OpenOffice.ORG

Here ^ | Now | GB

[Tribune7]

I use it. I prefer MS but you can’t beat the price.

[rabscuttle385]

Another vote for "Open Office is very good."

It's decent, but have you ever tried writing mathematical documents using a GUI-based word processor?

[rabscuttle385]

I’m going to try and install Lyx tonight so I can prepare a problem set for tomorrow. We’ve been using TeXnicCenter but it sucks, and I switched to another IDE (WinShell) but it still leaves me wanting. Perhaps Lyx will be better.

[shorty_harris]

I have tried to use OpenOffice on my mac and I think it totally sux. half the time it won’t even start up. it causes X11 to start up, then times out.

Try the 3.0 Beta version. Doesn't use X11. Runs a lot nicer on my Mac Book Pro.

[Billthedrill]

Great product. V3.0 is out in beta and supposedly (I haven't verified this) will read the XML docs that Office 2007 uses. I use it and the two most recent Microsoft suites. Not really much of a transition challenge between the three products for basic use.

A word of caution - a Beta really is a Beta in this world and you might be more comfortable with 2.3.1, which is rock-solid although without all the bells and whistles of the new version.

One other thing - if you happen to bounce between Microsoft and Linux boxes as I do it offers a smaller training curve because it's cross-platform. It also has a smaller footprint than MS Office if you're lusting after that new UMPC...like I am... ;-)

[amigatec]

V3.0 for MAC only runs on an Intel MAC, I have a G5.

[N3WBI3]

Open Office is a great sweet, I would say the only area in which it is *slightly* behind MS Office would be Excel vs. Calc (and even then its only lacking in some seldom used features).

The native pdf export, and open file formats make it extremely favorable..

Also, its free so take it for a drive and see if you like it.

[N3WBI3]

Are you saving the files in a format readable by word? the default format is not word readable but it does support save as. Ive seen a few hinky formatting things over the years but on the whole I’m 99% happy with the MS format files created by OO

[B Knotts]

I’ve been using OpenOffice.org for several years. Before that, I used StarOffice, which was the original basis for OpenOffice.org, for several years. My experience is that it generally works fine with MS Office documents, although you may experience the occcasional formatting issue with complex documents (especially spreadsheets).

It has gradually gotten better over the years.

[kevkrom]

I’ve switched to using it recently, and I like it just fine. It’s still free, as far as I know, but you can get paid support...

[N3WBI3]

Unless GIMP has seriously cleaned up in install (self include the gnu libs it needs etc.) I would not recommend it without qualification...

[kevkrom]

I have tried to use OpenOffice on my mac and I think it totally sux. half the time it won’t even start up. it causes X11 to start up, then times out. Had to uninstall it.

Use NeoOffice instead; it's Mac native and works great.

[Redcloak]

I’ve been using OOo for years now and highly recommend it.

There used to be some problems with getting Word to read files OOo had saved to the .doc format, but that seems to have passed. I did some writing at home on my Linux box the other day, saved the work to a .doc file, and opened it up at work on Word with no problems at all.

One of the features I really like is that OOo can create .pdf files with the click of a button. (and without paying for more software!) I use that feature whenever I send someone a document. By doing that, I know that they will see it on their screen looking the way I intended.

[krb]

Thanks, I’ll try that out!

[Petronski]

It’s not as usable as Word 2003, but it is a better program than Word 2007. Death to “the ribbon!”

[Brown Deer]

Unless GIMP has seriously cleaned up in install (self include the gnu libs it needs etc.)

What are you talking about? All you do is download and install it and it's free.

[N3WBI3]

Then it has changed, back in the day the installer did not include the GNU lib’s and it was, at best, hinky on the windows platform.

[N3WBI3]

Dont use OO on the Mac, use NeoOffice. Its built from the OpenOffice code specifically for the Mac (hence no X11 needed). My wife hated OpenOffice on he mac as well but is pretty happy with NeoOffice..

[kanawa]

me too. no problems at all. still free afaik

ditto

[comps4spice]

You need to get Neooffice...which is Open Office ported to native Mac OS. It works great.