Open Office

[sanddrag]

Does anyone use Open Office? From what I read on it's website, it looks pretty good for being free. Actually, even if it wasn't free it still looks really good. Can it really handle Microsoft documents (.doc, .xls, .ppt) well like it claims it can?

[Bharat Nain]

I've used OpenOffice in the past and it is definitely a good substitute for MS office. Sometimes I've preferred using that over MS Office. There are a few issues here and there, and not everything is compatible, but its pretty good for being free.

[Cory]

My computer came with Open Office, and I used it until I got to school where I got Office 2003 for free.

It was a pretty good substitute. I don't do anything advanced enough that I lost functionality. I had a few issues with finding functions that weren't where I expected them to be, but for being free, it was a very good piece of software.

[Elgin Clock]

Worked fine foir me, but the normal buttons weren't there.. Like I could not find the sum function in it's spreadsheet software for the life of me.

And, the only bad thing about it was that as MS Office loads on your computers startup, and is fast to open when you need it, Open Office only loads the first time you use it and it takes a while.

[Katie Reynolds]

Given the choice between Open Office and MS Office, MS Office wins hands down; mostly because it's just familiar. The first time I used it was on my boyfriend's computer (before he made the switch back to Office 2003) and I was so lost. Eventually, I got the hang of it but like Elgin said, some common MS Office things seem impossible to find in Open Office.

For being a free product, though, it's pretty good and the best alternative if you don't have MS Office.

[Ryan M.]

Originally Posted by Bharat Nain

I've used OpenOffice in the past and it is definitely a good substitute for MS office. Sometimes I've preferred using that over MS Office. There are a few issues here and there, and not everything is compatible, but its pretty good for being free.

I agree.

I do use MS Office XP more, but just because I got it free when my dad's work upgraded.

[JohnBoucher]

I use it. Never had any compatibility problems with it. What made me try it was that you can save their version of Power-point (presentations) as a flash file. AFAIK that is a pricey addition to MS Office.

and it's FREE

[Ian Curtis]

I like it, my only complaint is it takes FOREVER to open on my G3 (longer than Macromedia programs), but that could be becuase its a G3.

[Billfred]

I use it exclusively on my laptop. No real issues I've experienced. It does lack some of the artsy-schmartsy things that MS Office has, but if you're artsy-schmartsy as well, you'll be alright.

[techtiger1]

I have Open office. I can open all files just like with normal Office. I like it alot actually especially since it's free descent substitute doesn't do everything but does enough.

-Drew
Tech Tigers
1251

[Marc P.]

I've used it since early on, when it was offered as a free version of Star Office from Sun Microsystems. The newer versions (1.1 on) are extremely capable, and could easily replace most of the functionality of Microsoft Office. For typing school reports and general documents, I'd easily recommend the free Open Office. Even an OEM copy of MS Office 2003 Basic sells for about $150, and that's just Word, Excel, and Outlook. The full package with Powerpoint and everything else runs over $200. With the price of PC's dropping well below the $400 mark for a decent general internet/email/word processing machine, it doesn't make much sense to spend an extra 38% on software when capable alternatives can be had for the cost of a blank CD.

While it's true some things may be in different places, the general layout is the same. For word processing purposes, it's just as easy to change the font, size, lettering, bullet points, margins, tabs, etc. as it is with MS Office. For the spreadsheets, some of the more advanced functions are in differant locations, but most of it is there somewhere. Same for the Powerpoint alternative. In any case, it's very capable for a free software package, and from what I've seen in using it, can be used as a drop-in replacement for MS Office in most practical purposes.

[Kevin Sevcik]

I've switched to Open Office, as might have become obvious in the scoring spreadsheet debugging thread. I think it has most of the functionality of the MS stuff without the annoying "features" like Clippy, horrible autoformatting, and the above mentioned fast loading startup program that I really don't want hogging my resources. And it's free. And 2.0 is coming out with true XML file formats that are completely portable. So overall I think it's very close in quality to MS. Usage issues are just familiarity issues like people have switching to Linux/Macs from Windows. It doesn't really mean that Windows/Office is better, just that you're used to its quirks.

[sirbleedsalot]

Originally Posted by JohnBoucher

I use it. Never had any compatibility problems with it. What made me try it was that you can save their version of Power-point (presentations) as a flash file. AFAIK that is a pricey addition to MS Office.

and it's FREE

I down loaded it today and tried to export a power point to swf, and it got about halfway done and then I get a blue screen so it is not error free, or I don't know what I am doing. But you can't beat the price that is for sure.

[sanddrag]

Originally Posted by sirbleedsalot

I down loaded it today and tried to export a power point to swf, and it got about halfway done and then I get a blue screen so it is not error free, or I don't know what I am doing. But you can't beat the price that is for sure.

Are you using the stable version or the beta version?

I only use open office.... also- people say that it doens't do everything office xp does, yet it does. The commands and accesses to those features are just poorly laid out, so not many people know how to find them...

Also, I'm a personal Evil Empire (microsoft) hater... so that adds to it.