Sort of Office-less
Monday, January 23, 2006
So, my new laptop - the "titanium beast" - has Windows XP. I really didn't want to fool about with Linux on this machine. Desktop Linux I can handle; laptop Linux is entirely another matter. Anyway, if I'd wanted a Unix-based laptop I would have taken out a mortgage and bought one of the new Intel Macs - the MacBook, or whatever thunderously unoriginal and clunking name it has picked up.
I have XP but that, I said to myself (but not out loud because I'm not quite that mad yet), is all the Microsoft stuff I'm going to use on this box. So Office, which was sitting on my Dell and on my ThinkPas T41, is out. Outlook and its baby sister, Outlook Express, are out. (I'm sure I should be sprinkling TMs and copyright signs throughout this blog whenever I mention Microsoft or one of its products but, hey, I'm living dangerously here.)
Of course I did have to use IE to download Firefox but that was it for the Mosaic-based browser. (Quick aside: went to the Lenovo site this evening to see about extra batteries for the Z60m and guess what? - you can only display the little batteries pop-up screen in IE. Lenovo just lost a purchase.) After Firefox it was OpenOffice. Installed, no problem. Now, for mail? Ah, yes, Thunderbird. Installed and looks pleasantly sparse and focused on email. A calendar? Chandler. Works well, so far: not that I've punished too much with my barren social calendar.
But back to Thunderbird. I wanted to import some of my old Outlook mail into the new app. It offers an import from Outlook function so I thought if I copied the .pst file from my Dell Thunderbird would let me point to it and do whatever Thunderbird felt was necessary. Oh, no. In order to switch to this non-Microsoft email client you need to have the Microsoft email client installed on the same box. If you don't, Thunderbird simply tells you that it can't find Outlook. Well, duh, that's why I installed Thunderbird. If I wanted bloody Outlook and the bloated suite of Office productivity disablers I would have installed them.
I installed Outlook and launched it, after putting my old .pst file in the approporaite directory. Outlook creates a new .pst file. I deleted the new .pst file and relaunched the app. It tells me it can't find the new .pst file. I rename the old .pst file and relaunch the app. But g-g-g-g-golly, it worked.
So, after installing Outlook and fooling it into thinking it was an old hand at gathering emial, I could import my mail into Thunderbird. I did: it worked a treat. Then I deleted Outlook.
But, get a grip Mozilla, that is not a smmoth migration path. That is not a great sell to convert Outlook users. In fact, it's downright lazy.
I'll have to see how I get on without Office. Much of my work involves swapping Word documents with editors and clients. If OpenOffice Writer cannot cope then I'll have to resort to plan B. I'll decide what plan B is when plan A is shown to have failed completely.
I have XP but that, I said to myself (but not out loud because I'm not quite that mad yet), is all the Microsoft stuff I'm going to use on this box. So Office, which was sitting on my Dell and on my ThinkPas T41, is out. Outlook and its baby sister, Outlook Express, are out. (I'm sure I should be sprinkling TMs and copyright signs throughout this blog whenever I mention Microsoft or one of its products but, hey, I'm living dangerously here.)
Of course I did have to use IE to download Firefox but that was it for the Mosaic-based browser. (Quick aside: went to the Lenovo site this evening to see about extra batteries for the Z60m and guess what? - you can only display the little batteries pop-up screen in IE. Lenovo just lost a purchase.) After Firefox it was OpenOffice. Installed, no problem. Now, for mail? Ah, yes, Thunderbird. Installed and looks pleasantly sparse and focused on email. A calendar? Chandler. Works well, so far: not that I've punished too much with my barren social calendar.
But back to Thunderbird. I wanted to import some of my old Outlook mail into the new app. It offers an import from Outlook function so I thought if I copied the .pst file from my Dell Thunderbird would let me point to it and do whatever Thunderbird felt was necessary. Oh, no. In order to switch to this non-Microsoft email client you need to have the Microsoft email client installed on the same box. If you don't, Thunderbird simply tells you that it can't find Outlook. Well, duh, that's why I installed Thunderbird. If I wanted bloody Outlook and the bloated suite of Office productivity disablers I would have installed them.
I installed Outlook and launched it, after putting my old .pst file in the approporaite directory. Outlook creates a new .pst file. I deleted the new .pst file and relaunched the app. It tells me it can't find the new .pst file. I rename the old .pst file and relaunch the app. But g-g-g-g-golly, it worked.
So, after installing Outlook and fooling it into thinking it was an old hand at gathering emial, I could import my mail into Thunderbird. I did: it worked a treat. Then I deleted Outlook.
But, get a grip Mozilla, that is not a smmoth migration path. That is not a great sell to convert Outlook users. In fact, it's downright lazy.
I'll have to see how I get on without Office. Much of my work involves swapping Word documents with editors and clients. If OpenOffice Writer cannot cope then I'll have to resort to plan B. I'll decide what plan B is when plan A is shown to have failed completely.
