OpenOffice 3: Faster, uninspired interface
Demand for OpenOffice.org 3 has been so high on its first day of out of beta that the official Web site crashed.
In the meantime, users can also download it for Windows and Mac from Download.com, and there are a couple of torrents being shared as well on the usual big-name trackers.
OpenOffice's redesigned landing page.
(Credit: CNET Networks)After using OpenOffice's MS Word analog, Writer, all day, I can confirm that this update is worth it for the improvement in response and load times, if nothing else. The installation is still enormous, with an installer about 130MB for Windows users and 160MB for Mac, but the installation process is smoother. From start to finish, it clocked in at around 5 minutes, significantly faster than installing OpenOffice 2. People who use OpenOffice as their primary productivity suite should take advantage of the OpenOffice Quickstarter, which noticeably accelerates program launch times and has been made even faster in version 3.
Mac users will also be pleased to see that they no longer need to grab a separate installation of X11--the new installer will run natively on OS X, and Windows Vista users should encounter fewer problems than before.
Many of the new features are only noticeable depending on how much of the OpenOffice suite you use. If you're a rebel and you use it in your work environment when everybody else is still on Microsoft Office, the compatibility with Office 2007/2008 file formats is hard to ignore. Finally getting native support for DOCX and XLSX, for example, is long overdue. If my tests jumping back and forth between XLSX and XLS files were any indication, though, the formats are now seamlessly integrated. However, OpenOffice can not yet save files in the new MS Office format.
Upgrades to OpenDocument Format 1.2 were glitch-free.
Other improvements to the two most-used programs in OpenOffice include multiple page viewing, improved notes and commenting, and improved PDF creation and importation in Writer, and a Solver feature and spreadsheet sharing in Calc. As you can tell, though, most of these changes bring OpenOffice up to the new standard of MS Office. Besides the OpenDocument Format support, there's little here that you can't get in Office. Of course, the benefit of OpenOffice being freeware can't be understated.
The new Start Center should appeal only to users who like having a landing page or only want to have one link on their desktop. It opens up a slightly redesigned window that highlights all of the OpenOffice tools with big icons. I find the Quickstarter to be a more effective and less intrusive way to do the same thing. Unfortunately, the interface within each program in the suite has gone largely unchanged. It looks fine when compared with MS Office 2003, but not so much when up against the Office 2007/2008.
One useful change involving the landing page is that it now shows up whenever you close a document but don't exit the program. This streamlines the work flow when jumping between applications, as well as giving you something to look at besides a big gray expanse of nothingness.
Overall, though, the interface isn't detrimental to using OpenOffice--it's just not a selling point. If it's the features that you use the suite for, then there's no reason not to upgrade.
Seth peers into the deep, dark corners of software so that you don't have to. He has yet to suffer a single nightmare about OS/2. You can follow him on Twitter. 
Can it do data analysis operations like ANOVA, T-test etc?
Can it do data analysis operations like ANOVA, T-test etc?
Maybe by version 20 MS Office will no be totally unaffordable and so big that it would take 20 disks and three hours to install and maybe you would need a Microsoft representative to verify that you are the genuine owner of your windows machine. And finally maybe by that time all your personal data will be with Microsoft corporation; gleaned over the years through your MS files.
Doesn't anyone think about these ideas??? What about fixing the inherent problem(s): 1) the SW is simply too large and slow loading; and 2) Is slow to open data files, particularlthose that it has to translate from another format.
Seriously, a great idea, and a lot of hard work has gone into it, but it seems to me significantly hobbled by a fundamentally poor architecture/implementation decisions. It's a real shame as a well implemented product couuld be _hugely_ popular, and help loosen the MS monopoly (yes, monopoly) on applications (due to the use of proprietary data formats).
What does the average end user care? Easy - OO is still dog slow, and a huge memroy & resource hog. If you want to make it load faster, you can throw still more memory and system resources at it. (keep Quickstarter loaded always). Not much of an improvement, imho...
Stop whinging, see if you can do better.
JHS
It does not support email any better that MS Office although the Windows version does not default to a rubbish mail client like MS Office does. I've not personally used the Linux mail client much as like most people I use Pegasus both at home and at work and like to keep all my mail together for reference and ease of backup.
Bouquets to the Author/s.
Question: Is it possible to use an alternative language, e.i. German, with a dictionary and perhaps a Thesaurus?
Congratulations, The gratis Open Office is a sparkling gift to the community at large, by the great people who wrote it.
JackHS
Don't listen to those naysayers who can afford Microsoft's expensive crap. If one can afford to buy the expensive stuff and they are happy and satisfied with it, why would they even attempt to try a free alternative?
I haven't used OpenOffice for very long myself, but I'm glad to have it on my computer for when I do need it. I'm finding out all kinds of things I can do with OpenOffice that I never even thought of doing before or had the need to, but it's nice to know I have the option.
If the developers of OpenOffice read this, I want to say thank you for a great product and especially for making it free for those of us who can't just go out and pay Microsoft thousands of dollars for each of their products. Yes, that's an exaggeration, but not by much. Also, thank you to CNET and Download.com for making OpenOffice available for download and for everything else you do.
Keep up the excellent work.
I humbly agree with u more than 100%.Yes, my experience is so.For years long i was using MS only,thinking nothing better can be had and nothing can excel MS. But this conception proved false when I casually tried this Free but superb
Open Office. Consequently I removed MS from my PC and continuing this excellent SW; in my,though a very ordinary user's experience, I found many many features are so excellent that working with this SW brings some unique joy to the mind,which MS could not afford notwithstanding its costliness
God bless those hands and heads that brought this grand and excellent FREEWARE to the PC-WORLDS
KARA
Any suggestions?
Gerald
Jantpserra@netcabo.pt
Thanks
Jose Serra
From there just click the language you want.
I'll do that here, hopping that maybe one of the developers will read me -- and yes, all I'm going to mention has already been entered in the official feature request pages, and in one case I've casted my vote, only it's probably a little difficult for a developer browsing though all those pages to separate the "I'd like that" features from the "without it, I can't really use this otherwise wonderful program" features.
To shed some light on my circumstances: I work as an Assistant Professor; I'm also a writer and a translator. So obviously, a word processor is my main tool of trade. I write in French and in English, and while Writer is fine for the latter, it fails with the former.
French punctuation requires an unbreakable space to be inserted before a high/double punctuation mark (? ; : !) and while Microsoft Word does it automatically, Writer still does not (my heart full of hope, I've tested several versions of Writer over the years). To most of you, it'll certainly seem but a detail, yet it makes a document unpublishable as is, just like inserting a space before each period in English would produce a faulty document.
This omission surprises me all the more that, on the other hand, Writer does correct quotation marks automatically when you select the French language, replacing the American quotation marks by French ones, unbreakable space included. But here, another problem occurs: an unbreakable space in Writer is symbolized by a gray square. It means that a French document would be littered with gray squares, and be a royal pain to (proof)read on the screen.
Let me voice (yet) another complaint, since grumbling is a specialty of my countrymen: both the search function and the thesaurus appear as floating windows. Now, Microsoft Word also uses a floating window for its search function, and so does Internet Explorer... which is the main reason why, years ago, I switched to Firefox. Firefox has its search box as a bar on the bottom; it works great (and I can't thank Mozilla enough for that, since a lot of my work has to do with hunting for precise pieces of information). Floating windows that cover the text you are working on, or are simply trying to read, are just not practical.
Now, Microsoft Word got its thesaurus right (no, not everything that Microsoft does is horrible, Vista notwithstanding): it appears on the side of the screen (which is too large for a document anyway, on all but the smallest netbooks) and stays there, if you don't close it; I usually leave it open myself. In Writer, though, not only does the thesaurus appear in a floating window, but you cannot leave this floating window open to work on your main text: you have to close it and reopen it each time you want to check a word, which in my trade(s) is very, very often: my experience is that both writers and translators need the thesaurus much more often than the spell checker.
And, one last thing: a "draft" view would be very nice.
So, anyway, why am I ******** about a free piece of software when, apparently, Microsoft Word satisfies my needs (ribbon notwithstanding)? Well, the fact is, I'm getting very annoyed by Windows, more than by Office. I'd like to switch to Linux, but before I do, I must make sure that I'll have all the tools I need to go on with my work. My needs are relatively simple: while I've used Photoshop and Dreamweaver, I don't need all their power: in all probability, the Gimp and Nvu/KompoZer would satisfy me. In regards to the Internet, why, I'm using Firefox already; I wouldn't notice a difference.
I'm more afraid when it comes to dictionaries: excellent English ones are available for Linux, but the very good French ones only work on Windows or Mac (though maybe Wine would work). And as this post makes it clear, I need a word processor that satisfies some needs which are, for me, both very basic and very important. And so, that's why I've been testing Writer time and again over the years: not because I don't like Microsoft Office (which my university has offered me, so cost isn't an issue) but because, if I could be satisfied with Writer, I could leave Windows behind (certainly for Ubuntu).
To get rid of the grey squares, go to Options -> Writer -> Formatting Aids, uncheck "Display of ... Non-breaking spaces".
I hope that mitigates your problems.
kthxby
Not to be offensive, I'm just trying to justify the effort of these humble folk.
- by roberto.stoppa October 15, 2008 8:47 AM PDT
- I use Lotus Smart Suite Millenium for XP english version. Would like to know if if following files can be read in rel 3.0 english version; *.123 (for speadsheet) - *.APR - *.DBF - *.ADX (for Approach database) - *.LWP for woldprocessing, including macro commands for spreadsheet and database.
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Showing 1 of 2 pages (41 Comments)Thanks for the attention.