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First Time Mac Owner question about OpenOffice

O

ontheuptick

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 17, 2006
56
0
I am a first time mac owner as soon as my Intel iMac arrives. My question is, what is the best way to be able to use excel, word, etc. files on a PC and then on a mac as well. I have a friend who recommended openoffice because it is free.

Would you recommend it or should I spend the money on Office for Mac or will iWork do the trick? (I didn't see anything about spreadsheets and excel in iWork, am I missing it?)

Thanks
 
OpenOffice on the Mac works but it is clunky. It doesn't feel like a native App (it's not) and doesn't integrate with the system very well. MS Office is much better in these respects but it's also expensive.

iWork does not have a spreadsheet component at this time.
 
Along with OpenOffice, there is a Mac Native program called NeoOffice, it feels much better than OpenOffice, although still a little clunky, it does offer almost of the functionality of Word (as far as I know it has everything Word has).

It is free, so it's worth a shot.
www.openoffice.org
 
Do many of you use open office or neooffice? or do you all pay up for for MS Office for mac?

Thanks
 
ontheuptick said:
Do many of you use open office or neooffice? or do you all pay up for for MS Office for mac?
Click to expand...
I haven't bought a copy of Office since Office 98.

I do all my word processing in TextEdit, large documents that require some layout are done in Create. And any of the things that I may need from an Office like suite I get from either AppleWorks or NeoOffice.
 
I have NeoOffice, although I don't make much use of it. I previously used OpenOffice in the Linux world and it met all my needs.

I certainly won't be paying for MS Office.
 
If it was up to me, I would not pony up the dough for Office.

However, my work pays for it and I find that it's much easier to use (and get help with on some of the more obscure tricks/tips). Since the Neo* and Open* are free, I suggest just downloading them and trying them. If you like it, use it. If you find that it's a pain in the ass in comparison.. well you know what you have to do then. :)
 
ontheuptick said:
I am a first time mac owner as soon as my Intel iMac arrives. My question is, what is the best way to be able to use excel, word, etc. files on a PC and then on a mac as well. I have a friend who recommended openoffice because it is free.

Would you recommend it or should I spend the money on Office for Mac or will iWork do the trick? (I didn't see anything about spreadsheets and excel in iWork, am I missing it?)

Thanks
Click to expand...

At work I hame Sun's Solaris 10 on my desk. I use Open Office. Sure, OO does not use the native Macintosh interface but it works as well on OSX as it does on Saloris and that's good enough for day to day use.

Appleworks is included with OSX does every thing and uses the Mac-style native interface but there is not counterpart on Windows but then you can find a common file format with Word if you need to exchange files
 
RacerX said:
Only on consumer level systems, the Pro systems don't have AppleWorks bundled with them.
Click to expand...

Does AppleWorks even exist anymore, or do you folks mean iWork?

I noticed that a PowerBook delivered on Friday had trials of iWorks. Not a full copy.

EDIT: I guess it does.. HERE, but it sure looks depricated for iWorks.
 
If you can stand the clunky interface of NeoOffice its certainly the cheapest option. OpenOffice 2.0 requires X11 on Mac, so will look exactly like a Linux App running on the Mac Desktop. Not very nice, but useable I guess.

Personally I use MS Office on OSX and think its worth it. That said, as I work for a Uni I can get it cheap.
 
yellow said:
Does AppleWorks even exist anymore, or do you folks mean iWork?
Click to expand...
iBooks and Mac Mini's still come with AppleWorks I believe. My Wife's iBook bought in July last year certainly did.

EDIT: According to the Apple Store they still bundle Appleworks with the iBook, Mini and iMac G5. The Intel iMac doesn't have it bundled.
 
I'll add my opinion to the thread. I feel that MS Office for the Mac is worth the money if you are going to use it a lot. It's much easier to use and more Mac-like than either NeoOffice or OpenOffice. NeoOffice is Mac native in that it doesn't require X11 to run, but for the most part, it still doesn't have a Mac UI.

Another thing to think about is compatibility. OpenOffice and NeoOffice are pretty compatible with Office, but not perfectly so, and many complex documents don't quite render properly in them. Office for Mac on the other hand has been almost perfectly compatible between Mac and Windows in my experience.
 
I probably won't be going back and forth too much, so maybe NeoOffice will work for me?

I think what I will do is when I get my Intel iMac, download NeoOffice and try it out. If it is good enough, then great. If I want Office for Mac, then I can at least wait until they release a new version that is native on the Intel chip, correct?
 
ontheuptick said:
I am a first time mac owner as soon as my Intel iMac arrives. My question is, what is the best way to be able to use excel, word, etc. files on a PC and then on a mac as well. I have a friend who recommended openoffice because it is free.

Would you recommend it or should I spend the money on Office for Mac or will iWork do the trick? (I didn't see anything about spreadsheets and excel in iWork, am I missing it?)

Thanks
Click to expand...

iWork '06 now has spreadsheets as a part of Pages.

Apple - iWork - Pages
 
ontheuptick said:
I probably won't be going back and forth too much, so maybe NeoOffice will work for me?

I think what I will do is when I get my Intel iMac, download NeoOffice and try it out. If it is good enough, then great. If I want Office for Mac, then I can at least wait until they release a new version that is native on the Intel chip, correct?
Click to expand...
Yeah it is worth a shot. NeoOffice is easier to setup than OpenOffice too, because OpenOffice runs through X11 Unix shell that you have to have installed. Although X11 comes with the machine (it has a separate installer), it might prove to be a deterrent to someone just becoming acquainted with the Mac.

I have to do large science write-ups and the equation editor in NeoOffice is invaluable for this, as well as other basics that are needed in creating professional looking documents.
 
mvelinder said:
iWork '06 now has spreadsheets as a part of Pages.
Click to expand...
Sorta kinda but not really :) The formulas are limited to basic arithmetic and a half dozen predefined functions.
 
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