[srozzman]

I use it on both my Linux and Windoze... do i get a cookie?

 

[no1likesme]

Quote:

Originally Posted by srozzman /img/forum/go_quote.gif I use it on both my Linux and Windoze... do i get a cookie?

no

 

[riceboy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Caribou679 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I use OpenOffice on a USB key. I always have it with me, can access Internet from almost any computer having a connection, can work on any documents through USB key. Check OpenOffice.org Portable at http://portableapps.com/apps/office/openoffice_portable very impressive and comes in lite or full version!! Even has a mp3 player!!

I've tried that before and I can concur that it works well out of the USB key. It helps if the machine I'm on doesn't have Office on it and I need to open Word or Excel files.

 

[Gautama]

Open Office works great!

 

[stewtheking]

Only time I used OO was at work a while back. I was on hold for testic... technical support, because my excel was failing. In the time that I was on hold, I was able to download and install OO, and solve my problem.

Only real issue I found with it was security. It didn't seem to recognise the protection on excel documents, and you could end up editing "protected" cells if you weren't careful.

 

[Kilane]

I don't know if anyone's tried it, but my knock off office client of choice was
StarOffice. I think they've gone to making you pay for it by this point, but it's still a bit cheaper than MS.

 

[Jubei]

Depends on how much formatting is involved in the case of the word processor. If it is mainly text formatting, it works fine. But if your documents contain elaborate tables (as MS Word allows) then you could have problems.

One of my suppliers sends me order forms in word format. Open Office can't deal with the formatting, AbiWord does slightly better though still not good enough.

 

[XxATOLxX]

I've used it several times for word processing. Its not necessarily a bad office suite but it doesn't feel as functional as Office XP. Its more sluggish and not as easy to use as MSOffice, this however is just my opinion. I'm guessing its just because I've used Microsoft Office forever and switching to newer things always has a learning curve. Overall its a very good office suite considering the fact that its completely free.

 

[esuko]

Use it mainly at home, hoped it would be a bit faster.

 

[Redo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kilane /img/forum/go_quote.gif I don't know if anyone's tried it, but my knock off office client of choice was StarOffice. I think they've gone to making you pay for it by this point, but it's still a bit cheaper than MS.

StarOffice and OpenOffice were the same thing, now StarOffice has gone retail and is built on OpenOffice's code. OpenOffice is supported by Sun Microsystems, and I believe StarOffice is made by Sun Microsystems.

 

[fabool]

To add to Redo's post. I believe you can actually get StarOffice for free now with the Google Pack - haven't actually tried it myself though, but it's listed on the page.

 

[nibiyabi]

I use both OO and MO regularly (at home and work, respectively), and I don't feel that, for most people's needs, MO is worth the cost. OO is at least 95% as good as MO--I've really only ever run into one problem (certain macros don't work correctly), and I've heard some people have problem with Presentation, but other than that it's pretty solid.

 

[shigzeo]

i use osx native port neo office and have for years - it is great as it saves hundreds of dollars but it is much slower and a bit more confusing. for the amount i use it now out of uni, i cannot say i am unimpressed. i got through a difficult excel course with calc for neo office or whatever it is called with only a few minor hashes.

 

[Braver]

I've tried OpenOffice for a couple of months and had some mixed results with the text-editor. The spreadsheet-app took too much time to get used to and just was nowhere near as good as excel (and in no way compatible). And don't even start about the presentation-app (although, I feel you can always resort to making landscape-A4's and showing them in Adobe reader).

But even with the text-app, everything is fine if you just use it for personal stuff, typing letters etc. The save-to-pdf comes in handy when you want to have other people see what you wrote. But as soon as you try to collaborate with a MS-office user (aka anyone), it breaks. It definately has no place in an office.

In the end, MS-Office is not that expensive (Office XP is already pretty good, and should be near-free). Besides, the interface of OOo is dated and confusing, it's sluggish and eats your memory.
Do you really want to mess with all the compatibilty issues? I'd rather be doing something else.

 

[HFat]

There are some compatibility issues between OO.o and MSO but Microsoft is to blame because they're the ones who have a closed format and who refuse to support the open one while the OO.o folks do all the work. If anything, it's Microsoft software that has no place in an office... certainly not in any kind of government office.
I have had minor pagesetting issues going from OO.o to MSO or vice-versa but that's no big deal and that hasn't stopped me from making a presentation in OO.o and displaying it with MSO so I don't know what the fuss about Impress/Powerpoint is about. There is a serious compatibility issue with Calc/Excel however: the formulas don't always give the same results... most times they do but this needs to be a 100% thing IMO. I recommend using the free Excel viewer to display important Excel documents if you don't have MSO.

OO.o lacks some features compared with MSO and vice-versa. While some of these differences are documented and widely known, others aren't. But even if you do your research, you aren't likely to know all the features other people in your organisation need or use. Such risks are one of the reasons why inertia is so enticing.

Lastly, I feel that MSO has the better interface but that's a minor point as both suites are usable.

EDIT: oh yeah... OO.o is very slow compared to old versions of MSO. If you have a modern computer, that's not much of an issue but I'd rather use Office 97 or something on old hardware.