CNET Editors' review
A credible rival to MS Office, OpenOffice.org includes powerful applications for making text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, diagrams, and databases, as well as HTML and XML documents. Not only does it let you edit basic documents, such as letters and faxes, it also handles equations, complex and multipart documents with bibliographies, reference tables, and indexes.
The interface is similar to that of MS Office users, and even advanced Office users will find almost everything they're used to: templates, collaborative features (versions, recording changes), macros, and even a programming language. OOo, as it's known, lets you open and save documents in formats as diverse as MS Office, PDF, HTML, and XML. It can also import files from those formats, as well as the WordPerfect format and others. However, it normally saves files in the open-standard Oasis OpenDocument XML format, for maximum compatibility with other applications.
The latest versions of OpenOffice have seen a spurt of growth in the extensions available for the program. These include templates for professional writers, an export tool for bidirectional functionality with Google Docs, blog publishing, and others. Blog publishing assistance especially strikes us as a natural area for word processing to grow towards.
We were pleased to find that stability has improved too. No doubt about it, the multilingual and cross-platform OpenOffice.org is a compelling option for anyone in search of an alternative office suite.
Publisher's Description
From OpenOffice.org:
This office productivity suite for Mac OS X includes desktop applications such as a word processor, a spreadsheet, a presentation manager, and a drawing program, with a user interface and feature set similar to that of other office suites. OpenOffice.org also works transparently with a variety of file formats, including those of Microsoft Office.
Note: In order to use OpenOffice, you first have to download and install the latest build of X11 from Apple. See Apple's page on X11 for information and download links. This is a very large (133MB) file and may take several hours to download via dial-up modem.
What's new in this version: Version 2.2 may include unspecified updates, enhancements, or bug fixes.
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All versions:
3.8 starsout of 150 votes
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Current version:
2.6 starsout of 5 votes
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My rating:
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Results 1-5 of 5
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"good product"
Version: OpenOffice.org 2.2
Pros
i like using it
Cons
for writing things
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"It barely works"
Version: OpenOffice.org 2.2
Pros
I actually DID get a spreadsheet program and saved my spreadsheet.
Cons
The spreadsheet was much larger than I wanted and I found no way to delete the excess rows and columns. I could not copy an equation from one cell to another or put an equation in a series of cells. I saved the spreadsheet (or thought that I had saved it) and when I double-clicked on it all seemed well until OpenOffice asked what I was trying to load and NONE of the versions were the right one.
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"Couldn't install it"
Version: OpenOffice.org 2.2
Pros
I use it when I'm running Ubuntu Linux and it works great
Cons
I couldn't install in on a brand new as of 7/19/07 mac book pro because I couldn't install X11 because when I downloaded X11 I got a message that said there was more advanced software already installed.
I was able to download and install Neo Office which looks a lot like Open Office but I couldn't get through cnet I had to go to the Neo Office website
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"good, but slow startup"
Version: OpenOffice.org 2.2
Pros
this is free and good
Cons
slow startup
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"Excellent alternative to Microsoft Office."
Version: OpenOffice.org 2.2
Pros
OpenOffice is an excellent alternatve to Microsoft Office, I a heavey MS Office user at work and need to have access to documents, spreadshets and presentations at home.
I have successfully exchanged all three type of documents between my work PC using MS Office and my home Mac using Open Office.
Cons
Some of the features I use very often at work are not so easy to find in OpenOffice.
Results 1-5 of 5
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