Opinions about OpenOffice 1.0.0?

[CougTek]

Hi,

I saw a link to this office suite on Ace's Hardware's front page and I was curious to know if anyone here has already tried it. It's supposed to be the open source version of StarOffice, so it shouldn't be too bad.

The 1.0.0 version seems to have been released recently, so maybe I'm not the only one to discover it for the first time.

OpenOffice web site, if you want to try it.

 

[Adcadet]

ahh, and just in time too, since I'm going to be installing Linux (Mandrake most likely) on a Mac I inherited at work. Being able to write papers in a compatible format will be nice...if it works.

Adcadet

 

[The JoJo]

I installed it before the weekend, but I haven't had time to play around with it.

I've been using the 0.64x build for a few months though, and it has worked good enough for me.

 

[timwhit]

Does it have a grammar check? I would consider switching from MSWord as soon as I can find a replacement that has a good spell checker, a good thesaurus, and a good grammar check.

A macro language that works well is also needed. I already know VBA fairly well, which is one reason that would make it hard to switch to another office suite. And there are real reasons to use macros other than for distributing viruses. I wrote a huge Excel macro for a customer last summer to format a large amount of data into a nice table with no user intervention. I'm sure other office suites have scripting languages built in, but do they work well? The data came from QuickBooks directly into Excel; will QuickBooks and other programs export to programs other than Excel? I doubt it.

Another thing that would make it hard to switch is that the MSOffice suite works well together. In an Access database I can have it pull data from an Excel workbook really easily. Or do mail merge with Word seamlessly. Form letters really make creating large amounts of customized letters easy. Yes, I know many people hate Access, but it really is easy to create a database for a small company quickly and cost effectively. I just wish MS would stop changing VBA commands version to version. Some commands won't work in Office 2000 that worked in 97; the same is true with XP.

If there was a real alternative to MSOffice many people would save a lot of money. Versions of Office that include Access cost hundreds of dollars. For many small businesses this is hard to justify, especially when they have to spend several thousand more having a custom database developed for them.

I think I'm done rambling for now.

 

[CougTek]

I don't use macro at all. I must admit that my use of office suite is relatively basic. I only use the word editor and the spreadsheet, with most of my documents standing on one page. I never found a good spellchecker (none is really good for French) so I simply don't use it. For me, a good suite is one that lets me create and customize tables easily and also one that doesn't crash very often (a rarity).

I installed OpenOffice 1.0.0, but I have yet to create something with it. I'm glad it can open my StarOffice documents, so I won't have to redo them all. It didn't crashed during the whole 1m30s I used it, so far so good ;-)

 

[time]

Does it have a grammar check? I would consider switching from MSWord as soon as I can find a replacement that has a good spell checker, a good thesaurus, and a good grammar check.

I think you just described WordPerfect Office 2000/2002. Either has a far better grammar checker than Word. And I'm still laughing at Word 97's insistence that "Microsoft" wasn't a word.

WP will do mail merge with almost anything containing data, including Oracle databases and text files. And it supports at least one version of Microsoft's poxy VBA.

I guess you probably can't access any spreadsheet other than Excel from Access, BUT WHY IN GOD'S NAME WOULD YOU WANT TO?

 

[time]

CougTek, I'm not suggesting you rush out and buy it, but WP has had multiple language support out of the box at least as far back as the 2000 version. It checks spelling and grammar in german okay (within the hilarious limitations of computer grammar checkers of course), so it should give passable results in french.

 

[CougTek]

Last time I tried WP was about 3 years ago. I liked it a lot, especially because it was a lot easier to customize documents with it compared to MS Word. Quattro Pro wasn't up to par with Excel IMO though. If I'm gonna buy an Office Suite, it might very well be WP, but for now, I'm looking for something free.

WP, three years ago, was quite unstable too. that's the main reason I did not continue to use it. I guess things have improved now. WP 5.1 was the best word editor for DOS back in the early 90s, but Corel had a hard time to make the transition to Windows and their WP 6 for Winblows was a failure, at least in my case (I have no idea of their commercial success). But they came back nicely in the late 90s. If it had not been of some instability issues I experienced with their (wild guess) 97 edition, I might still use it today.

When I gave up on WP, I switched to MS Office and soon after, to StarOffice. StarOffice 6.0 won't be free, so I'm looking for alternatives. OpenOffice might be what I'm looking for.

 

[time]

I pretty much fully agree with your assessment, Coug.

WP2000 is vastly more stable than WP6.0 etc., as long as you load the second or third service pack.

But it costs real money, so I don't suggest it for anyone looking for low cost alternatives. I'm slightly tempted by WP2002, mainly for that last little extra compatibility with MS documents.

 

[Tea]

Time, I buy the Word Perfect suite in an OEM version for about AU$15.

 

[Tea]

And Coug, Quattro Pro RULEZ!

In fact, it's the only component of the Word Perfect Office suite I regularly use. Mind you, the newer versions, since Corel got their dirty hands on it, are inferior to the older versions. 6.03 is the best of the lot.

 

[Cliptin]

timwhit,

You can do mail merges very easily from excel. I do it all the time. Might save some money that way.

 

[i]

Does it have a grammar check? I would consider switching from MSWord as soon as I can find a replacement that has a good spell checker, a good thesaurus, and a good grammar check.

StarOffice 6.0 won't be free, so I'm looking for alternatives. OpenOffice might be what I'm looking for.

HURRY!

StarOffice 5.2 is still available and it's FREE, but when 6.0 comes out, that may no longer be the case!

Get 5.2 from here:

http://wwws.sun.com/software/star/staroffice/5.2/get/get.html

As far as I know, one of the major differences between OpenOffice and StarOffice (in terms of features) is that OpenOffice does NOT have a spelling checker or thesaurus (something about the dictionary being licensed, and therefore not available for free use). StarOffice does.

StarOffice 6.0 is supposed to be out any day now, so HURRY! Download a copy of 5.2, even if you just wind up storing it on a CD somewhere. Versions are available for both Linux and Windows systems. If there's any chance you'll be using both platforms in the future, then download both packages.

 

[Mercutio]

I liked putting (free) StarOffice on the machines I sold. I thought it was a great value for the sort of work most people need to do. Then I started getting people bitching about the fact that they had "Office" but not "MS Word".

Ingrates. I guess the branding wasn't obtrusive enough.

StarOffice *does* have some problems converting really complicated Office (Excel, Word, Powerpoint) documents. That's a strike against it, I suppose. It was a bit of a pig for resources, too. Made Office XP look svelte (to be fair, Office XP is smaller than 2000).
Of course, everything I do nowadays I write in whatever I want (usually wordperfect, which I love) then save it as HTML. If I'm delivering it to a Microsoft shop (like, oh, just about everyplace), I change the extension to .doc or .xls and it just works as a Word or Excel doc.

Anyway, I stopped delivering StarOffice and went back to Smartsuite on the low-end. OpenOffice I haven't tried. I probably will, since it's free.

All the office packages are really amazing. I can do passable image editing in Word or Wordperfect, and I've seen high-order mathematics done symbolically in Excel. It's just amazing what those Office packages allow...

Personally I use WP for word processing and Excel for spreadsheets. Quattro Pro went down hill about the time a Windows version was made. 5 and 6 for DOS were great, though.

 

[time]

Tony, I know about the OEM versions of WP, but which version and which product is it?

From my admittedly limited perspective, I can't see how spreadsheet packages have changed much in the last few years. The last major innovations I've noticed, such as an object orientated interface and 3D sheets, came in with Quattro Pro for DOS.

 

[i]

Slashdot has just posted some news about StarOffice 6.0.

Depending on who you ask, it's either available now, or it will be on May 21st.

Cost is $75.95 (US).

 

[NRG = mc²]

I just got hold of ThinkFree office. I haven't really used it but at first sight I think (unless it has any major shortcomings) I'll be using this instead of office from now on. Small (I think its around 80mb), compatible (loads and saves) MS office documents, and looks a lot like office. You can check it out at www.thinkfree.com