I just got it a few days ago.. I like it so far, not to mention the best part.. It's FREE. Any good/bad things about it?
http://www.openoffice.org/
http://www.openoffice.org/
Anyone use open office?
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That looks pretty cool! Sure beats spending hundreds on Microsoft Office.
I've used it for about a year now in WinXP and now in Linux. My test was simple: use OO 2.0 at home exactly as I use MS Office at work.
So I'd VPN to the corp network, work on files, save them as DOC and XLS format...all is well! I haven't toyed with the presentation program much. The Math program is quite neat.
Interesting to note how much larger a MSOffice created file is compared to an OO file: about 9K. That doesn't sound like much, but a new Excel spreadsheet from OO had about 15K in it...opening that file in MS Excel and saving it (no additional data) was 24KB. Add that up over the course of a several million files on a file server and it makes MS OFfice look like a space hog!!
At any rate, I like OO. It's a great product on both WinXP and SuSE Linux IMO.
So I'd VPN to the corp network, work on files, save them as DOC and XLS format...all is well! I haven't toyed with the presentation program much. The Math program is quite neat.
Interesting to note how much larger a MSOffice created file is compared to an OO file: about 9K. That doesn't sound like much, but a new Excel spreadsheet from OO had about 15K in it...opening that file in MS Excel and saving it (no additional data) was 24KB. Add that up over the course of a several million files on a file server and it makes MS OFfice look like a space hog!!
At any rate, I like OO. It's a great product on both WinXP and SuSE Linux IMO.
It's good. It's biggest weakness is that it won't handle VBA macros, and that's not much of a weakness. That doesn't effect most Office users but does limit its usefulness to power users who need to share their work with MS Orifice users. It's own built in programming language is similar to MS's but not compatible. I doubt that 5% of users care about the programming/macros.
It's good first step for someone who is trying to wean their self off MS software. It works the same in Linux or Windows so it will make a future transition to Linux that much simpler.
Open Office also exports nicer looking smaller html documents than MS Orifice does.
It's good first step for someone who is trying to wean their self off MS software. It works the same in Linux or Windows so it will make a future transition to Linux that much simpler.
Open Office also exports nicer looking smaller html documents than MS Orifice does.
Who needs an offline word processor and spreadsheet program with the existence of Google Documents and Google Spreadsheets?
since its open source, its getting better and better.
The new version is miles better than 1.x and even that was decent for free.
The html wysiwyg editor is sort of buggy, but I can live with that.
The new version is miles better than 1.x and even that was decent for free.
The html wysiwyg editor is sort of buggy, but I can live with that.
On a related note, I enjoy using the free AbiWord for Mac OSX. It runs very quickly on my nearly 4 year old Mac PowerBook.
I'm using it. It's slow on my older PII/400mhz but manageable.
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Who needs an offline word processor and spreadsheet program with the existence of Google Documents and Google Spreadsheets?
Google spreadsheet looks OK for light duty stuff.
Wife works on shared documents both for work (huge corp with VPN) and online grad school.
She hates openoffice, claiming incompatibilities with MS word. We figure MS crams new versions of office (with minor file format changes) down corporate/school IT dept throats at discount so end users will have to buy full price home versions to keep up. She'd like to become MS free too but the inertia is hard to fight.
I myself have it and love it since the 1.x days. Any MS formatted documents open seamlessly... whether OO converts them somewhat, I couldn't care less, as long as they then continue to work for me.
The pdf output is nice, though one can get a seperate PDF distiller here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/
She hates openoffice, claiming incompatibilities with MS word. We figure MS crams new versions of office (with minor file format changes) down corporate/school IT dept throats at discount so end users will have to buy full price home versions to keep up. She'd like to become MS free too but the inertia is hard to fight.
I myself have it and love it since the 1.x days. Any MS formatted documents open seamlessly... whether OO converts them somewhat, I couldn't care less, as long as they then continue to work for me.
The pdf output is nice, though one can get a seperate PDF distiller here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/
I used it on two computers and gave up for incompatibility with the other computers, couldn't run the password protection or macros that are part of normal operation in Excel. couldn't share files back and forth, a few other things.
Probably great for someone who wants something free for home use and doesn't use macros.
Probably great for someone who wants something free for home use and doesn't use macros.
I'm pro-open source. I've used Open Office for a long time. Unfortunately, I've memorized all of Microsoft Office's shortcut keys (how to increase font size, tabbing, etc...) having used Microsoft since Office 97 so it is a lot easier to use open office. I can not figure out how to increase font size in open office with a keyboard shortcut...
Other than that - Open Office has all the features that Microsoft Office has. When I buy a new computer I won't plunk down $200 for Office - I'll use open office.
Other than that - Open Office has all the features that Microsoft Office has. When I buy a new computer I won't plunk down $200 for Office - I'll use open office.
I've used Open Office in the past and I like it- I am also pro-open source and am considering building a separate Linux machine (yeah, I can dual-boot but I don't like too).
It's good stuff, and it's FREE!!!!! The ONLY reason I still have WinXP is because of workplace compatibility issues.
It's good stuff, and it's FREE!!!!! The ONLY reason I still have WinXP is because of workplace compatibility issues.
At my previous job we were linux only and used star office. it worked really well.
I've played around with it. But I prefer Office 2003.
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