What can you tell me about openoffice.org ?

[FogerRox]

DO use thier stuff and why?

I am looking for alternatives to Word, excel, & powerpoint. TO read & Create.

[POAS]

1. I use it and

stopped using Word completely.

Does everything word does and you have your choice of many formats to save files in (including Word format)

Don't really have a need for other programs (spreadsheeet, etc,)so cannot comment on their functionality!

[bmcatt]

2. I use it exclusively

I refuse to pay the Microsoft tax just to do documents, etc. There are versions for Windows, Mac, Linux, etc. Also nicely, you can export any files to PDF to share with someone else (which also makes them non-editable - a good thing for resumes, etc). There *is* support for MS formats, but such support is often shaky because MS doesn't provide full specifications for document formats.

One thing to consider, if you're thinking about trying it - it's free to download. Just download it and try it. If you like it, you're all set. :-)

[Bruce McAuley]

3. It's as easy as Word, looks to work about the same

I lost my Word program when my hard drive crashed, so I was looking around for a free word processor, and downloaded OpenOffice. In the few times I've used it, it seems as functional, and looks just about the same, so I certainly can't complain.
I think I might just give up on Microsoft and go with Linux rather than change to Vista, when my XP becomes too old to be serviceable any more.
No complaints here, but I don't know about the rest of their stuff.
Go for it.

Bruce

[Kagemusha]

4. Apparently MS is finally embracing compatibility with Open Office

I suppose its customers complained enough that MS finally decided to give in on this minor issue. (Minor because Open Office already did a lot of compatibility stuff on its own with no help from MS at all.) I'm just mentioning it because the hassles should be even less from here onward.

[americanstranger]

7. Microsoft's dirty little secret...

A large percentage of MS employees actually prefer, and use, OpenOffice.

I know, becuase I know somebody on the inside (I'm married to her!). :)

- as

[Kagemusha]

12. I'm still on MS Word but no special reason

I'm generally using it for compatibility and only using it for very basic word processing functions to begin with, so compatibility aside, it wouldn't matter to me what I use. At any rate, I don't doubt a lot of MS employees prefer something less clunky.

[mike_c]

5. it's an excellent office suite....

I use it all the time.

[jtrockville]

6. I've been using it exclusively on my tablet for over a year now...

I don't miss MS. My (not so significant) gripes with OpenOffice:

1) There's no database (as far as I can tell), like MSAccess,
2) OpenOffice basic is not 100% compatible with MSVBA.

but

It's tiny enough to fit on my 1GB flash drive (I'm sure it would fit on a smaller capacity flash drive), so anywhere I go I can just plug the drive in and have all the basic tools I need - I've got IRFanView for image editing loaded on the flash drive too.

What's not to like?

[FogerRox]

16. I'm reading good replacement for Word & Excel

[Feron]

8. Let me put it to you this way...

I completely dumped MS Office after discovering OpenOffice.

So far I haven't had a problem opening files saved in MS Office and noone has had issues opening my files. Another bonus: no Clippy. :)

I highly recommend it. :D

[FogerRox]

15. No CLippy, COOL, LOL.

[meldroc]

9. It works quite well.

It's free (both free-as-in-beer and free-as-in-speech) and it does its job quite nicely. One gripe is that it is a little bit of a resource hog (but so is MS Office...)

The MS Office compatibility is pretty good, all things considered. MS Office file formats are not easy to handle correctly - even MS Office itself screws it up between versions, but most of the time you won't have any problems. On some occasions, you might find the formatting of your documents getting mangled.

[Lindsay]

10. Use it, love it.

Highly recommend it.

[Katherine Brengle]

11. Takes awhile to DL the whole suite, and on my old comp

it could take a min to load the program, but overall I was pleased with it. Works pretty much like MSWord and there are other programs in the suite, like a spreadsheet program, photo/image editing, etc.

[Richard Steele]

13. I downloaded it to the little iMac here...

...for when my sweetie occasionally needs to bring home work (MS Word™ docs).
She's only used it a few times, but never had any complaints.

[Gman]

14. Good stuff

can't beat the price

[shireen]

17. i'm a fan too

and defintely recommend it.

[ray of light]

18. I like it and use it.

A few glitches, but not too many.

[TheBaldyMan]

19. I use it for all my serious stuff, easier to use and cheaper than M$Office

I am a member of the OO.org mailing list so I get notification of and access to the latest developments almost as soon as they are released. Most recent is an extension to allow centralised enterprise-wide document control.

It continues to improve with time, extra functionality and very good documentation. Also as it is open source there is nothing to stop you customising it for your specific purpose.

OO-Writer is an excellent word-processor easier to use and better functionality than MS Word. OO comes bundled with OO-Math an excellent plug-in for mathematical and scientific functions.

OO-Calc is the spreadsheet - it works with full functionality, you get the whole thing not something like XLview that only allows you to examine a spread sheet.

OO-Impress is the powerpoint equivalent, I don't use it myself so I can't say if it's any good.

OO-Base is the built in database application within OO. Again I don't use it much myself so I can't say with any authoriity how good it is.

For personal use all these are free, you can donate voluntarily or get a very reasonable site licence for commercial use.

[FogerRox]

20. Well, OK. I think I'll get me some, thanks everyone

[piedmont]

21. I like it

The presentation software is as good as powerpoint (I don't use animations and templates, though).
The word processor is pretty much just like Word.
I am frustrated by the spreadsheet program, though. It can be more difficult to import data, and in the graphing function it can be difficult/impossible to customize a graph in certain ways.
Being able to click an icon and produce a PDF version of your document is nice.

[FogerRox]

22. will the presentation SW play my existing PP projects

I mean how is PP compatibility? Reading & creating?

[piedmont]

23. Oh yeah, it will open your existing ppt files

It also can save files as .ppt and Powerpoint will open them-- though in the past I've had a minor problem with bullets being different. I'm not sure how it handles animations, though, since I don't use those.

[FogerRox]

24. nice, so many reasons, I think I am sold.

[Xithras]

25. The one and only issue I have...

Open Office Create defaults to the open document format (ODF), which cannot be read in MS Office. We do use it here extensively, but it's always a hassle when someone forgets to change the format and sends out an ODF file to the campus. They invariably get 100 emails chastising them for forgetting, and the original sender has to re-save the document in .doc or .rtf before distributing it. Since there's no way to change the default document format, this tends to be a pain.

I'm not sure if this has been fixed in Office 2007, but there are few O'07 users around yet anyway. Until it gets worked out, this does tend to be a pain in the ass for Open Office users.

Other than that, no REAL complaints. The interface is slightly dated compared to Office 2003 (and is laughable in comparison to Word 2007), but it's perfectly functional if you just want a free editor. I frequently recommend it to students if they don't already have a word processor, but personally still use MS Word.

[icnorth]

26. I've used Open Office

for several years now and the product is becoming more mature and more compatible with MS and other formats. It has continued to improve in functionality and flexibility with each new release. I use it now almost exclusively even though I still have MS on my computer, even when preparing a document or spreadsheet I will be sending out in Excel or Word format. My current version is 2.1 and I have recommended O.O. to a number of friends for the past couple of years and have received no negative feedback. Major components in O.O. are Text Document, Spread Sheet, Presentation, Drawing and Data Base. Go for it, I don't think you will be disappointed. They also have good forums for queries or assistance.