Topic: MS Word/Sun StarOffice HELP!!

[E_Look]

Sethan- long filenames ARE STILL good... so long as I launch the application first and then open the file, there's no problems.  It's, again, only when I try to launch from the file icon in a directory (uh, folder... I forgot it's Windows) window.  And long directory names are okay too, again, so long as there are no spaces in it.  Again, weird.

[Malystryx_XC]

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Also, what were some of the things you tried to restore long filename support short of a full OS reinstall?

Well... when it happened to me, it was actually worse as the operating system itself couldn't even understand long file names anymore.   Most of my programs wouldn't even run and I would get errors that it couldn't find such and such.  I tried rebooting, running "chkdsk /R" (scandisk under Win98), running the Win2k auto repair off of the install CD, tried replacing the master boot record using the recovery console, tried booting to safe mode and none of it worked.  The only thing I could do was pull up a DOS box and use the FTP command line client to upload all of my important data to my company's FTP server.  Then did a full format of the hard drive and reinstalled the OS from scratch.

If your problem seems to only be localized to MS Office, you may want to simply backup your Office documents, run a full uninstall of MS Office, reboot the computer and try a reinstall.  This should also correct any file association problems as well if these are coming into play.  It's worth a shot!  

[E_Look]

Sirgod, Sethan, Malystryx_XC, in order of appearance:

Thanks for the input.  I wound up having to uninstall and reinstall to get it to recognize spaces in the filenames and path again, just as you all said.  What a pain.

Anyhow, this Win98/Celeron 466/on-board ATI Rage Pro off the the shelf HP system is going to be handed off (or is it lateralled... nah, handed off: he's just a kid) to my son, along with the MS Office in it, as soon as I can go tomorrow and get an RJ-45 cable to hook the 'Net up to my new...

... Win XP/Athlon 64 3000+/ATI Radeon 9700 Pro system I just scratch built myself!  I finally was able to enjoy a test skirmish in SFC3 (after al these years)!

And, I'm going with StarOffice.  I might just load in Office 97 (the only one I own... I don't feel like springing about $200-ish for MS Office 2003.  I got also a big, fast SATA drive, but I'm going to do with it what I'll do with my weight- keep it light, not loaded up, clean, and neat...
... yeah, right!

Now this is bad- going OT in an OT forum post, especially my own!!!  

[Demandred]

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Thanks for that link Malystryx_XC, I might check It out For my wifes PC, after I get off of hers here.

sounds very promising.

stephen  

No problem, hope you enjoy working with it!

If you are interested, check out their development notes on the site for their next release 2.0.  From the sounds of it, the finished product will easily be a competitive match for MS Office and will even have a more robust database engine (than OO1.1) to compete with MS Access.

The only thing I don't see planned in Open Office is a mail client to compete with Outlook but I don't think that is really a big deal since a company called Ximian (sp?) has a product called Evolution which is used pretty extensively in Linux distros and is a near duplicate of Outlook.   I believe they have also added support for Windows now as well.  

Or you could use Mozilla Thunderbird. Microsoft hasn't cornered the market on email clients, though they appear to have cornered the market on email viruses.

[Malystryx_XC]

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Or you could use Mozilla Thunderbird. Microsoft hasn't cornered the market on email clients, though they appear to have cornered the market on email viruses.  

Yeah, I've tried Thunderbird before and don't really like it actually.  I was hoping to use it as an Outlook replacement but found it pretty lacking in features that I use regularly for business.  With Outlook (the full version not Express) I use the import/export filters, I have a nice address book with VCard sending ability, I can easily backup my mailbox file and move it to different computers, I can schedule events with pop-up alarms, I can easily setup mail handling rules and numerous other functions that I find quite helpful.  

I use Mozilla Firebird for my browser about 99% of the time however and love it!  I only need to use Internet Explorer for sites that specifically require it due to a special plugin or whatnot.  Firebird I would highly recommend but Thunderbird kinda leaves me cold.

As far as viruses go... I use Trend Micro Internet Security which scans all incoming email for viruses before they are downloaded to my email client.  I also have Trend Micro's PC-Cillin (pre-cursor to Internet Security) installed on all of our office machines and have *never* had a problem with Outlook email viruses.  It's funny because we often catch viruses coming in from our client's and we alert them before they even *know* they are infected!  Hehe.