Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 41971
Importing styles / settings from MS Office installation if present
Last modified: 2013-02-07 22:35:26 UTC
A large number of users who will install OO.o would be migrating to OO.o from MS Office. Therefore, during installation OO.o could do more to help the migrating users who have been working all through the years with MS Office softwares. During installation OO.o could check for existing MS Office installations and - ask the user whether she would like to have her MS Office settings to be copied to OO.o, Then - - OO.o could look for the Documents folder [My Documents / Some other User defined Folder] and set its own documents folder. - OO.o writer could import 'style defenitions' from the 'Normal.dot'. This would mean updating the 'Default' with 'Normal', all similar headings, etc. from the winword template. But don't do the 'WWZZZZ8990' thing to show that these were imported from MS Word. This is quite uncomfortable. At this stage what OO.o should do is to update its own styles. - OO.o calc could import the Font, other settings from Excel. - finally show a summary of what all was imported. This list is quite a few, what I said was particular about MS WOrd, This could be implemented for all other applications. In general it would be like putting the user at no pains for his preferred settings and the switch over to this new software would be quite hassle free for her. I would say that if the overheads are not quite high, please consider.
This doesn't make sense for the installation but for the first office start.
that's it. :)
It would be useful to have a facility to import additional True Type fonts from any source, including Microsoft Office. I like to use Bookman Old Style but cannot find a way to make this available in Open Office Write.