On 16 February 2011 20:03, Marc Fresko <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Sam

OpenOffice is one of the world's more popular software products, claiming over 93 million downloads so far.  So any numbers you collect from readers of this list will not be very representative.

FWIW, I think most users find it a very powerful suite - not the same as, but a strong competitor with, Microsoft Office (just to choose one other product at random).  And it is mature and attractive too - far better than much shareware/open source software.

It can interwork with Microsoft Office file formats.  This said, the interoperability is imperfect.  Exchanging simple documents is absolutely fine - but working with documents that use advanced features (some table features, or change tracking for example) causes formatting changes when converting.  So if that matters to you, test it carefully or just avoid it.

The Document and Content Management Group of Intellect (the UK trade body for the technology industry) published a white paper on this subject that I thought was helpful - entitled "Why the format of office documents matters to your business".  It’s a free download from
http://www.intellectuk.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1146&Itemid=47 (aka http://tinyurl.com/4v6hhmn).  I'll send you a copy off-list.

All the best

Marc Fresko