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NeoOffice 2.2.3 or OpenOffice 2.4?

Y

yomibro

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 24, 2008
220
7
Is one better then the other? I would consider iWorks 08 also but I am trying to not spend money right now. :rolleyes:
 
Personally, I'd go NeoOffice, just because X11 is a pain in the neck to set up, but if you have the time, why not set it up, and see which you like more?

Their both free, so why not?


Or try the Alpha of OpenOffice Aqua..but save a lot.
 
I have X11 configured in my system... in Leopard it won't work as well than in Tiger, but it do the work for OpenOffice.

The real problem using OpenOffice for X11 is that the application will not paste images or other kind of files other than text. Text is the only thing that travel between the X11 clipboard and Aqua clipboard.... sure you can save an image to the disk and then import it to OpenOffice, but I prefer to paste direct to my application... so NeoOffice is my better choise.

There is an effort to develop OpenOffice for Aqua under way, you can check OpenOffice.org web site for more information, and they have the third alpha version to download... pretty stable but not enogh for production enviroment.

clemare
 
I'm using NeoOffice as well. I used OpenOffice on my Windows system (and just replaced Office 2000 on my wife's PC with OpenOffice 2.4). NeoOffice doesn't seem that much different from OpenOffice for me. I'm barely using it, though, so I'm less likely to notice anything different.

OpenOffice 3.0 is supposed to be the first fully Aqua native release. I'd say use NeoOffice until 3.0 is released, and then switch if it is a good release.
 
For a free full-featured office suite go with NeoOffice. I don't like OpenOffice or NeoOffice to begin with though.
 
It seems that NeoOffice is the way to go so I'll give that a try, once the new Aqua version is available from OpenOffice I'll give that a try at that time. Appreciate everyone's input on this.
 
Neil321 said:
One last point,don't be to surprised if it scares you to death as it's a ugly as sin itself,on a good note it's a great prog
Click to expand...

No uglier than OpenOffice, which of course gets to use Microsoft Office (pre-ribbon versions) as a "model." So while its an ugly app, its true to the original.

/Ouch!
 
I've had a mac for about a month now. I used OOo on windows for years before that. When I came to mac my friend suggested to OOo 3.0 aqua beta. It's really nice. It looks beautiful, has all the features I'm used to, and uses all the default Aqua windows.

However, its not the stablest application. I've had issues with importing Office files that include formulas, and printing Impress documents in a manner other than one slide per page is a chore. It also crashes more often than I like (however, I've never lost a document or work... its got good recovery).

I got NeoOffice 2.2.3 yesterday and used it for most of the day. The icons are ugly as sin, but functionally its extremely similar to OOo. I find that NeoOffice is slower to open than OOo, but once I'm in files it works much faster. It also (most importantly) fixed the few bugs I mentioned above.

So, my final recommendation as someone who has used both - get the OOo 3.0 aqua to see if it will work for you. Both my bugs were rather specialized, for general stuff it worked fine. It never crashed while I was doing something simple like just typing a document, only with more advanced use. If its still too alpha-ish for you or if you don't want to mess around with it, get NeoOffice.

In either case, I wouldn't recommend OOo 2.4 for mac.
 
I don't know why so many people dislike X11. It's a very powerful and awesome windowing environment. It lets us run a ton of applications in OS X that we would not currently be able to run. I use it for GIMP alone. No problems. It just works.
 
hodgjy said:
I don't know why so many people dislike X11. It's a very powerful and awesome windowing environment. It lets us run a ton of applications in OS X that we would not currently be able to run. I use it for GIMP alone. No problems. It just works.
Click to expand...

I would prefer an aqua version of GIMP; X11 is a band-aid solution for me, it will support programs I want to run, but it ain't pretty. (I do use GIMP all the time though).

I vote in favor of NeoOffice; I've been using it for a while now (~6 months) and it hasn't crashed once. There's a small learning curve, but it would be the same using OpenOffice. To sum it up: it may not be perfect, but it just works. :D :apple:
 
just downloaded the latest open office and i like it more than neooffice. Even though its still in development its launches much faster.

certainly an off topic and perhaps a silly question but why does office launch so quickly (my experience) on windows compared to open office on windows and office, iwork, open office and neooffice on mac
 
numlock said:
just downloaded the latest open office and i like it more than neooffice. Even though its still in development its launches much faster.

certainly an off topic and perhaps a silly question but why does office launch so quickly (my experience) on windows compared to open office on windows and office, iwork, open office and neooffice on mac
Click to expand...

It could be the computer that is the reason, not the software :p. Or it could be that years and years of optimization on ms office have... wait, that doesn't make any sense. :D :apple:
 
I find NeoOffice to be really slow and a huge CPU hog. I dont know about openoffice. However, if NeoOffice works well on your computer, it seems to be a nice enough program.
 
Just to give a quick followup -

I upgraded my OOo Aqua from DEV300_m5 to DEV300_m7 and noticed a MASSIVE increase in speed, both in opening the program/files and in working with the files. For opening files, I'm talking about 2-3 seconds to open a spreadsheet, down from 10-20 seconds before. I haven't tested any of the bugs I mentioned in my first post, but speed-wise the newest OOo Aqua beats the snot outta NeoOffice.
 
If you can wait a few more days (April 30) there's going to be a Beta of OpenOffice.org 3.0 for the Mac. It won't be rock solid, but like others here, I've been using the developer snapshots and find it to be awesome. Way more responsive and better looking than NeoOffice. And, you can make it look much better if you change the theme. Turn on the Tango icons and you're in for a treat! It's nowhere as polished as iWork mind you, but it isn't so bad.
 
Darsh said:
Just to give a quick followup -

I upgraded my OOo Aqua from DEV300_m5 to DEV300_m7 and noticed a MASSIVE increase in speed, both in opening the program/files and in working with the files. For opening files, I'm talking about 2-3 seconds to open a spreadsheet, down from 10-20 seconds before. I haven't tested any of the bugs I mentioned in my first post, but speed-wise the newest OOo Aqua beats the snot outta NeoOffice.
Click to expand...

I'll second this. I've been a faithful NeoOffice user for years, but current builds of OOo Aqua just leave it for dead - I'm using m7 in a production environment with zero issues.
 
I have both installed, though I stick with NeoOffice. However, seeing the beta 3 of OO is available, I may have to check it out. I like the idea of being independent of MS. :p
 
I've been running the dev builds and the betas since they came out, alongside NeoOffice, MS Office 04 and 08, and iWork.

For my needs, iWork comes first, then NeoOffice, however OOo will take over Neo I'm sure. Its just so fugly though!
 
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