NationStates Jolt Archive

So does anyone have Open Office, is it any good? Is it a suitable replacement for Microsoft Office, or is Microsoft Office the better program?

So does anyone have Open Office
Yup.

is it any good?
Aye, braw.

Is it a suitable replacement for Microsoft Office
'tis.

or is Microsoft Office the better program?
Not IMO.

EDIT: Give it a download; find out for yersel.

it serves its purpose. in a choice between OO for free and MO for .....massive number of dollars i would go with OO.

i suppose it depends on your purpose.

MO has some functionality that OO doesn't, but if you don't use those things then it really doesn't matter.

I end up using google docs more often than I do OO.

If it comes down to paying for MO and getting OO for free, go with OO and you'll be fine.

If you can get MO for free (like I did) it is the superior program.

I like my Open Office, unless you use those kind of programs all the time OO is the better choice.

It depends on what you have to do and your money.

OO is fine enough for most peoples needs.

I haven't had a need to use it because the jobs always give me a computer with MO.....

its not bad though it auto saves in a format that word\works can't open (emailing my CV in the wrong format FTL >.<)

I like it.

OO is good, not as good as MO but for the freeness it works just fine. I use it.

But basically, if you can get a free MO, particularly 2007, they have some niftier features like being able to read text off images (apparently).

So does anyone have Open Office, is it any good? Is it a suitable replacement for Microsoft Office, or is Microsoft Office the better program?
Open is better in most things a non-office-worker, i.e. a home user, would need to do.

MS has the plus of familiarity and generally a bit more dummy-friendly design, plus good macros-related stuff if you need that.

I'm currently using it to type up a paper, and it works just fine for that purpose.

So does anyone have Open Office, is it any good? Is it a suitable replacement for Microsoft Office, or is Microsoft Office the better program?

Got it, and use it at work every day.
Some of the functions aren't quite at Microsoft level yet, but those are usually minor things like some formating functions. Otherwise it's just as good as MS Office.

So does anyone have Open Office, is it any good? Is it a suitable replacement for Microsoft Office, or is Microsoft Office the better program?

OO is quite good. The only problem I've noticed with OO (release 3.1) is that if you copy and paste from OO into another text application, there are problems with hypertext links (generally they're lost).

The two major bonuses of OO, compared with MSOffice, are the integrated PDF creator and support for more formats.

I have Openoffice, but since the university uses MS Office 2007, I need to be able to edit in .docx (grr!) which Openoffice doesn't quite do. I'll probably write my next essays in Oo though, I doubt I can do 5000 words defaulting into US English every 5 minutes without literally punching my laptop.

Open Office is great unless you are using Endnote. It doesn't like Endnote and removes all the reference links you may have put in (as I found to my horror). However, if you don';t need to use Endnote for referencing, it's great. Alternatively if you do have to use references, Zotero is a great Endnote alternative.

I like it, does things that Microsoft Office doesn't do - I like being able to save as a pdf. My only problem with it is that it seems to be incredibly slow to start up sometimes.

I don't like Open Office. If my computer didn't come with Word etc I'd be glad of its existence, but I find the word processor in OO gives me a headache, the formatting I've found can also often go a bit strange. Which is why I tend to load up Windows rather than Linux if I'm doing work...I like Microsoft Word, and will continue to use it even if doing so involves the fellation of the corporate devil.

its not bad though it auto saves in a format that word\works can't open (emailing my CV in the wrong format FTL >.<)

Well, first of all you can edit how you want it to auto-save, and secondly you can always manually override the auto-option manually at any single instance.. I'd go for "problem with the user, not the program".


The two major bonuses of OO, compared with MSOffice, are the integrated PDF creator and support for more formats.

This.


I use OO for both my own personal private and uni stuff, and my job uses OO as well. I sometimes even find OO superior when it comes to formatting things.

I have Openoffice, but since the university uses MS Office 2007, I need to be able to edit in .docx (grr!) which Openoffice doesn't quite do. I'll probably write my next essays in Oo though, I doubt I can do 5000 words defaulting into US English every 5 minutes without literally punching my laptop.

Actually you can sort of get around this.
http://www.oooninja.com/2008/01/convert-openxml-docx-etc-in-linux-using.html

I like it, does things that Microsoft Office doesn't do - I like being able to save as a pdf. My only problem with it is that it seems to be incredibly slow to start up sometimes.

Oddly, I find the opposite to be true -- Every time I open up Word my computer comes to a staggering halt, not so with Writer. I'm a basic user of both and OOO works fine for me, in fact I find it easier to fiddle with the AutoCorrect which was my major issue with Word.

Well I downloaded OO and played around with it a bit, and so far I like it. I removed MO from my computer. I'm fighting the power! The only reason I haven't switched to Linux is that I like playing my Microsoft games.

So does anyone have Open Office

Yup.

is it any good?

Not really, IMHO, but don't listen to me, I get confused by anything with too many menus and buttons, and very much prefer command line tools.

Is it a suitable replacement for Microsoft Office

Is a cold a suitable replacement for pneumonia?

or is Microsoft Office the better program?

I don't think so. But if you happen to REALLY like MS Office and use whatever those features OOo doesn't have are...

I think abiword (http://www.abisource.com/) is tolerable, give it a try if word processing is all you need your "office suite" to do.

So does anyone have Open Office

Yeah


, is it any good?

It's alright, but it's very buggy at times. Also, it's not very compatible with many microsoft office documents, which make me RAAAAAAAGE.


Is it a suitable replacement for Microsoft Office

Just about, for normal academic work.


, or is Microsoft Office the better program?

Microsoft is the better program, which is why Open Office copy most of their ideas.

I removed MO from my computer.

Why?

Well I downloaded OO and played around with it a bit, and so far I like it. I removed MO from my computer. I'm fighting the power! The only reason I haven't switched to Linux is that I like playing my Microsoft games.

windows emulator.

Oddly, I find the opposite to be true -- Every time I open up Word my computer comes to a staggering halt, not so with Writer. I'm a basic user of both and OOO works fine for me, in fact I find it easier to fiddle with the AutoCorrect which was my major issue with Word.

I have them on different machines so I can't really compare as they have different resources.

windows emulator.

Unfortunately, it's very unreliable for games (new ones at least), and you still need to buy windows software. So if you're a gamer, you might as well stick to windows.

Why?

Well even though I have a 500 GB Hard Drive, I need the 1 or 2 GB MO was taking up for asian gothic porn.

Actually you can sort of get around this.
http://www.oooninja.com/2008/01/convert-openxml-docx-etc-in-linux-using.html

If you have Windows, all you need to do is download and install the program on this website and you're set.

http://katana.oooninja.com/w/odf-converter-integrator/download

I cannot stand its interface - once you've worked with Office 2007's "ribbons", there is no going back; the UI is so much superior to anything else out there, especially OO, that being without it actually proves a hindrance to my work flow.

It'll be interesting to see how I cope on my new aluminium MacBook that arrives tomorrow - MO is very different there, and iWork's word processor is more a desktop publishing app than anything like a word processor one could use to write longer texts (unlike Keynote, which beats the crap out of all other presentation apps).

It depends on what you're going to use OpenOffice for. I'm an OpenOffice user at home, but when I have to enter equations, I prefer to head to engineering and use Microsoft Office. The equation editor is really annoying.

Also, don't expect formulas you've entered into OpenOffice Calc to carry across to Microsoft Excel. You only make that mistake once ...

Well I downloaded OO and played around with it a bit, and so far I like it. I removed MO from my computer. I'm fighting the power! The only reason I haven't switched to Linux is that I like playing my Microsoft games.

Why don't you try dual booting? That way you can try Linux out, use it when possible, and then boot into Windows whenever you want a gaming session.

Why don't you try dual booting? That way you can try Linux out, use it when possible, and then boot into Windows whenever you want a gaming session.

A way more stable option is to install Linux and then install Windows as a virtual machine. I dual-booted all summer, and it was a painful experience.

A way more stable option is to install Linux and then install Windows as a virtual machine. I dual-booted all summer, and it was a painful experience.

Yeah, I actually ended up just switching over entirely so I don't really have much experience with dual booting; it was just the first thing that came to mind. But I suppose going the virtual machine route might work a bit better. Either way, though, the point is that the desire to be able to continue gaming is quite easy to accommodate when switching.

not quite as good as MO for some more advanced stuff, but OO is fine for day to day word processing. a lot of open source or free softwares are like that - Nvu is not quite as good as Dreamweaver, but fine for basic stuff; GIMP isn't quite as good as Photoshop and not quite as powerful for professional output; Scribus isn't quite as good as InDesign for pro stuff, again; Audacity isn't quite as good as Soundforge; etc, etc.

A way more stable option is to install Linux and then install Windows as a virtual machine. I dual-booted all summer, and it was a painful experience.

Ubuntu makes dual booting dead easy with an in-Windows installer and grub boot loader. the only headache i've had is, on one machine, after removing ubuntu the boot loader is fucking confused and i'm not sure how to fix it.

The only reason I haven't switched to Linux is that I like playing my Microsoft games.
Dual boot its ass.

I cannot stand its interface - once you've worked with Office 2007's "ribbons", there is no going back; the UI is so much superior to anything else out there, especially OO, that being without it actually proves a hindrance to my work flow.


Really? I find it horribly confusing so far. I always have the feeling that features have disappeared, only to find them back at a totally unexpected location quite a while later. I don't recall what they were, though, it's a while back. Also I remember cursing myself at the computer because things could no longer be done the way I was used to doing them, and became more complicated or time consuming instead. This had to either with style sheets or with that popup markup context menu, IIRC.

I found that if you are used to MSOffice pre-2007, switching to openoffice is really really easy. Also I was happily surprised that openoffice can read msoffice documents.

Open Office is pretty good I must admit. Most of the stuff is there. Excel is a little more full featured but you can do just about anything you can do in excel with spreadsheet.

The spreadsheet is probably the most useful tool of the bunch.

It depends on what you're going to use OpenOffice for. I'm an OpenOffice user at home, but when I have to enter equations, I prefer to head to engineering and use Microsoft Office. The equation editor is really annoying.

...
Why would anyone who uses equations seriously not use LaTeX or a derivative ? Yes -it is ancient, but it still is by far the best and easiest way to add a lot of pretty math in documents.

...
Why would anyone who uses equations seriously not use LaTeX or a derivative ? Yes -it is ancient, but it still is by far the best and easiest way to add a lot of pretty math in documents.

...and with LyX it is \textit{very} easy to create documents -- without having to look up lots of things from the reference.

BTW: I do not like OOo because it is very RAM hungry. I normally use a text editor and LaTeX. But at least OOo does not crash when loading files, it stored itself.

it does the trick, MS Office is a rip off

I cannot stand its interface - once you've worked with Office 2007's "ribbons", there is no going back; the UI is so much superior to anything else out there, especially OO, that being without it actually proves a hindrance to my work flow.

What are "ribbons?"

So does anyone have Open Office, is it any good? Is it a suitable replacement for Microsoft Office, or is Microsoft Office the better program?

I have used it on and off for years

Depending on what I am doing it is either slick or my worst nightmare

Its really hot or cold for me, either I can get done what I need to or I spend hours coming up with a shoddier end product. Personally sense I have access to all microsoft products for free I just install office or work from my terminal server.

I cannot stand its interface - once you've worked with Office 2007's "ribbons", there is no going back; the UI is so much superior to anything else out there, especially OO, that being without it actually proves a hindrance to my work flow.

It'll be interesting to see how I cope on my new aluminium MacBook that arrives tomorrow - MO is very different there, and iWork's word processor is more a desktop publishing app than anything like a word processor one could use to write longer texts (unlike Keynote, which beats the crap out of all other presentation apps).

If there was not so much re-learning in my case I would agree with you ... once I got used to the features in 07 it has gotten progressively easier, and if I had started learning it that way it would be a no brainer. But as is I still swear every once and a while when trying to find where they moved a feature or option

No big deal but sometimes annoying, used to be worse when I had to support idiot 70 year old end users that complained that someone "moved their button"

What are "ribbons?"

Graphical user interface widgets composed of a strip across the top of a window that exposes all functions that a program can perform in a single place.

Graphical user interface widgets composed of a strip across the top of a window that exposes all functions that a program can perform in a single place.

Yuck. A totally f'ing useless concept if you ask me. Most of whats there is covered by keyboard shortcuts I've had memorized of since the 90's ... and the rest isn't worth giving up 1/6th of my usable vertical screen area!

Yuck. A totally f'ing useless concept if you ask me. Most of whats there is covered by keyboard shortcuts I've had memorized of since the 90's ... and the rest isn't worth giving up 1/6th of my usable vertical screen area!

Then simply right click and minimize them ... its not like they have to be there

Then simply right click and minimize them ... its not like they have to be there

Neither does MS office for that matter ...

Neither does MS office for that matter ...

Agreed but it is roughly the same size as used by open offices menu system or any other comparative comprehensive productivity suit.

...
Why would anyone who uses equations seriously not use LaTeX or a derivative ? Yes -it is ancient, but it still is by far the best and easiest way to add a lot of pretty math in documents.

Not even particularly ancient, in some of its forms. XeTeX is a very slick recent version - full unicode support, straight to PDF, seamless integration of system fonts (Full disclosure - I'm related to the developer). But yes, TeX and a good editor are the most powerful system available for anything like that, and does much prettier typesetting in general, IMO.

Agreed but it is roughly the same size as used by open offices menu system or any other comparative comprehensive productivity suit.

*Looks at his Emacs window, which has exactly two lines of text not used for displaying the document*

You were saying?

(Emacs is definitely comprehensive, I think it compares well, and it makes me extremely productive. About the only hurdle it falls down on is that it's more an old shirt and jeans than a suit.)

OpenOffice is top.

So does anyone have Open Office, is it any good? Is it a suitable replacement for Microsoft Office, or is Microsoft Office the better program?
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
No.

Not even particularly ancient, in some of its forms. XeTeX is a very slick recent version - full unicode support, straight to PDF, seamless integration of system fonts (Full disclosure - I'm related to the developer). But yes, TeX and a good editor are the most powerful system available for anything like that, and does much prettier typesetting in general, IMO.



*Looks at his Emacs window, which has exactly two lines of text not used for displaying the document*

You were saying?

(Emacs is definitely comprehensive, I think it compares well, and it makes me extremely productive. About the only hurdle it falls down on is that it's more an old shirt and jeans than a suit.)
Emac's feature set does not compare nor is it meant to with something like open office or word.

I am a fan ... for sure, I am also a fan of text pad Scite, nano, VI, VIM for certain type of work.

That does not mean they would fill the roll that office/open office do. and trying to make them do it is just silly and a waste of time.

So does anyone have Open Office,

Yeah. I have it on my laptop, because I violently removed Vista from my hard drive and put Ubuntu on there. Before I was made redundant I used it (and Ubuntu) at work too.

is it any good?

It's a fantastic piece of software, even moreso when you consider the price tag. It'll do pretty much anything that Office can do, minus a few bits and bobs that only a few power users really suffer from, and it has been designed to make transition between the two interfaces easy. In fact, if you're more accustomed to the Office 97 - 2003 interface, you'll probably find OpenOffice.org an easier proposition than Office 2007 and its pretty-but-completely-and-utterly-daft ribbon interface.

Is it a suitable replacement for Microsoft Office

Without knowing your circumstances I couldn't say. For me, absolutely - I only keep Microsoft Office around on my desktop computer so that I can send CVs to people knowing that they will be fully compatible (one of the many downfalls of Microsoft's monopoly). In your case, I'd recommend that you do what I did and keep both of them on your machine and see whether you ever need to switch back to Office for anything. After all, in this day and age, with hard drives so cheap and gargantuan that nobody can possibly run out of space, there's nothing stopping you from having them both installed at once.

or is Microsoft Office the better program?

That depends on who you ask. From an objective point of view I think OpenOffice.org is the more technically proficient piece of software, at least in terms of efficiency. For example, booting up Word 2007 on this machine puts significantly more strain on the (otherwise reasonably powerful) hardware than OpenOffice.org does.

As mentioned, I suggest you have them both on your machine for a while and see which one serves your needs best.

Assuming, of course, you have a copy of Microsoft Office to hand. If you don't, there's really no competition - OpenOffice.org costs nothing and you can download it immediately, so even if you end up needing Microsoft Office afterall it'll be a useful stopgap until you can get a copy.

Emac's feature set does not compare nor is it meant to with something like open office or word.

I am a fan ... for sure, I am also a fan of text pad Scite, nano, VI, VIM for certain type of work.

That does not mean they would fill the roll that office/open office do. and trying to make them do it is just silly and a waste of time.

Well, it does depend what you're trying to do with OO.o or Word. After all, most people don't really use any of the desktop publishing features, and just use them as glorified text editors. And let's be honest, for text editing, Emacs pwns both of those.

But yes, I'll admit their feature sets don't intersect in most places. I was just being a generically smug/self-righteous Emacs user.

It works fine for me, and it'll save things as .doc if I need them in that format for college or whatever.

Well, it does depend what you're trying to do with OO.o or Word. After all, most people don't really use any of the desktop publishing features, and just use them as glorified text editors. And let's be honest, for text editing, Emacs pwns both of those.

But yes, I'll admit their feature sets don't intersect in most places. I was just being a generically smug/self-righteous Emacs user.

Lol god knows when I am simply working with Text I am either using textpad or scite myself

And doing anything powerful with it absolutely the feature set of Emacs or Scite or Texpad (being able to do Regex in a text editor is absolutely wonderful)

OO is good. If you're using the newest version of MS Office, you need to "Save As" a legacy file type. The only problems I've had have involved odd fonts or extreme formatting setups on Office causing some slight glitches in the file when opened in OO.

OO is good. If you're using the newest version of MS Office, you need to "Save As" a legacy file type. The only problems I've had have involved odd fonts or extreme formatting setups on Office causing some slight glitches in the file when opened in OO.

Unsure where you are going with the Save As

OO opens the new docx format so you do not have to "save as" a legacy file type to open it in OO

If you were saying that is a downfall of new new office but not OO that is also incorrect they both have two steps to save as a legacy type

I use open office and its OSX native version, neo office. They're both good programs, just remember to convert your presentations to .pdfs if you're not going to be using the same computer when giving a talk (though this is also true with MS office really).

Although I don't actually use them for anything but presentations and posters. If it's something I have to type up quick and don't care about the format a text editor works and if it's something where I care about the format, I use LaTeX.

I use open office and its OSX native version, neo office. They're both good programs, just remember to convert your presentations to .pdfs if you're not going to be using the same computer when giving a talk (though this is also true with MS office really).

Although I don't actually use them for anything but presentations and posters. If it's something I have to type up quick and don't care about the format a text editor works and if it's something where I care about the format, I use LaTeX.

Speaking of presentations, there's a fantastic LaTeX class called "beamer" designed for doing presentations with. In combination with XeLaTeX for the fonts they make a really fantastic pair.

With that and PSTricks I have the tools to do basically anything.