NeoOffice Base Query Design

formatting is fluff that should occur AFTER the information has been created through collaboration. "Track changes" is the functionality that is most critical.

Any organisation that wastes time arguing about formatting has fallen into the trap of wysiwyg. Just because you can easily adjust document formatting doesn't mean you have to.

Also, remember that you need to use a truely universal document format, eg PDF, to ensure that any reader sees the formatting the way you want it.

I don't doubt that you had problems with NeoOffice's spreadsheet app. I call it Calc since that's what it's called in OpenOffice (OOo). However, I have to disagree nonetheless. I think maybe the problem was in how to create the graphs, etc.

I work for a company and I track data and produce graphs on a monthly basis. I remember when I started trying it out in Calc I had problems. But I had no Excel experience so it made it easier probably. In fact my spreadsheet constantly use what in Excel are called pivot tables. Upon which data the graphs are created.

One other note. I remember one time when we got an excel file at work that included a new function from Excel 2003 that wasn't in Excel 2000 (which the office is on). Therefore, no one could view the expression as it errored out something. I told them to send it to me and it worked. So there's another plus. NeoOffice is free (although should be supported) and your not locked into a specific version.

As a matter of fact, I have had Microsoft Office 2004 screw up so bad, I had to
reformat the drive to get it working again. Could not uninstall or anything to get
it back. NeoOffice filled the gap whilst I was trying to fix office, and it could even
open a lot of documents that couldn't be translated or opened with Microsoft
Orifice 2004.