openoffice.org reviews?

[SkyHog]

Anyone here use openoffice.org? I'm thinking of using it instead of Microsoft Office, and was wondering if anyone knows if its as good as people claim it to be?

Supposedly, it can read and save Word, Excel and Powerpoint documents (no replacement for Outlook or for Access yet...or probably ever). It sounds intriguing. When I get off work I'll try it, but I wanted to see if anyone here had tried it.

 

[woodstock]

I use it at home, for my limited usage it's great. why spend 200-400 or whatever it is for my home computer if I use it rarely... very similar interface.

 

[SkyHog]

well, I just installed it and played with it a little bit, and so far, openoffice.org makes Nick a happy panda.

 

[RotaryWingBob]

Nick -

I've been using it for almost a year (I think). I've never had any problems. I like it. It doesn't put a dime in Gates' pocket!

 

[bluesky74656]

I've been using it for a while now. Sometimes there can be some formatting issues if you try to open a powerpoint document in Impress, so be careful with that. Impress also lacks the dual-monitor functionality of Powerpoint, but I hear they're working on that. In my case, at college, I have to remember to go change the margins before typing a paper, because the margin defaults are different from Word, and most professors want the Word defaults. All said and done, though, it works well.

 

[jesse]

The beauty of open source. Everyone is in the game now, for the most part...except Microsoft.

 

[SCCutler]

I use OpenOffice for those few times when WordPerfect won't do the trick (essentially, opening and printing Word docs, at which OO is better than WP, slightly).

We (like the still-majority of the legal market) use WordPerfect because it gives proper control over formatting fo text in a way Word never has done, and never will. In addition (of course), the file formats are not periodically changed for the sole purpose of obsoleting the program version you are using (that is one of M$' most frustrating practices).

If I were starting up today, on a shoestring, I'd have Linux workstations running Open Office; it would work just fine and be really inexpensive.

 

[kath]

I use OpenOffice for absolutely everything. Word docs, presentations, spreadsheets... there are a few annoying quirks but overall I have been VERY pleased. I give powerpoint-style lectures on it. It can open just about any MS document that someone might send you, and you can save things in MS format too.

For "serious" documents (like scientific papers), I use LaTeX. Also open source. Makes equations a breeze.

--Kath

 

[silver-eagle]

When I got my old notebook, I had a fully functional MS/OFFICE on it. Lasted until the Harddrive died. The replacement notebook system had a limited license MS/OFFICE which allowed me to upgrade to a full license for $299.99. Since I was using it only to read stuff sent, I put up with the annoying message about upgrading it until I found out about Open Office.
Does everything I need from word documents (saved as .doc files) to envelopes (formerly saved as .doc files). So why pay for MS/WORD? (AGAIN!?!)