It is definitely not unique to Office 2010
By Michael Smith (Veshengro)
On Wiki How an article appeared in March 2011 that was making a great hullabaloo out of the fact that you can rotate text in the latest version of Word, which is part of Microsoft Office 2010. They are treating this as if it is something unique, which it is not.
Open Office, for example, has been able to do the very same for the last couple of years, showing how far ahead this Open Source software has been on many levels and, much like in the case of the Microsoft's Internet Explorer playing catch up with Firefox in the security field MS Office – on a number of levels – plays the same game with Open Office.
Open Office had the rotation facility for text for about two years by now though it does work different to that in MS Office 2010; no vial “handles” on the word box frame but via drop down menu and box where the degree of rotation is dealt with. More accurate and without mouse jitter.
We have spoken about Open Office, a free Open Source Office Suite that is available for Microsoft Windows, Apple, and Linux, and has, interoperability, across most of MS Office, with the exception of some of the latest gimmicks in MS Office that seem to have been created to make people dependent on Microsoft.
However, you do not have to be dependent on the people from Redmond nor do you have to be dependent on the likes of Adobe, or other proprietary software makers.
To nigh on everything there is an Open Source equivalent, including Operating Systems, and in Open Source there are some thing that the closed shop guys haven't even though of as yet.
As to rotating text (in a box) it can create rather interesting letterheads and such like and is more effective, in that way, that is using Word Art, which called Fontwork in Open Office.
While MS Office 2010 (and also it predecessors) cost you in the region of $100 or so Open Office, with basically the same capabilities, costs you zero, and performs equally well if not better in the main tasks.
Yes, Open Office does not have an Outlook program or the little useless note program that MS Office has included since the one before Office 2010, but in other cases it outperforms and in addition to that any document and file in Open Office can be, by the click of a button, turned into a PDF file. No need for Adobe or anything else.
I do prefer the use of another Open Source piece of kit for this, as a virtual printer, and that is PDF Creator from Sourceforge.
As I keep saying, no need to have proprietary software that they want tons of money for; for nearly everything that you want and need there is, normally, and Open Source, and therefore, free, piece of software available. All it will cost you is the download.
© 2011
