Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
OpenOffice vs. MS Office
- Thread starter BiikeMike
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
OpenOffice 2.0/NeoOffice all the way! Even though M$ has a better layout and is easier to use (due to OpenOffice running on X11) I think it is not worth money for M$.
Why don't you download OpenOffice/NeoOffice, and try that out, and if you don't like it, go with M$. It can't hurt.
::20ROGERSC::
Why don't you download OpenOffice/NeoOffice, and try that out, and if you don't like it, go with M$. It can't hurt.
::20ROGERSC::
NeoOffice(neverused open office) is slow and eats up ram for me(iMac G5 1.8ghz) but its free so that makes it good enough for me(rythem)
And it not MS always a good thing!
And it not MS always a good thing!
I've used Open Office on and off for about a year and a half now. I rarely have any need of a word processor but my wife does need one fairly often.
The problem I have noticed is compatibility. Most places use MS Word and rarely does the formatting come through properly when created in OO and saved at a .doc file. More often than not we need to do some rather heavy editing at work in Word to make it useable. Most of the problem as I see it is an extension of the war between Word and Wordperfect. For years each one has tried their hardest to make sure that others can't properly read/write their formats and all it does is hurt the users.
While I really like OO and prefer it to Word, I find that using it is far more problematic than it's worth.
The problem I have noticed is compatibility. Most places use MS Word and rarely does the formatting come through properly when created in OO and saved at a .doc file. More often than not we need to do some rather heavy editing at work in Word to make it useable. Most of the problem as I see it is an extension of the war between Word and Wordperfect. For years each one has tried their hardest to make sure that others can't properly read/write their formats and all it does is hurt the users.
While I really like OO and prefer it to Word, I find that using it is far more problematic than it's worth.
I find MS Office to be better than OO, but not to the point thats its worth the huge outlay. If you can get the Student/Teacher deal then its well worth it, more so for complete compatibility with PCs.
I prefer iWork to OO to be honest (as far as Word Processing and Presentations). I like how it tries to do things differently, whereas OO strives to completely copy Office.
I prefer iWork to OO to be honest (as far as Word Processing and Presentations). I like how it tries to do things differently, whereas OO strives to completely copy Office.
I agree. Try them out-- they're free! I gave them a shot, but I'm too rooted in my old Windows/ MS ways, not to mention, as a student it's much more convenient to use the office suite that much of the academic world uses-- MS office. But really, try OO/NO, then decide.20rogersc said:
the only reason why i used Microsoft office 2004 student edition over neooffice is because of the grammar check feature...i borrowed the cd from a friend. otherwise, there's no other reason.
oh, also, origininal rendering. a lot of programs are capatible with .doc, but i'm just worried about how original a doc loaded from neooffice is from an original microsoft office-loaded document, for example, pages. one page opened from microsoft's might open in 24 pages, but neooffice might open it in 18 pages or something like that!
so because of that concern i stuck with microsoft just in case. other parts of word processing also have to be accurate 100% and original like little picures, drawings, arrows, clipart, footnotes, and basically everything about the program. it's like converting a WMV video to AVI videos. you always loose a bit of originality and quality.
however from that main concern, neooffice is a great program.
oh, also, origininal rendering. a lot of programs are capatible with .doc, but i'm just worried about how original a doc loaded from neooffice is from an original microsoft office-loaded document, for example, pages. one page opened from microsoft's might open in 24 pages, but neooffice might open it in 18 pages or something like that!
so because of that concern i stuck with microsoft just in case. other parts of word processing also have to be accurate 100% and original like little picures, drawings, arrows, clipart, footnotes, and basically everything about the program. it's like converting a WMV video to AVI videos. you always loose a bit of originality and quality.
however from that main concern, neooffice is a great program.
For me MS Office is worth it. OpenOffice is fine on a Linux or Windows system, but the UI is downright clunky under OS X. I find that very annoying. Also, I have to deal with Office files created by others a lot, and some of them are pretty complex, so compatibility is important.
20rogersc said:
Is OpenOffice 2.0 available in anything other than French? That's the only version I could find on the official site. If there is an English version out there where is it?
I say go with MS Office. Spend the money and get a program that's good. Nothing against Open Office, but it just isn't 100% compatible. There's always something somewhere that gets messed up in the transition, but with MS Office, sharing stuff is simple and painless.
See if you can get some kind of discount for it in someway. I got a student discount because...well...I'm a student, and I got it for cheaper that the Education Version, because I got another discount through my University bookstore.
See if you can get some kind of discount for it in someway. I got a student discount because...well...I'm a student, and I got it for cheaper that the Education Version, because I got another discount through my University bookstore.