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A story that needs retelling but may or may not be fiction, reports that, when they implemented openoffice migration, they didn't even tell the users that they were switching to a different office suite. They just said that there was going to upgrade Office to a newer version with service packs and latest enhancements. Then, they modified the OpenOffice.org menus and toolbars to resemble the Microsoft Office layout and phrasing as much as possible (without violating copyright, of course) and gave that configured version to the users. They reported very few problems with the migration!
I love that story. Is the biggest problem with openoffice migration is simply that it is change? If you think that you're using a drastically upgraded version of Microsoft Office, will you be as upset by changed features and minor formatting problems between documents?
It's an interesting idea, at least. Obviously, awareness of change is not the only issue at hand. OpenOffice.org and Microsoft Office are definitely different, and a switch does require some relearning. But it does beg the question: how much of the difficulty in migrating to OpenOffice.org, both real and imagined, can be reduced by simply using the extensive configuration tools at our disposal to make OpenOffice.org look like Microsoft Office?
And why stop there? You could create additional menus and toolbars to make work easier with OpenOffice.org: create specific toolbars for each department with the most commonly performed functions; add menus for who to go to for help; remove items that are confusing or irrelevant; and so on.
OpenOffice.org is amazingly configurable. Adding or removing menus, changing order of menu items, changing what the items are called...it's all very easy. The same goes for toolbars. Here's a little something I did in about a minute with my own installation of OpenOffice.org.
MIGRATION & INTEGRATION
Easing migration with the OpenOffice.org menu and toolbar configuration tools
Solveig Haugland
05.24.2006
Rating: -4.67- (out of 5)
One of my blog readers reports that, when he migrated his organization to OpenOffice.org, he didn't even tell the users that they were switching to a different office suite. He just said that there was going to be a big upgrade. Then, he and his migration cohorts modified the OpenOffice.org menus and toolbars to resemble the Microsoft Office layout and phrasing as much as possible (without violating copyright, of course) and gave that configured version to the users. He reports very few problems with the migration.
I love that story. Is the biggest problem with change simply that it is change? If you think that you're using a drastically upgraded version of Microsoft Office, will you be as upset by changed features and minor formatting problems between documents?
It's an interesting idea, at least. Obviously, awareness of change is not the only issue at hand. OpenOffice.org and Microsoft Office are definitely different, and a switch does require some relearning. But it does beg the question: how much of the difficulty in migrating to OpenOffice.org, both real and imagined, can be reduced by simply using the extensive configuration tools at our disposal to make OpenOffice.org look like Microsoft Office?
And why stop there? You could create additional menus and toolbars to make work easier with OpenOffice.org: create specific toolbars for each department with the most commonly performed functions; add menus for who to go to for help; remove items that are confusing or irrelevant; and so on.
OpenOffice.org is amazingly configurable. Adding or removing menus, changing order of menu items, changing what the items are called...it's all very easy. The same goes for toolbars. Here's a little something I did in about a minute with my own installation of OpenOffice.org.
Before getting started: A couple of questions and answers
Before I get into the specifics, I realize you might be wondering about a few things.
What about Microsoft's copyright?
I've looked at the EULA and documentation online, and from what I can tell, Microsoft owns the appearance of its icons. But the company doesn't own exclusive rights to things like the phrase "Print Preview," so you should be fine renaming icons and making menu items appear in the same order as in Word. Of course, I am not a lawyer and don't know for sure, so you should do a little research on your own as well.
Do I have to make these changes on everyone's computer?
Not really. You do need to set up all of your users to use the same menu configuration files on the server or copy the edited configuration file to everyone's computer. Either way, it's not a huge amount of work if you have good system management tools.
Read the full article
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