StarOffice 8 Compatibile with Windows SBS 2003?

[SheilaC]

We are using Windows SBS 2003 Server and as we are a small company it is too expensive to update our MS Office software. I have noticed over the past year that we seem to be getting a lot of "glitches" when using our Office 2000 and Microsoft's answer to our problems is....your guessed it UPGRADE. So I have been messing around with StarOffice 8 and guess what...with the ability to convert all documents into PDF's, open any office documents and generally have the same programs that MS offers I am seriously considering changing to Star Office but I don't want to change the server (if at all possible). Is anyone out there using Windows SBS 2003 along with StarOffice, if so I would greatly appreciate any advice you may have (and assistance for that matter).

[ccornell]

What functionality are you looking for? Saving files to a network drive? Sharing files? Maybe a little more information about how you currently work with MS Office will help people here provide you an answer about how this can be done with OpenOffice.org.

[SheilaC]

We presently are saving and sharing files on the server. At present most of the computers have only MS Outlook, Excel, Powerpoint & Word. We are in the processing of updating all our templates for the sales, shipping, invoicing departments, etc. with this in mind we will be using a database program but it I don't want to have to purchase Access for every computer let alone update the current software every year or so. I have been messing about with the StarOffice 8 software and with the similar design, ease of use and better pricing would like to incorporate it with my next step in updating our systems. I appreciate all your help.

[ccornell]

When you say sharing files.. are you editing the documents at the same time? Or just saving to a network share for others to access?
In terms of saving to network share directories, OpenOffice.org and StarOffice have no problems. They work the same as any other application in that respect.

For templates etc, keep in mind that any advanced VB macros and scripting will probably be a point of difficulty for you in the current releases. Upcoming releases of both OpenOffice.org and StarOffice will have better VB macro support.

Base can be used to create a dB frontend for any of several databases (eg MySQL).
You can find some documentation on Base here: http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Database The OOoAuthors group is in the process of putting together a comprehensive Base manual, but it is not ready yet.

Other documentation resources that might be helpful:
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wik ... on/How_Tos
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wik ... ser_Manual

StarOffice and/or OpenOffice.org can likely do what you need. All components cans read and write to MS Office formats (not Office2007 yet, but that is coming later this year). You can set StarOffice/OpenOffice to default to the ISO standard formats or to MS Office formats.

So... if you have any specific questions, ask away. There are a lot of knowledgeable people here on the forum