Neo Office or office 2004 for mac?

[finch212]

so i have office 2004 but heard neo office is a good program to use instead

i need to use excel and word and maybe powerpoint

which program would you recommend installing?

 

[invasian]

Office 2004 is very slow on macs...it's kind of annoying, but I have to use it because of compatibility with other people that i work with. Fortunately, I got Office 2004 for free cause my school has a license for it, otherwise, I would probably not have gotten it and waited for the new office.

I have both installed but have not used neoffice

 

[ingenious]

Office 2004 is not slow really at all on PPC and is just a tad bit slower on Intel.

NeoOffice, however, is a DOG on PPC. I don't recommend using it all. I haven't ever used it on Intel, so it may be optimized better for that processor.

 

[CmdrLaForge]

so i have office 2004 but heard neo office is a good program to use instead

i need to use excel and word and maybe powerpoint

which program would you recommend installing?

Intel Mac or PPC ? On PPC I would use M$ Office. On Intel NeoOffice.

 

[finch212]

i have the new ones with santa rosa and stuff

 

[mattw]

I guess it depends on whether cost is an issue for you, because the free versions do the job. However I get Office free and prefer the Microsoft one - it just seems a bit smoother and more similar to the PC version.

I am using PPC.

 

[cmeriptahoe]

i have been using office on my powermac for the past four years and i loved it. i recently got a MBP and downloaded Neo Office, because i want to wait for office 2008 to come out. I must say that i am very impressed with neo office and i might just keep using it. you might as well download neo office seeing as its free, then if you dont like it uninstall it.

on another note, do people know when office 2008 is coming out?

 

[Father Jack]

Office 2004 is very slow on macs.

If you are finding Office 2004 slow on your Mac I think your Mac is the problem.

I am running Office 2004 on my Mac Pro, on a non-Intel Mac Mini and on a 2 Ghz Mac Book and they all run fast ... 🙂

Neo Office is quite adequate for most people.

 

[Andras5soul]

I just use microsoft office also, on all 3 of the macs in my house. (a ppc mini, a ppc imac, and a new mbp), it runs fast on all 3 of them. neooffice runs slower than microsoft on my ppc's and just as fast on my mbp. I would just get the microsoft version though because i prefer the look and feel of it, maybe im just used to it though. doesnt have the cheap feel to it like neooffice.

QUESTION: does microsoft office really use up the battery more than neooffice due to using rosetta or is that not true?? and is it a significant difference??? (sorry to steal your thread for this quicky)

 

[Father Jack]

QUESTION: does microsoft office really use up the battery more than neooffice due to using rosetta or is that not true?? and is it a significant difference??? (sorry to steal your thread for this quicky)

Can't say I ever noticed .. I wouldn't think so, but then I'm frequently wrong ... 😱

 

[jayeskreezy]

how does openoffice compare to these two?

 

[azizane]

Buying MS office 2004 is waste of money as it's PPC only and there is a new version coming in october i think (sure it will be delayed when did MS ever deliver in time?).

Personally i would recommend apple's iwork suite it has pages which can import/export to .doc and also has keynote which can import/export to .ppt, the only app missing is a spreadsheet app which is rumored to be included in the next upgrade. Then also iwork might get an upgrade soon so it's also wasteful to buy now.

I say try neo-office, it's buggy and slow but gets work done. if you couldn't cope, get MS office 2004 if you need a spreadsheet program or get iwork if you don't.

PS: neo-office is based on openoffice, both are java based but openoffice requires X11 and neo-office doesn't. Openoffice is being ported to run natively on mac without the requirement of X11 and java virtual machine (JVM).

 

[Dustman]

how does openoffice compare to these two?

It doesn't. It runs in X11 so its ugly and slow. Actually, Neo Office isnt native either; it runs in java. I'm probably gonna get shot for this, but if your using intel, id recommend *ducks* Office v. X. It'd be lighter for rosetta to figure out. If ur on PPC, I recommend Office 2004.

 

[invasian]

If you are finding Office 2004 slow on your Mac I think your Mac is the problem.

I am running Office 2004 on my Mac Pro, on a non-Intel Mac Mini and on a 2 Ghz Mac Book and they all run fast ... 🙂

Neo Office is quite adequate for most people.

It's not that it's terribly slow, but it's slower than on windows. For example, when zooming in on a document, there's a bit of a lag. And when you have a 200 pg document, scrolling takes a second or two to move from page to page instead of it being smooth.

 

[theBB]

so i have office 2004 but heard neo office is a good program to use instead

i need to use excel and word and maybe powerpoint

which program would you recommend installing?

Why don't install NeoOffice and see if you like it? Everybody here has different needs and biases. Unless you ask a specific question, "which one is better?" will not get you much.

 

[CANEHDN]

I found NeoOffice to be more of a pain than it was worth. I don't like to say it but I prefer Office. Microsoft over all did a good job with it. I just wish Apple would come out with a full Office suite. I would buy that in a second. Having it fully compatible with all the iLife and iWork suites would be 'suite'.

 

[Lock]

Office 2004 is not slow really at all on PPC and is just a tad bit slower on Intel.

NeoOffice, however, is a DOG on PPC. I don't recommend using it all. I haven't ever used it on Intel, so it may be optimized better for that processor.

I haven't had trouble with NeoOffice on my g4 powermac at all. It seems to run as fast as Office for me. It also runs fine on the 400mhz and 500mhz TiBooks that I've used. The only slowness I've noticed is that it takes a bit of time to load.

NeoOffice's real advantages are it's price (or lack of price, I guess) and that you can get away from using a microsoft product. Since you already have Office I don't think NeoOffice will blow your mind or anything. Word processors aren't really that interesting and the two apps are pretty similar, IMHO.