OpenOffice?

VelocityVelocity
edited August 2007 in Science & Tech
anyone ever try OpenOffice suite? and what did you think of it?

Comments

  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited July 2007
    On the whole I like the application. It's missing some "Usability" or "Feel" that I appreciate in MSFT Office, and it needs to work on its document compatibility, I feel. But on the whole I think it's a fine replacement for someone looking to save some money and won't be sharing the creations with another program.
  • VelocityVelocity
    edited July 2007
    I was always just into gaming, so when I bought a new puter, I always skipped the MS suites (had no need for them) and channeled the funds towards more ram/bigger vid card. MS Works seems pretty useless for my task.
    But now I got elected to do a newsletter for my gaming clan, and this seems to have enough for the job, and the ability to convert my work to pdf should just be about all I need.
    Thanxs 4 the response.
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited July 2007
    I'm a systems admin for a 150+ company. As a policy we use MS Office (long story not important). I personally at work and home though use OpenOffice. I like it better and though it's missing a couple things out of the box (data>colum tool in calc) most of the missing functionality is fixable with pluggins. I haven't suffered any compatibility issues at all in using others works or saving mine in MS format so others can use them. With a couple exceptions. There are some poorly written word doc's with embedded graphics that OpenOffice won't open. OpenOffice won't run visual basic macro's designed for Excel. So for those I have to be creative. But in 95% of the case I find OpenOffice does things just as well and often better. What you won't get is a lot of fluff.

    If all you need is average Office style functionality the OpenOffice will suite you perfectly. If you really know how to use Office software then you'll also be fine with OpenOffice. If however you are a point click monkey that only knows what the buttons do in MS Office and don't understand what they do then you'll probably have some problems with OpenOffice in both it's layout and it's functionality.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited July 2007
    I like openoffice and recommend it to as many people as I can because the more people use, the more likely the development will become as suitable a replacement for MS Office as possible. Many of my clients can't afford a $400+ office suite, and OpenOffice does the job admirably.
  • pigflipperpigflipper The Forgotten Coast Icrontian
    edited July 2007
    I've been using OpenOffice for about 3 years now and I absolutely love it. I mainly use it for word processing since I am a student and a writer. Never had a problem when transfering the files to a MS Office system, though sometimes you have to save the file in the OpenOffice format first, then save it again as an MS document.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited July 2007
    OpenOffice = Good Stuff

    Download it, install it, use it, save big money, enjoy it.

    That's my report. By the way, it's much superior in my opinion to one of the other 'alternative' office suites - Work Perfect Office Suite, which, in my opinion is crude/amateurish.
  • NibiNibi
    edited July 2007
    I use openoffice and have done for a while now. Not only does it offer an acceptable replacement for the MS suite, but its free, which is obviously one of its best features.

    I've never tried any other free suites that are available though, but i doubt that any would be as good as OpenOffice.
  • ThelemechThelemech Victoria Icrontian
    edited July 2007
    I use Word 2002 / Office 2003 Pro / OpenOffice , and like all of them for different reasons - but for free it is(OpenOffice) pretty hardy and is well made(Sun Micro -Java/Solaris.)
  • VelocityVelocity
    edited July 2007
    wow, i never heard anyone ever mention OpenOffice. Now I see its got alot of in the shadows users.
    Thanks for the feedback. I am a point clickin monkey, but I havent hung from any branches since the 60's :)
  • GargGarg Purveyor of Lincoln Nightmares Icrontian
    edited July 2007
    I like Writer and Impress quite a bit (I think Impress is considerably better than Powerpoint, actually), but Calc and Base need some more work. I'm considering buying a new laptop, and if I do, I'll probably use OpenOffice + MS Access. Save a couple hundred dollars that way.

    Hopefully Base gets better, because MS Access is pretty lousy, too.
  • drasnordrasnor Starship Operator Hawthorne, CA Icrontian
    edited August 2007
    Gargoyle wrote:
    I like Writer and Impress quite a bit (I think Impress is considerably better than Powerpoint, actually), but Calc and Base need some more work.
    Seconded.

    -drasnor :fold:
  • osaddictosaddict London, UK
    edited August 2007
    I use it at home as my home needs are very basic, however, I prefer using Office 2007 by a billion miles.
  • NomadNomad A Small Piece of Hell Icrontian
    edited August 2007
    I usually recommend Open Office to people who buy Macs and wonder why it doesn't come with Word.
  • fatsheepfatsheep
    edited August 2007
    I find Open Office to be quite bloated. It takes a while to load and it has way more features then I would ever need. Abiword is much more lightweight but I have found it to be more difficult to configure and the font rendering on Linux is not the best for some reason (text looks a bit jagged). However, there is a Windows version and I don't believe it has that problem. Check out the above link if you're interested. It, like Open Office, is 100% open source and free to download and use.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited August 2007
    (Windows version) I don't think the slowness is due to bloating, rather to the engine that powers it - Java. Java takes a long time to power up. Once you've opened an Open Office application, you can close it, and subsequent re-opening will take only a fraction of the time the first opening required because Java will already be running. Can't comment on the Linux version.

    Sorry for my generalized terminology.
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited August 2007
    Abiword isn't bad for a word processor, but that's all it is. Open Office is a total package they aren't even comparable. But Leonardo is correct in why Open Office takes longer to load, initially.
  • fatsheepfatsheep
    edited August 2007
    I thought Open Office was written in C or C++? If it's written in Java, no wonder why it is so slow. I'm sorry but most Java programs I've used have been unresponsive and slow. Maybe this isn't always the case but it's been my experience that Java = slow program.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited August 2007
    Open Office opens slowly, but once open, it's performs nicely.

    Yeah, I'm not much of a fan of Java either. I think it's clunky.
  • fatsheepfatsheep
    edited August 2007
    Leonardo wrote:
    Open Office opens slowly, but once open, it's performs nicely.

    Yeah, I'm not much of a fan of Java either. I think it's clunky.

    Yea, I much prefer Python. :)
  • Island-DogIsland-Dog St. Cloud, FL.
    edited August 2007
    I use it on my XP machine and although it can be a little slow, it's great for what I need to do on that machine.

    I have Office 2007 on my Vista machine as that's also my work computer.
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