Open Office Vs Microsoft So thinking of dumping Microsoft Office?

[turik1303 0]

I use MS office... but as for me it's better to use standart notepad=)

[y4nzi 0]

I use open office for Uni work because it's free, faster than MS word and I absolutely LOVE the pdf maker feature.Yes it does have some compatibility and formatting issues with MS word, but I'm not running a major business or doing much corporate stuff, just typing up documents, printing and handing them into lecturers so Open office is perfect for me in that respect.Not to mention it's free and I didn't have to fork out 200+ for the MS office suite

[Forte 0]

I've never used Open Office, but I've heard of it and think it's a good idea for people to finally make a free alternative to Word. Does it have the other MS Office applications in it, like Power Point and the other programs, or is it just a free Word? I've used MS Office all my life, I've been lucky enough to have it installed on every computer we own when we purchase it, but I can understand how some people may not be so fortunate.

[mahesh2k 0]

OpenOffice Suite is good and works perfectly as replacement for MS office suite.

 

But some of the problems i have addressed with Openoffice :

 

1) Slow performance: This is with RAM 256DDR, with 512+ you'll not face such issues. You can observe the loading time of word and OO writer to get hint.

 

2) Word Import loss: If you're importing file created from MS-word to Openoffice you'll have trouble with formatting. Sometimes if the Font is not installed in that machine then openoffice will pick the alternative font to render the document. You'll have some formatting issue with that as well.

 

3) PDF export loss: I've noticed that some fonts and images are poorly rendered under openoffice. This result in poor printing when you hit print option. One workaround to this is use CutePDF writer as print option from within openoffice.

 

There are many such minor issues with openoffice which needs to be addressed. and i'm sure with community support those issues will be taken care in future. Only problem for openoffice is right now is "Lobbying from Microsoft" which restricts itself from its wider acceptance. Let's hope more and more people adopt openoffice soon.

[rvalkass 5]

Does it have the other MS Office applications in it, like Power Point and the other programs, or is it just a free Word?

It has five main pieces of software:

Writer - Word Processor

Calc - Spreadsheets

Impress - Slideshows and Presentations

Draw - Diagrams and artwork (no real Microsoft equivalent)

Base - Databases

More information: http://www.openoffice.org/why/why_great.html

 

I've used MS Office all my life, I've been lucky enough to have it installed on every computer we own when we purchase it, but I can understand how some people may not be so fortunate.

I would consider having to use Microsoft Office as rather unfortunate

[mahesh2k 0]

I would consider having to use Microsoft Office as rather unfortunate

rvalkass: You're on Linux,right. That's why you're saying that It's hard for MS users to switch. I do manage to work with both these packages. But it's very hard sometimes, lot of formatting and losses

[Mordent 0]

OpenOffice Suite is good and works perfectly as replacement for MS office suite.

 

But some of the problems i have addressed with Openoffice :

 

1) Slow performance: This is with RAM 256DDR, with 512+ you'll not face such issues. You can observe the loading time of word and OO writer to get hint.

 

2) Word Import loss: If you're importing file created from MS-word to Openoffice you'll have trouble with formatting. Sometimes if the Font is not installed in that machine then openoffice will pick the alternative font to render the document. You'll have some formatting issue with that as well.

 

3) PDF export loss: I've noticed that some fonts and images are poorly rendered under openoffice. This result in poor printing when you hit print option. One workaround to this is use CutePDF writer as print option from within openoffice.

 

There are many such minor issues with openoffice which needs to be addressed. and i'm sure with community support those issues will be taken care in future. Only problem for openoffice is right now is "Lobbying from Microsoft" which restricts itself from its wider acceptance. Let's hope more and more people adopt openoffice soon.

I'd have to say I disagree with you on a majority of these points as being reasons to use Microsoft Office over OpenOffice.org. Although I haven't checked it myself, I'd have to say that the slow performance of OpenOffice that you've noticed will only ever decline as a problem as computers become faster and with more and more RAM as standard. Even now, based on a quick survey of 10 random people that I have on my contacts list for MSN I found that one doesn't know how much RAM they have (and I couldn't be bothered to explain how to find out ), one was using a machine with 256 MB of RAM, but that was only because they were on an old laptop and therefore not using their main machine, and the rest had 512 MB or more (6/8 said 2 GB).

 

Now, admittedly, this may simply be down to the sorts of people I know, but is OpenOffice really that intensitve a programme?

 

As for Word import loss, try importing .odt files in to Microsoft Word and you'll have a whale of a time. Sure, more people currently use Microsoft Office than OpenOffice (just a guess), but the point in favour of OpenOffice is that they're trying to allow people to easily switch.

 

2) Word Import loss: If you're importing file created from MS-word to Openoffice you'll have trouble with formatting.

So if you're importing a file created by OpenOffice in to MS-Word you don't? At least OpenOffice can actually open .doc files. Try getting Word to play around with .odt without using any third-party software and getting the format right. It's an absolute nightmare. Sure, OpenOffice may not be able to display Microsoft's work entirely correctly, but you know what the answer to that is? Create it using OpenOffice in the first place!

 

3) PDF export loss: I've noticed that some fonts and images are poorly rendered under openoffice. This result in poor printing when you hit print option. One workaround to this is use CutePDF writer as print option from within openoffice.

I rarely print documents, so I'm afraid I can't really comment on this one. All I'll say is that of the documents that I have printed with OpenOffice, I've never had a problem.

 

All in all, I still reckon OpenOffice has a lot going for it, and while it's still lacking a few features it's by no means that far behind Microsoft. It'll be interesting to see how Microsoft react if/when OpenOffice is on more machines than Microsoft Office is.

[mahesh2k 0]

Now, admittedly, this may simply be down to the sorts of people I know, but is OpenOffice really that intensitve a programme?

Like it or not, YES in comparison to MS-Word, Openoffice is memory intensive.

OpenOffice may not be able to display Microsoft's work entirely correctly, but you know what the answer to that is? Create it using OpenOffice in the first place!

Well this is not possible always. As MS-office suite is spread across the world as MS lobby is still much active than Opensource one.

As for Word import loss, try importing .odt files in to Microsoft Word and you'll have a whale of a time. Sure, more people currently use Microsoft Office than OpenOffice (just a guess), but the point in favour of OpenOffice is that they're trying to allow people to easily switch.

I think people are trying to import ms apps files to other open source applications like abiword/oo/staroffice etc, cause we need to move to open source solution not to commercial one,isn't it?

I rarely print documents, so I'm afraid I can't really comment on this one. All I'll say is that of the documents that I have printed with OpenOffice, I've never had a problem.

Then try printing PDF from that way. You'll see PDF rendering issues. Besides i'm not favor of MS, but i would like people to switch to OO. If these problems get solved, i'm sure openoffice is one good alternative over MS-office.

[rpgsearcherz 5]

I have a legitimate copy of Office XP and also have Openoffice.org. I would never use Office again. Openoffice just has so many more features, it's easier to use, and it's free. No reason to go out and pay for updates or anything. Not to mention, it has the ability to play ALL Microsoft Office files! I was quite amazed at how well it all worked when I first got it, because I thought it was going to just be another crappy "free" program.