Tech Notes: XLSX

A little tech note for those of us, who like me use Linux. One pain is that complicated Microsoft Office documents, like a complicated XSLX document that uses pivot tables, often get messed up even by the venerable OpenOffice Suite. A suprising solution is Gnumeric Spreadsheet which actually displays XLSX documents with no problem. Another surprise is that if you open a document in Gnumeric Spreadsheet and then save it as .ods, it actually comes out better if you open it straight with OpenOffice. One penalty though, you lose the macros. Overall though I have been surprisingly pleased with Gnumeric spreadsheet. Though I have my own issues with all the gnom-iness in the world, and especially with GNU Trolls (let me introduce the label gnoll for them, which I realize is a different fantasy creature, but perhaps that is the point, if it has not been used already), I must say, with some reluctance given a long-time use of OpenOffice, that I'll most likely be using Gnumeric spreadsheet for my spreadsheeting needs, at least when the content must be exchanged with Microsoft Office. I hope someday to come back to thee OpenOffice Spreadsheet, maybe once you beef up your compatibilities, or if perhaps, dare I hope, you see the truth and ditch Java to bathe in the glory of C++, where all good applications originate.