[lug] Converting people

[Mike McCallister]

I would certainly put in a plug for the WordPerfect Suite. If he's been 
using Windows for years, he might well have used WordPerfect at one point 
or other. The suite comes with the Quattro Pro spreadsheet and 
Presentations package, along with the CorelCentral calendar/planner 
program. The Deluxe version even has the Paradox database!

I haven't worked much with the other suite components under Linux (I work 
with all of them in Windows), but WordPerfect is just lovely, and the 
conversion to MS Word format is terrific!

I'm not familiar with a PageMaker-like desktop publisher in Linux, but 
FrameMaker is available. It's a little more challenging to do, say, a 
three-column newsletter, in Frame than in PageMaker, but there are some 
templates available for that type of function.

What Kyle says about holding off on this person unless s/he wants to get 
more savvy is certainly relevant. Bad experiences are worse than no 
experience at all. Yet, if s/he is at all interested, particularly if 
they're actually considering working in NT or 2000, they become a ripe 
candidate for Linux. But if they'd really rather stay with Win9x, let them.

Mike

At 02:56 PM 7/14/00 -0600, you wrote:
>I should like to persuade someone to use Linux instead of 9x and NT.
>This is a *total* non-technical person, a plain user who is, however,
>quite skillful with the MS products.  You can assume that the
>technical stuff is handled by someone else.
>
>So, below is a list of a few applications that must be covered by
>Linux equivalents, there will be a few others that I have missed.  The
>question is: can anyone give me some suggestions on what to use?  I
>have heard of Applixware, Star Office, and others, but I know zero
>about any of them, or even if these are the right packages.
>
>Is it feasible to sit down someone like this in front of, say, a Linux
>spreadsheet, and have that person pick up the necessary knowledge just
>by clicking around?
>
>If anyone can give information on pitfalls, significant differences,
>gotchas, etc., that will be great.
>
>Word
>Excel
>PowerPoint
>PageMaker
>...
>
>dajo
>
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