OpenOffice 2.0.1 vs MS Office

[greg.rundlett at gmail.com (Greg Rundlett)]

Some things are just different.  A lot of people would mistakenly
think that OOo doesn't have the 'Microsoft' feature because it is not
in the same location or accomplished the same way.

For example, I recall (from years ago when I actually used Microsoft
Word) that there is a checkbox somewhere in Microsoft Word where you
can tell it not to show a header on the first (title) page of a
document.  In Open Office, you can create any number of different
headers and apply them as 'page' styles.  The OOo 'stylist' formatting
widget is a great tool for this.  There is a built-in page style
called 'First Page' that (you guessed it) turns off the display of the
header for pages where it is applied.  As an aside, if the header
contains page numbering, the number on page two is still 2.  To
override that and make it a 1, it is just a matter of inserting a
special 'previous page number' field.  I'm not sure what MSWord does
in this case.

Another example.  Someone who uses MSExcel told me that there is an
eraser button.  This might be specific to a particular version that
they once had -- because upon reinstalling MSExcel 2004, there was no
such button on the toolbar (nor available from the toolbar options). 
The user wanted to be able to erase the contents of cells, but not the
formatting and formulas.  In OOo, you can select a cell(s) and hit the
delete key.  Up pops a dialog with several checkboxes:  Do you want to
delete the contents? the formatting? the formulas? etc.  The answers
you choose are remembered so that if you find yourself doing this
repeatedly, you simply hit the delete key and then the enter key to
'confirm' your choices.  That is quicker than using a mouse-driven
eraser button.

I find that specific examples like this help people accomplish what
they are trying to do and also give people anecdotal evidence of the
features, and compatibility of the applications.  [plug for the
Documentation team: Don't forget to check the documentation when in
doubt.]