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Using WINE or Converting — Day 38© Copyright Darrell Anderson. Because I will be using Word 97 long after I commit to using GNU/Linux on a regular basis, I think a continued use of Eudora makes sense too. That buys me time to become more acquainted with other mail clients as well as OpenOffice. The only alternative I see is Thunderbird and I expect to play with that on my test box. However, testing new software takes a lot of time. If Thunderbird suffices and performs as I want and need, then I will migrate. If not, then I will continue using Eudora in WINE. Thus, I installed WINE on both boxes, downloaded from http://www.linuxpackages.net. I barely have started reading the documentation for configuring WINE. This does not look like a fun project. I hope somebody has a web site providing a better big picture of what is going on. As a technical writer, I found the WINE documentation confusing. I am sure all of the information is there, but I did not find a straightforward outline, introduction, or punch list of how this overall process should work. The documentation seems geared toward people who already have a basic idea of how this software works, not the novice. Rather than trying to migrate or convert Word files to OpenOffice 1.1.3 I will wait until version 2.0 is available. Version 2.0 is supposed to provide better Word file support. I was displeased with the few Word files I imported into version 1.1.3. The Word files I tested were not simple text files but structured documents using templates and styles. Although OpenOffice imported the files without complaints, the page layout was not the same as in Word and I noticed at least one style that did not convert correctly — the main document style. Lots of clean up work. Sigh! Unless version 2.0 provides spectacular import filters for Word, I think the best long-term solution is use both OpenOffice Writer and Word 97 concurrently. That is, continue using Word for all of my existing documents and don’t worry about converting them. Then learn to use Writer. Slowly but surely learn how to convert my templates and styles to Writer and create a new writing environment within Writer. Then begin the process of using Writer for all new documents while maintaining my old documents in Word. Whether I use Word 97 in WINE or boot into NT4 will not alleviate my need to maintain Word for a long time. This is not something hobbyists should take lightly. I once helped a company of people migrate to Word 97 from WordPerfect. The process took about a year and required creating new templates, new macros, and the painful process of converting documents. Yet, even after that concentrated period, the IT people relinquished and allowed a handful of people to maintain WordPerfect access. Migrating is not easy. Regardless, as I continue using GNU/Linux more as my primary environment, an obvious choice is maintain Word 97 in WINE, and not toggle between NT4 and GNU/Linux or maintain separate boxes. Thus, one way or another I now face learning how to eat, drink, and sleep WINE. I also installed a package for the nano text editor. I’m still undecided which console editor I want to learn and become accustomed to. Thus far, I have yet to find a console editor I like, although with vim I do have some color coding. Frankly, to me all ’nix console editors seem designed for Martians! Finis. |
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