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Open Office is a good enough program to use for writing, but if you think you are having problems between Word 2003 and Word 2007, you ain't seen nothing yet.

I have Open Office on my home computer, and Word 2007 on my work computer. I have written short but necessary papers at work and can usually transfer them to Open Office with no problem at all.

The problem comes when I work with a longer document and open it up in Open Office. The first page appears, usually just as I wrote it - but whatever of the document does not fit on the first page is gone from view. I've tried printing from that cut-off version of my document, but all I get is the first page.

I also must prepare several documents each month that contain a table or graph. These do not transfer from one wordworking program to another without becoming something unrecognizeable.

If I had my druthers, I would stick with Word - as much as I like parts of Open Office. Open Office is what best opens Open Office documents. Most people to whom I send documents are using one form of Word or another, or a Mac, and I have absolutely no idea how they open upon receipt. Word can also open documents written in WordPerfect with little or no change in the document. Open Office stumbles all over these.

I hate the monopoly Microsoft has on useable programs - but if one is trying to do any business with a variety of people, Word seems to be the most useful program to date.