theroyalgazette.com — I am writing this article using Writer, part of the slick new OpenOffice.org suite, which by the way is free and now rivals MS Office in terms of features. MS charges about $499 for its product suite if you buy the professional version. OpenOffice.org works just as well, has more or less the same abilities, and can both read and save MS formats.
Sep 28, 2006 View in Crawl 4
Closed AccountSep 28, 2006
Nice!
halleyscometSep 29, 2006
@V1ncent That depends on what you need to do.Most home users can use OpenOffice just fine, and never encounter any shortcomings.On the flip side, if you're a business user who needs to have complex data exchange between an active database, and are using Word and Excel to produce attractive, easy to digest report, or your work flow needs functions available in Excel but not OpenOffice then no, OpenOffice won't cut it.For me at home, writing my resume, letters and a sci-fi novel, OpenOffice, (Well, NeoOffice, as I use a Mac) does everything I need it to do.At work, I can't remember the last time I needed to use the company supplied copy of Office instead of OpenOffice.
electronicmajiSep 29, 2006
is there a version of open office setup to look just like their windows counterpart kind of like gimpshop? it would really help new users get used to the names of stuff in it....
mbradburySep 29, 2006
Microsoft are now pushing sharepoint to businesses which only works properly with IE and Microsoft Office.
gvibe06Sep 29, 2006
ScottMaximus .. yes it is, just without the annoying gui. They both process SQL statements the same way.
espo111Sep 29, 2006
i think once Ooo gets a grammar checker that works, the avalanche will start towards Ooo.Although it is not an essential part of MS-office, it is a well used feature that will help Ooo equal MS office, not as much for the corporate world, but the home user and student world.
andreoSep 29, 2006
I would probably be considered pro Microsoft. However you should see the looks on the faces of co-workers and others in my building whose computers I work on when I tell them "I would never run Microsoft Office on my home computer". I then go on to explain how bloated the software is. How I like having a smooth running computer. And that Open Office is free and does the same thing as MS Office without trying to hook into every part of my OS.I'm not sure if I've converted anyone yet since it is normally not brought up again by the person that I'm talking to.But honestly. How much better does it get then Open Office and Foxit.
thefoldSep 29, 2006
OpenOffice I agree is a good suite, however in the business I work in it's just not a viable option. Why you ask? Well currently it has no support for Excel VBA macro's, something which is used heavily here for our reporting requirements.If they can sort this out then they'll have my support.
heydigitalSep 29, 2006
I really like and use OOo, but it is no MS Office. No grammar checking, MS documents don't always read & format correctly, no true Outlook alternative, etc. Though I am excited about OOo's continued development, it has not knocked off MS Office yet.
raindog469Oct 2, 2006
No, Access is a rapid application development and reporting tool with a lame DBMS built in. MySQL is a decent DBMS with no RAD or reporting tools built in. They actually complement each other, if you're enough of a masochist to want to write apps in Access. And Openoffice 2.x does have a built in lame DBMS, RAD and reporting capabilities, so you can continue to indulge your masochism while also going open source.
raindog469Oct 4, 2006
See, to me it's Office that has no Draw alternative. Draw is no Visio, but it sure beats the drawing tools included with Office (at least as of Office 2K, the newest in use by any of my clients.)Right on about the grammar checker, though. I don't use it and clearly not enough people in the world do, but it does catch some of the typos spell check can't.
wibblewibbleOct 8, 2006
Office System is more than just a word pricessor or spreadsheet, it is part of an entire business eco system. Hence the term office "System". It is highly customisable and now with O12 it has a unique and very usable ribbon, that you can also customise highly to build your applications around. Once OpenOffice gets such customisability (and I am not referring to just the user interface) then I would take it more seriously in business application. I can extend O12 to such a level it is a completely new applciation.
jdonnerOct 22, 2006
"OpenOffice.org: Breaking Microsoft’s dominance"Dominance... you make it sound like something bad. The reason why Office is dominant is because nobody obviously was able to make something better. Now with the upcoming new version of Office that pretty much had a totally refreshing new makeover that was well received by many, I don't see how this poor piece of software called OpenOffice that I bet nobody in my street ever heard of will end the dominance of Office. Get real.