Easy option to save OOo docs as .doc by default?

[scorp123]

I quickly save it and mail it to my friend forgetting that I saved it in OOo's format.

Which is no problem at all as OOo is an open format, the software is available for free and runs on many platforms. I just fail to see why we should support the big evildoers from Microsoft by making their proprietary non-standard format a "de facto" standard on this distro. If you do that you can just as well stay on Windows, then you don't need the freedoms that Linux can give you if still you allow Microsoft to enslave you with their proprietary formats. No insults intended here, this is just my personal opinion.

Besides: It is very easy to create Adobe PDF documents with OpenOffice; And PDF's have a nice feature: They are absolutely displayed 100% correctly on each platform and on each screen. And PDF readers are available for a wide range of OS's and platforms. So even if your contacts probably can't read OOo format documents and are unwilling to install OOo for their OS: Chances are they do have a PDF reader somewhere somehow, regardless what their OS is. So sending your stuff as PDF files is a safer bet than sending odd Microsoft formats.

[starkey]

With all respect, but I don't get the question. I think it's so easy to do the "switch" to save in .doc format.

Greetings.

[newW2]

I agree I don't get this. I transfer docs to myself and other and don't worry about the document type. For example, I haven't had any problem opening the docs from M$ word in Linux with Open Office or in M$ word from Open Office docs mad on my Linux Mint OS. M$ forces you to open the OOo doc as an .rtf doc first, but hey word users are generally used to (or at least should be) opening / converting documents from open formats into the non-standard windows formats.

I strongly agree with scorp123's point of view ... essentially M$ wants to be different, so they should bare the brunt of the effort to work with others, or they will not be used. Additionally, that is just natural selection at work. An inferior OS will eventually not be selected.

[newW2]

contents: interesting I tried to open the odt in home/student version of word and not like I stated. In professional office version open with allowed open with rtf. Or at least that is what i recall must try this at work.

There is however another option if it is allowed in China, and that is that Google has added Star Office by Sun, and it is a free download. StarOffice will save in word format.

[WinXpNewb]

If you want to be a free software purist, then that's great and I fully support you. There are several distros that adhere to a "no compromise" philosophy: blag, gnewsense, ututo. Mint, however, seems to be based on another idea--it includes flash, the not-yet-completely-free java, non-free codecs, etc., all for the purpose of interoperability. That's good, too, and I think that's one of the reasons (in addition to the very excellent apps that Clem creates himself) why mint is so popular.

I think this sums up quite well why Mint should do this.

I'm actually more concerned about spreadsheets. I think .docs are close to mainstream recognition and most everyone gets an idea that something is not going to open in MS Word if it's not in .doc but spreadsheet formats are still an unknown thing. At least for me, it still is. I tend to hesitate everytime I see a .xls file even when associated to open in Excel.

For the purist, I think a good compromise could be a link in the setup that opens up an explanation why to use open formats and the pros and cons behind it.