t20racerman

Other way round actually, I want to see presentations that pupils make who only have OOo at home, and I want to print out their work so that I can mark it. I really didn't want this thread to become a flame war, or an OOo v MS war, or even one where people throw insults at each other. It is a shame that this has degenerated into that in places. I had hoped to tap into the professionalism of IT Professionals working in Education to find out about the Technical problems I keep being warned of of using OOo on a Network. I asked because I didn't believe the flannel I was given by my NM, but as I'm NOT a NM, I hoped to find out more here in case there were technical problems of which I was unaware. Sadly, the flaming has spoilt what was an interesting discussion. Perhaps we should leave it here - enough has been said. Thanks to those who were keen to offer their thoughts - they were appreciated.

No, absolutely not. Two of us always use OOo, three mostly use MS Office. I would want MS Office to stay as default, but for all members of staff to click on SAVED files and for them to open correctly in whichever program they were written. No, me neither! Thanks, I didn't know that!

I think we are off track a little here. Without Windows recognising which program opens which file, my staff (4 of them plus me) would navigate to the Physics folder and a see a File called say - 4th yr SoW. (Scheme of Work). However, under the 'seperate disc' solution, this would be a default icon that Windows uses when it doesn't recognise the file type (as discussed earlier). They would not know which program to open it with. How would the technically weaker members of my department know if I'd written this in 'Writer' or 'Calc'. (It is actually done in Calc, not Writer as you' might expect it to be) This makes life complicated. If it was recognised by Windows - ie OOo installed correctly - they could just click on the icon and 'bing!' the file opens. Is this too much to ask? I appreciate people offering work-arounds, but to be honest I've tried them all and nothing so far works quickly, easily and is simple to understand. I did ask if there were technical reasons why OOo could not be installed, and still I'm waiting for reasons why not! Please let me know the answer to that. Thanks

My Staff are not all technical like we are. They want to click on a file in the 'Physics' folder and for it to then open up - they don't care what program opens it as long as it opens correctly! Also, I'd have to put separate shortcuts on their desktops to OOo writer, Impress, Math, calc etc and then my staff would have to know which one opened which file!

When the NM agreed on the 'separate disc' solution I pointed out that without Network privileges, I couldn't install it so that when a user clicked on an icon, OOo would open up the file. As OOo wasn't installed through Windows, just installed by itself to its own folder, Windows had no idea what programs to use when I clicked on a .odt, .ods or .odp file. Up would come the 'Windows does not recognise this type of file - Open with... ' dialogue and then you had to go through a long route to find the folder and pick the program. This is NOT ideal in the heat of a lesson when trying to open an Impress presentation! The NM tried to change the Windows settings, on my networked PC, so that Windows associated OOo with the required programs... This was successful.... until I rebooted it and then it went back to the 'Windows does not recognise this type of file - Open with... ' dialogue. There it was left. I have to go through this rigaromole every time I want an OOo file opened. I asked here about technical problems with OOo. This solution seemed the worse of all worlds - connected to the Network, but not working properly, and only the most technical competent staff able to open up OOo files!

What do you mean by 'an exception'?? Do you vet the software used by the languages, maths and Art departments for example to decide whether it is 'consistent' with something used by say the music department?? Do you remove 'Paint' from all PCs if one department uses Photoshop? What do you mean by consistency here? Please explain MS Office does not follow published 'Open' standards and refuses to open up its formats and software for competitors to study. The EU fined it millions for this earlier this week as I'm sure you know. OOo uses .odt which is an internationally recognised open format for documents (in the same way every browser recognises .gif or .jpg files), but FULL compatibility with Microsoft Office is not possible in OOo or indeed any other competitor program. If you read this forum you will see that even Microsoft Office versions don't always work correctly with each other. Many pupils in our school with an different version of Office on their home computers can't print documents out or use the files on the School network as our present version of MS Office doesn't recognise them!! If MS Office opened all my OOo documents and files perfectly, neither I, or any pupil would have any complaint.

And does MS Office open .odt, .ods and .odp files? If it did perfectly, without format loss, I'd have absolutely no complaint. :-) If not, then it is no help. Is MS Office also free to all those students who need an Office suite? Please re-read my original posting - this has absolutely NOTHING to do with the rest of the school, just 3 PCs in my department. All the staff in my department are fluent with both MSOffice and OOo. We wish to retain M$ Office as the default for Office programs Thank you - I joined this forum to ask technically literate IT professionals, working in Education to give an opinion on the TECHNICAL problems associated with OOo on a network. All the reasons I have been given against OOo at my school are supposed technical issues and I came her to be enlightened.

I think you've missed the point a little here. The reasons I want OOo are absolutely clear in both my original posting and in some of my comments above. I really don't want to go down the "Use M$ route" in this thread. I asked specifically if OOo could run alongside M$ and would this cause problems to the Network, as I have been continually informed it would. I really do want to stick to teaching - I'm pretty good at it! - but both I and my pupils need OOo to make the job of teaching and learning easier. I COULD go back to using Banda's, chalk, and everything written by hand - but that is irrelevant here. I'm asking IT professionals for their comments on: "Is there any technical problems associated with running OOo on a Network alongside M$." I really don't want an OOo v M$ war. Thanks

As I said, all comments welcome. How exactly would I install it myself though, (without network permissions) so that when a member of staff clicked onto one of the Departmental Schemes of work or question sheets, it opened in OOo? I've tried converting the OOo format documents to M$ ones, but tables and columns all mess up and the formats are lost. Also, how could I stop the USB hard drives from being stolen by pupils? Is this a secure or workable idea?

Yes I know - I did this... in fact I went one further and installed a portable version in my user space on the Hard drive. I was asked to remove this (..."until a decision has been made about its use") but refused as without it my German student's in particular had a real trouble with 'A' level coursework presentations and printing of assignments. In my last meeting with the Head, I was offered a compromise by the Network Manager... I could buy a separate USB hard drive for Each PC, then I could install OOo on that (without Network permissions??) and then run it from there. That way, I was assured, it would "not be on the Network" and would therefore be safe and not harm the Network. Do I need to explain my thoughts on this???? Perhaps, as this thread is going to my Headmaster, some of you IT professionals could comment on this idea, as it was offered as a genuine solution....

Hi All I'm Head of Physics in a large Independant School and am a big user of Open Source software. (Linux on personal machines) For nearly three years I've been trying to get OpenOffice installed on the three Windows XP Networked computers in my department (alongside MS Office) as it is my preferred choice, and also as many of our European students only use this themselves - it is encouraged in schools in France and Germany I wish to use OOo on the network to print out my work, and to let my departmental staff access it too. I also want to allow students who only have OOo on their laptops to have access to printing in the school (via USB Flash drive) and to give coursework Impress presentations to their classmates - something they can't do at present if they don't have MS powerpoint. This proposal has been to the Network Manager many times, has gone through the IT project board twice (almost all of whom are technically illiterate) and has been raised by me with the Headmaster, a Governor (supposedly IT literate) and the Deputies too. It has been refused every single time, but I have never been given a written answer why. I have been told though that: "Open Source opens the Network to abuse" "Open Source is unsafe" "Open Source is editable by anyone so the kids could change it and cause problems" "It would confuse the pupils" "It would cause problems working alongside Microsoft Office" "It could ruin the network" and even - "We are a Microsoft School"! To counter this FUD I downloaded a 275 page copy of a large study and report by the EU on the use of Open Source software: "Economic impact of Open Source Software on innovation and competitiveness of the EU ICT sector" http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/ict/policy/doc/2006-11-20-flossimpact.pdf .. and made a Precis of the this which I presented to the decision makers. Amongst its key recommendations are: This was greeted with; "ah yes, but the Network security is paramount and we can't risking messing it all up with Open Source software" Glad they read the report then! So why write all this here? This is NOT a "I hate M$" rant. It is NOT to start a debate on which is best OOo or M$ Office It is not a Linux is great/sucks debate. What it is, is a plea for your help/comments. I am meeting with the Headmaster again next week, and am actually at the point of resigning from my job as Head of Physics due to the many frustrations I feel working here. So, please help me convince the Senior management of my School that I am not requesting the Installation of Virus Writer 4.2, that OOo isn't a trojan/virus/network hole, that OOo can work alongside M$ office, and that it is perfectly feasible (even desirable!) to have OpenOffice.org installed on 3 computers in my department. OR convince me that I'm wrong - maybe it is just me? Your comments/experiences would be so helpful. I will print out this thread in iits entirety to show the Headmaster when I meet him next week. Over to you!