Home › Forums › Archives › Computer Support › Computer Support Discussion › Open Office…a viable alternative
- This topic has 8 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 16 years, 2 months ago by Doris Kenney.
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February 27, 2008 at 3:10 pm #28410Doris KenneyParticipant
I’ve been testing Open Office as an alternative to MS Office. Thus far, I’ve been very impressed with the spreadsheet part of the suite. It takes a bit of getting used to, but I’m growing to like it more and more.
It will open any MS Excel or Word document and the price is certainly right at FREE! If you happen to be looking for an alternative, or like me, you’re still using an ancient copy of MS Office it might be worth a try.
-Doris-
February 27, 2008 at 3:29 pm #167578VvWolverinevVParticipantOpenOffice.org comes preinstalled in Ubuntu, so I’ve been using it more lately. It’s not quite as polished as Microsoft Word or Apple Pages, but I’d say it’s greatest strength is cross-platform compatibility. Since on any given day, I use Ubuntu 7.10, Windows Vista, Mac OS X 10.3, Mac OS X 10.4, and Windows XP, it’s nice to know that OpenOffice.org is available for each of those systems and can handle files created on any of them.
February 27, 2008 at 4:46 pm #167574DavidParticipantAll fine and dandy until you need to open Office 2007 Open XML documents. Unless you aren’t using Windows, it’s worth it to just buy Office 2007. I’ve found that the “polished” features and usability of Office ’07 outweigh the cost, but I also use office more than most home users.
OO.org is a nice alternative, but I would never use it as a replacement. Gone are the days of adding features to office suites, it’s about making them usable and more productive now.
February 28, 2008 at 5:24 am #167579VvWolverinevVParticipantWell any proprietary software has certain formats that need to be exported to more commonly-readable formats. That’s not really the fault of OpenOffice.org.
I meant that OpenOffice can handle files created in OpenOffice on any OS, not that it could handle any proprietary file.
February 28, 2008 at 5:46 am #167575DavidParticipant@VvWolverinevV 227250 wrote:
I meant that OpenOffice can handle files created in OpenOffice on any OS, not that it could handle any proprietary file.
I knew what you meant. I’ve never had anyone even try to email me an ODF, but I’ll get doc/xls files quite often, and I’m seeing docx and xlsx more and more every day. It’s about what the rest of the world uses, that’s what matters. 🙂
March 6, 2008 at 10:08 pm #167573Jeff HesterKeymasterDoris, have you tried Google Docs? I’ve used it for Powerpoint and Word docs. As Dave mentioned, it’ll have a problem with .docx files, but for basic stuff it does a pretty decent job. And you don’t have to install anything! It works through your web browser.
I like Google Docs because I can access my files from anywhere with an Internet connection — home, work, school — even on my iPhone! I still use Microsoft Office for many things, but I’ve been using Google Docs for more and more stuff.
March 6, 2008 at 10:55 pm #167580Doris KenneyParticipantI’ve not really played with Google Docs much. On a personal level I’d have no problem using it (tho I still have Office 2000 which is funcational for most all my needs.)
We’re looking for an alternative for work and that’s really where I’ve been playing with Open Office. The fee is $50 per user for Google at the corporate level and with over 100 employees even that’s a steep price to pay vs. totally free. Not to mention, we already have a brand new server & recently upgraded our software for our email system so the Gmail part of it doesn’t add any extra value to the service for us.
I will however suggest it to our IT department and see what they think. We should evaluate all the options so we make an informed decision.
March 7, 2008 at 5:53 am #167576DavidParticipantI wouldn’t ever want to depend on my word processing/office suite being used completely over the internet… that’s quite high risk. Google Docs is pretty nice though.
March 8, 2008 at 4:34 am #167577YahooliganMemberDavid;227552 wrote:I wouldn’t ever want to depend on my word processing/office suite being used completely over the internet… that’s quite high risk. Google Docs is pretty nice though.I’m with you. I think there is still a need for a desktop word processor, spreadsheet, etc, but it’s Google Docs is handy for certain circumstances.
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