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What is everyone using for word processing...

A

asphalt-proof

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 15, 2003
584
0
Magrathea
I am not satisfied with AppleWorks but I cannot afford Office. I am currently looking for an open source alternative. What is everyone using, what are the good and bad points of the suite, stability, and, most importantly how well does it interface with MS docs. I have Office on an PC at work and would like to copy all my reports onto my Mac (I am a psychologist and am leaving my current practice but need a way to keep and access my old case notes, file etc). Any advice would be greatly appreciated and will add ten 'Bless You's' to your personal Karma account.
Thanks
Pete
 
for a real good alternative to ms office, i wd suggest openoffice, at openoffice.org. I havent used it, coz i get MS office fr 15 $ at my school, but many windows users told me that its even better than MS office..

cheers
 
also using MS office due to insanely low price it happened to be made available for. unfortunately, that doesn't really help you much.

while i have not tried it myself, i have heard reasonably good things about open office, so maybe you should try looking it up online while you're waiting for some other folk to post here (and i'm sure at least someone posting will have experience with it).
 
I use appleworks. Not the best, but it works (most of the time). I've heard that OpenOffice for windows is better than for mac.

edit- ThinkFree office is commercial software for under 50 USD. It's fully compatible with .doc, .xls, and .ppt
 
I used OpenOffice in my windows days, I use OpenOffice in my Mandrake box, and I use OpenOffice in my iBook. Love it, never had problems writing my assignments in OpenOffice, saving it and printing in the school's computer (Win 2K Word). I am just waiting for OpenOffice to be native in OSX. I think the next version will be.
 
i use textedit for creating text and indesign for layouts. no word here anymore - it's full of crap as a layout program and bloated as hell as a text editor.
 
AppleWorks really isn't that bad for me. When I need a precision placement, I start a Draw document instead of a Word processing document.

I also use TextEdit for cross-platform compatibility and have used ThinkFree Office and OpenOffice. I may be buying the Student/Teacher version of MS Office 2004 just for easier compatibility. MS Word has been a pain ever since there was a version on something other than Macintosh.
 
I usually use TextEdit and AppleWorks. I only use Word if I absolutely have to. I used to use OpenOffice on a regular basis, but I haven't been able to install it at for for at least 6 months now, the installer won't even run! :confused:
 
I use MS Office though I'm not happy about it. I'm trying to rid my life of MS dependancy but Office is the last, and most painful, bit. I've used it forever, which was a big factor when I moved to the Mac, and I have to share files with too many people who use it to use anything else. I know all the other apps will read MS formats but the conversions usually have a hitch and I don't have time to mess with it.

Over the summer I'll try OO again (and hope for an OS X native version) and give AppleWorks another try. If it weren't for other people I wouldn't need to use MS Office. Hopefully one of those will catch on. I don't mind learning a new way of doing things or walking away from the cash I spend on Office--I just want to be rid of Microsoft.
 
I am using Appleworks right now for a 20,000 + word essay, its great except for the lack of scrolling which is totally stupid. I personally am not installing OpenOffice until there is a native port, i don't have time to play with X11 and do the whole linux thing and i refuse to buy MS office.

Good job the choice I have is not complete crap!
 
I use OpenOffice from openoffice.org. My personal experience is this:

Positives:
+ It's free
+ It is available for Mac, Linux and Windows
+ It can read and write most Microsoft Office documents (.doc, .xls ...)
+ It's powerful. All common functions and most advanced functions are there.
+ It supports Word Processing, Spreadsheets, Presentations and Drawing.

Negatives:
- Some advanced functions not available

Negatives, Mac OSX only:
- It requires X11
- It looks like crap (It looks kind of like Windows 95)

(Be sure to install X11 before installing ooo, or you may run into trouble later)
 
Does anybody know of a good online tutorial that covers the installation of OO on OS X? The OO website assumes a lot of knowledge that most people don't have.
 
To me the biggest negative with open office is the inability to cut and paste between regular Mac apps and Open Office apps. It's a pain to save something in a text file every time I need to use it in a Open Office doc.
 
How

I am a student also, and I was just wondering how some of you above were able to receive MS Office for only 5-15 dollars (what I recall reading)? Online at the AppleStore through student discount the Student/Teacher edition is still 149.--, so how did you drop over $100 from the sticker price?? :confused:
 
Horrortaxi said:
Does anybody know of a good online tutorial that covers the installation of OO on OS X? The OO website assumes a lot of knowledge that most people don't have.
Click to expand...

Actually, I found a packaged installer which even had an application to start XWindows and OpenOffice. You might search MacMinute or VersionTracker since I don't remember where I found it.
 
Calvinatir said:
Microsoft Office Word, only because its $5 for the whole set from school...
Click to expand...
Can somebody explain if this is legal : MS Office for $5 ?!?

If yes, seems to me it might be worth my while hunting up some student in my neighbourhood to buy a copy for me. Who all would be eligible, and is it thru any Apple store?
 
Horrortaxi said:
Does anybody know of a good online tutorial that covers the installation of OO on OS X? The OO website assumes a lot of knowledge that most people don't have.
Click to expand...
Actually it's not so difficult as it seems. OpenOffice suffers from the same thing as many open source projects suffer from: Information overload.

Step 1: Verify that X11 is installed. Look in Applications and Applications->Tools. If it's not there, download it here.

Step 2: Download ooo103darwingm.dmg from any http server here.

Step 3: Run the installer. Click 'next' and 'OK', which ever seems best, ignore all warnings. :)

Step 4: That should be it ... If it doesn't work, you probably need to do the "export DISPLAY=:0" thing.
 
Mac|Photo said:
I am a student also, and I was just wondering how some of you above were able to receive MS Office for only 5-15 dollars (what I recall reading)? Online at the AppleStore through student discount the Student/Teacher edition is still 149.--, so how did you drop over $100 from the sticker price?? :confused:
Click to expand...

Some colleges/universities have a site license for the software, so they will sell a copy for the price of burning a CD and printing a label.
 
gekko513 said:
I use OpenOffice from openoffice.org. My personal experience is this:

Positives:
+ It's free
+ It is available for Mac, Linux and Windows
+ It can read and write most Microsoft Office documents (.doc, .xls ...)
+ It's powerful. All common functions and most advanced functions are there.
+ It supports Word Processing, Spreadsheets, Presentations and Drawing.

Negatives:
- Some advanced functions not available

Negatives, Mac OSX only:
- It requires X11
- It looks like crap (It looks kind of like Windows 95)

(Be sure to install X11 before installing ooo, or you may run into trouble later)
Click to expand...

Good points! But let me add a few more:

OpenOffice's file format is an openly documented, compressed XML file. Other software programs can and are encouraged to read and write it, meaning file-format lock-in will never happen. I think this is the most important distinction between OOo and MSO.

OpenOffice has much better use of Styles than MSO. It is better at handling very large projects like books, and is more stable overall. It supports one-click export to PDF from all components (a big deal on the Wintel platform, though old hat for us) and Flash from Impress, the slideshow component.

OOo's vector drawing component, aptly named Draw, has no match in the typical MS suite, though it is somewhat analagous to MS Visio.

Math is a more complete formula editor than MS' equivalent.

Finally, the Mac port that is highlighted on the main openoffice.org website is not the best one to be using at this time! A Java version has been developed as a proof-of-concept by one single (very talented) developer, and though he's modest about it, the product is good and can be used everyday. I am writing a book using it, currently 62 pages and counting.

Visit this website to download it: www.neooffice.org/java/

It does not require X11, it does support copy-paste with the Mac OS X clipboard, it uses system fonts, etc. All current and potential OS X OpenOffice users should really consider running NeoOffice/J for your current needs!
 
radhak said:
Can somebody explain if this is legal : MS Office for $5 ?!?

If yes, seems to me it might be worth my while hunting up some student in my neighbourhood to buy a copy for me. Who all would be eligible, and is it thru any Apple store?
Click to expand...

That was news to me too but MS was actually giving away licenced copies of its development software at our school and that's worth a lot more than MS Office.
 
I guess nobody got suckered in by Adobe's, FrameMaker is fast enough to be your only wordprocessor, marketing speech.

Or they ran screaming away like a girl when they looked at the price. :eek:
 
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