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Full user review
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"Five stars from a former MS Office user."
Pros
I used MS Office for years, and still have to use it at work, but I now prefer OpenOffice, and use it on my own computer. Its cost advantage is impossible to ignore, but I already had Office 2003 Pro, so that wasn't the only factor.
I save most of my work to ODF, which MS Office doesn't support. I also like OOo's ability to export to PDF, complete with bookmarks, links, and form elements. (PDF "printer" plugins only produce what can be printed on a page.) When I do need to share files with MS Office users, I have been able to do so without problem, as OOo does a good job of saving to DOC, XLS, and PPT file formats.
The learning curve is pretty short. If you've used Office, Works, or WordPerfect, it won't take long to get used to OpenOffice's interface. The help files are good, and there are some good PDF user guides on the OOo website.
OpenOffice has been rock-solid on my PC, and has been crash-resistant and trouble-free. Anyone looking for a good office software bundle would do well to try out OOo before spending money on something else.
Cons
PC novices won't find OOo as friendly as MS OFfice or Works. There are few templates included, and no "wizards" to speak of.
2 replies to this review
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Actually, OpenOffice DOES run on a Celeron M-equipped PC. I am doing just that, with my cheap notebook PC. It is a 1.3Ghz Celeron M...
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After I downloaded OOo I realised that it wont run on Celeron M processor, it needs Pentium combatible. Any idea if there is a version that runs on Celeron? Could also please reply to"jacksabasa@netscape.net"
