Shortcomings of OpenOffice and Working Around Them?

1mck asks: "Most free office software does the job, and after a hard drive failure, I decided to go MS Office free, so I'm trying out OpenOffice; however, I've noticed that there are a few deficiencies that I'm having a hard time getting around like the 'Shrink to fit' function, and also having PPS files open up directly in 'Presentation' mode rather than in the Edit' mode. Has any one else picked up on other deficiencies in OpenOffice? I realize that it is free, and it won't be as well featured as most purchased software, but when I went on the hunt for the workarounds at the OpenOffice forums, and on the web I've come up with very little to no information at all. Have I chosen the right free software, or would you suggest something else?" What minor irritations and shortcomings have you found in OpenOffice and how have you adjusted to (or worked around) them?

Re:Limited rows in spreadsheets are such a pain

[TERdON]

Have you considered using a database? Spreadsheets are suited to being a cross of a desktop calculator and a word processor; if you want to be storing vast amounts of data, I'd recommend using a tool designed for it...

Have you really considered the effort to teach the marketing department how to use a database???

Essential commands are not working

[SpaghettiPattern]

Essential commands are not working. I mean, try ^[:wq or even ^[ZZ to write and quit. I tell ya, worthless junk!

OO misses the mark

[SlashSquatch]

What ... shortcomings have you found in OpenOffice and how have you adjusted to (or worked around) them?

Well I found OO is unable to emulate MS Word's intermittent inability to read it's own format. For instance, I had someone ask me to open a document saved on the Mac version of Word, which they could not open on a Windows version of Word. They asked because I have a Powerbook. However, I did not bother trying it there, OO was able to read it. I've heard of this "major shortcoming" in the design of OO, but I had not seen it demonstrated.

Who ever heard of a piece of "free" [gasp] software that could handle proprietary formats (which it probably guesses at) better than the software that generates the file?

Another stupid thing it does is convert .doc files to pdf. I heard that's obsolete in Word and don't even try the old postscript print to file -> ps2pdf workaround, I think that door is closed now.