No one ever gets updates
> and whatever version of office they happen to have hangs around
> for years, and no two versions seem to produce docs that
> actually look the same or sometimes they can't read them
> at all. 

That's not at all surprising (other than experiencing a complete failure
to read, rather than just a bad representation).  Word document files
were never really meant for exchanging.  They're a record of what you've
created, that you can recall and reprint or modify.  The documents you
write are dependent on the fonts you have, the printer used to print the
document (it dictates absolute printing margins, at the very least), the
versions of software you have, and possibly other local files (such as
graphics that weren't embedded).

Files meant for exchange should use formats meant for it.  Such as PDF,
for files that are going to be created once, and read elsewhere.

Files meant for collaboration need to be suitable formats for that, and
the software as well.  Don't really expect Microsoft formats to be
widely compatible, they've an utter contempt for adhering to standards,
even their own ones.  And DocX seems to be far worse at compatibility
than older Word formats.

As far as the original poster is concerned, they may well have little
choice but to use the exact same software as the rest of their
collaborators (the same program, the *same* *version* of the program).
That is the business model that Microsoft tries to push, forcing
everyone to use their software, on purpose, not just coincidentally, and
forcing continually updates (at the user's cost).

Or, convincing other collaborators to not use DocX.  You probably won't
be the only one having trouble with it, it's a pain for Windows users,
too.

-- 
[tim at localhost ~]$ uname -rsvp
Linux 3.9.10-100.fc17.x86_64 #1 SMP Sun Jul 14 01:31:27 UTC 2013 x86_64

All mail to my mailbox is automatically deleted, there is no point
trying to privately email me, I will only read messages posted to the
public lists.

George Orwell's '1984' was supposed to be a warning against tyranny, not
a set of instructions for supposedly democratic governments.