[RT]

Got this from Fred Langa's newsletter, be interested to to know if it works as well is as touted (I haven't tried it since I have MSOffice97, so ...),
but wonder if any of you have or would try it , and your opinion:


I know it reads like a sales pitch, but it's free, it may have bugs, it's cheaper than the $$$ for MSOffice!

Quote from the newsletter:

OpenOffice will run on almost any PC running any version of Windows 95
or above, or any version of Linux using the 2.2.13 kernel, or higher. It
needs just 64MB of RAM, and about 250MB of disk space.

I recommend that everyone--- and I mean everyone--- should at least look
at the free OpenOffice at
http://www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/source/download.html . You have
absolutely nothing to lose except some download time, and you just may
find that this free suite meets all or most of your office software
needs.

The above links gets you to the downloads, here's the Homepage:
http://www.openoffice.org/

[jakoval]

Tried its predecessor - StarOffice, but wasn't particularly impressed (odd user interface, as Langa mentioned). Haven't had a look at OpenOffice, yet but will probably give it a try (especially if decide to have another fling with Linux).
LARGE download - will probably end up using my work ADSL, rather than tying up the old rural dialup for a good part of a day.

[Zuki]

I downloaded it and gave it a try.

First it would not accept version 4.79 of Netscape. All it wanted was the new version 6.1 which I tried and did not like.

Second it put icons in the system tray and I could not find any way to delete them as I don't like them

Third I had icons for fonts or something appear on my desktop. Why or how I do not know.

At this point I took it off the computer but I did save the download. Will probably try it again later.

At this point it needs a lot of work.

Zuki

[RT]

It is I as thought, what can you expect for free?

Some free stuff is better than others. Considering the price MS charges for Office , I was hoping this might be a reasonable alternative to recomend, for those that can't afford it, but...the price ..........
...............................
.......................................gap
between free and list price is much too large in this case to expect a similar result.

Sometimes a $20-$50 app might have a "free" or "lite" equivilant that works OK, but there's a much smaller price ........
.....gap in those cases.

jakoval, I know what you mean about tying up the old tin cans connected with string for the nearly 50MB (!!!) download, didn't realize it was that big...I thought everyone but me & Mac (from OK) had cable/DSL/T1 connects by now!

Zuki, I hope you have no more troubles as a result of the download, I was only asking for opinions from users (or perhaps a guinea pig thanks, )

Just goes to show, don't take anything for granted, if it sounds too good to be true...

Thanks for the input!

[Zuki]

I have not given up on it yet. Will try again when some work has been done on the softwarew. It may turn out to be a great software. Just needs some fine tuning of the software.

[compilerxp]

Star Office (Which Open Office is based off of) is pretty good. Version 6 - to be released soon is quite a bit better than the previous (FREE) verision 5.2 which I cannot stand.

It's powerful, reliable and very compatible... but still I don't quite like it.

If you want a FREE Alternative to MS-OFFICE (And you're using 97 anyway) I HIGHLY recommend Software602's Office Suite.

www.software602.com

It's a FREE 15mb download. Installs easily. Includes quite a bit of EXTRAS... what you don't get are : Presentation manager (Power Point) and an Outlook (PIM).

what I don't like : the tool bar is TOO MUCH - I reduce it by half the options to 2 rows of icons. No highlighter (maybe soon).

It has a very NICE and professional interface (the way Star Office isn't) with 3 sizes (I prefer med) with option text labels (That MS doesnt use).

Give it a try.

[Dynamo2000]

It's been 9 months since the last reply regarding OpenOffice. Presumalbly some updating has gone on. Has anyone had some recent experience with the program in general? I ask this because a friend of mine recommended it to me. More specifically, I was concerned about its Calc program which is supposed to be like Excel. In particular I have many macros in Visual Basic that I use in connection with Excel spreadsheets. Does Calc support this?

[compilerxp]

Visual Basic is a Microsoft product.

I would recommend you go to www.openoffice.org, and post such a question.

MACROS abilities of Star/Open Office would be important... perhaps a conversion tool is needed?

StarOfiice does have its own language (StarBasic) which would allow you to make your own tools.

Good luck

[TechGuy]

I can't speak for Macros, as I don't use them, but I am beginning to use OpenOffice more and more frequently. I've noticed some minor formatting differences when opening OpenOffice documents into Word. However, it's a great product if you don't want to shell out the hundreds of dollars that MS Office costs now...

[compilerxp]

Some other Alternatives to M$...

AbiWord (4mb)which is pretty good... works on Linux too.

I also like www.software602.com suite... its free (16mb) and very easy to use....

Only thing missing from many of these Suites are a bloody PIM program.

[deh]

I have been using it, switching between Openoffice.org and MS office 2000.

It loads a little bit slower and seems to be a "tad" more resource intensive but it is a good free alternative. As mentioned minor formatting differences but AFAIK Word Perfect and Word have thier differences as well.

It has been suggested that openoffice.org is comparable to Word 95, probably suggesting less "features".

I admit I don't use every feature in Word, I use the basics, so if you don't either then I think openoffice.org is an adequate alternative.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2002May11.html


http://www.winplanet.com/winplanet/reviews/4326/1/

[deuce]

Hey does anyone know if you can still get open office for free anywhere? I know they took it off their site awhile ago....and apparently you have to pay a nominal fee or something..........I don't remember. Anybody know anything about this?

[Linkmaster]

Hi deuce,
http://www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/s...1.0.2/#windows
Use OpenOffice myself. I like it pretty well. My boys like its ease of use. I like it because it doesnt have all the MS bloat I never use.

[deuce]

ok, thanks.

[codexaenir]

For Linux, it's the best.

But for Windows, I don't think so. I have nothing against Microsoft but I prefer Office 2000 because of the funtionality in it.. Ever since Office 2000, nothing has gotten better... By Office 2002/XP Microsoft tried to add so much functionality in it that it got frustrating (too much automatic formating, word formatting, and table correction...) so I think it's just bloat. And office 2003?? You got to be kidding...
Also, I'd hate to say it.. but Openoffice runs somewhat slower than Office.


OpenOffice may be a contender in the future as the open-source world would become so big that companies like Microsoft would lose their grasp of the majority of the software market. Let's give it some time.