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Best substitute for Microsoft Word?

B

Bricex

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 9, 2006
9
0
In your opinion? Im using neo-office at the moment , but it's just really slow at times and it doesn't look amazing either, to say the least

cheers
 
I use Pages. I've used it for creating manuals, online documents, letters and so on. When needed I just convert to pdf using OS X's inbuilt pdf conversion and everything looks as good as the original Pages document.
 
I'll have to agree with Bern i use pages for everything i used Word for when i had a PC. I've heard that the inspector is hard to get used to but i actually found it easier to use then Word

Thats my two cents
 
wallock said:
Honestly, everything I've read seems to say that Office for Mac is surprisingly really well respected - I've had nothing but good experiences.
Click to expand...

yeah i have to agree. office for mac has been solid for me. even under rosetta, it runs great. i've been looking for a reason to move to pages, but i haven't found it yet.
 
NeoOffice is a great replacement for Office. http://www.neooffice.org
I love it, I use whenever I have to type something that a PC user needs to open, or vice versa. It's free, and uses Microsoft Office file formats.

EDIT: Sorry, I didn't notice that you already use NeoOffice. My head is thinking about too many things today, so I must have missed that part of your post. Silly me.
 
ghall said:
... uses Microsoft Office file formats.
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Not really, no. Just because an application tries its best to look like a Microsoft application, and saves to Microsoft file formats by default, doesn't mean it's actually using Microsoft file formats. Only Microsoft can use Microsoft file formats. Everybody else is forced to reverse-engineer them, with varying degrees of success. What NeoOffice and the other Office clones do is a bit of a charade, really.

Which brings us back to the OP's question. It depends on what you mean by "substitute." If you need or want a word processor that looks and behaves like Word, then the clones are your only real choice. But if you're willing to learn a different and for many of us better approach to word processing, then give Pages a try.
 
I'd say Pages or NeoOffice which you currently use,

If you want to give Pages now I'd try to wait* for iWork '07 due in January, it should also have Open XML support (Apple are one of the supporters of it) which will mean it will be 100% compatible with Office 2007 (and older versions back to 2000 will get support via a free plugin). Personally I really like Pages and use it as a Word replacement and will probably shell out the £35** for iWork '07 in January.

*I know waiting is rubbish, but still Open XML is worth having ;).

**HE Discount Price
 
Eraserhead said:
*I know waiting is rubbish, but still Open XML is worth having ;).
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A lot will depend on Microsoft's implementation of XML in Word. From what I understand, they will be doing one of their famous "embrace and extend" jobs on the XML format, which means that they will reserve 100% compatibility of Word documents for Word.
 
IJ Reilly said:
A lot will depend on Microsoft's implementation of XML in Word. From what I understand, they will be doing one of their famous "embrace and extend" jobs on the XML format, which means that they will reserve 100% compatibility of Word documents for Word.
Click to expand...

In this case I think Microsoft is doing the right thing, but hey I could be wrong.

wikipedia said:
Licensing

The Microsoft Office Open XML format will be available under a free and perpetual license from Microsoft.[3]

There has been a lot of argument about the ability for OSS software to use the format even under this fairly open license. Microsoft has tried to diminish these concerns by officially stating in a covenant not to sue[4] that it will not sue any organisation for using the format if the implementation complies to the official OOXML file formats. This has led to a greater reassurance that the OOXML formats will also be available for use in OSS software as even expressed by OSS licensing expert Larry Rosen.[5]

A further indication of the free and open use of the format was given by Microsoft XML program manager Brian Jones as he presents a legal analysis on the convenant not to sue and also states that there is "no license needed to use the Office Open XML formats."[6]
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office_Open_XML
 
Hi all

The best replacement for MS Word is learning how to use a word processor :)
Really.
If you start your writing work with a text editor and use the word processor only after you're done with the creative bit, you'll find out that you're getting the job done faster, and on top of that, your original text will be easier to format in a consistent and elegant way.

OpenOffice/NeoOffice are of extra use in this matter as their "Stylist" can be "always on top" so the user doesn't feel tempted to adjust every little detail by hand.
 
thanks. I was just looking to see if there was a respectable alternative to word - it's a little on the expensive side for me.
 
Eraserhead said:
In this case I think Microsoft is doing the right thing, but hey I could be wrong.
Click to expand...

After reading that mumbo-jumbo, who's to say? I'm perpetually suspicious of Microsoft, and especially so when they answer a simple question in a fashion such that hardly anyone understands their actual position. All I can say for certain is that Microsoft fully knows the value of maintaining control of their proprietary file formats. It's the key to keeping their customers from wandering off the reservation.
 
quigleybc said:
My girlfriend has been having a heck of a time using MS office on her intel iMac at her job.

Under Rosetta, she says it "freezes" a lot, Entourage in particular...

I think the fact that MS Office for Mac is still not UB, is complete madness.....
Click to expand...

Maybe it only has 512MB RAM, (check in Apple Menu==>About this Mac) ask for an upgrade to at least 1 to 1.5 GB.
 
A great word replacement is AbiWord, free to download and use and fully compatibe with MS Office.
 
Pages is nice but is different then Word and takes a while to get used to, for me anyway.

Now that I can find everything it is great, although finding out how to double space a paragraph took a while. :p
 
I also say Apple Pages, part of iWork. At $79, you get Pages, which is pretty nice for word processing, and way better than Word when it comes to page-layout. You also get Keynote, which is roundly better than PowerPoint.
 
I've been using NeoOffice for awhile now but I'm not impressed. I've been considering buying iWork over MS Office, but I'm still curious about the no spreadsheet thing. Is there a way to create a graph in iWork? (it's the only reason I use excel)
 
Phil9579 said:
I've been using NeoOffice for awhile now but I'm not impressed. I've been considering buying iWork over MS Office, but I'm still curious about the no spreadsheet thing. Is there a way to create a graph in iWork? (it's the only reason I use excel)
Click to expand...

Yes, and extremely nice looking ones at that:

http://www.apple.com/iwork/pages/features/charts.html

Pages and Keynote both have basic table and spreadsheet functions. A full-blown spreadsheet component is rumored to be included with the next release of iWork in 2007.
 
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