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Open Office or KOffice for Mac?
- Thread starter eclipse
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Well, I've been using first StarOffice then OpenOffice and now NeoOffice since 1995 and have no complaints. If anything OpenOffice has been more stable than the different MS Office versions I've used at work, and it has handled larger documents better.
As for compatability... I don't know. I switched to NeoOffice because I don't like the X11 interface of OpenOffice on the Mac. I haven't had any real problems exchanging docs with other people using different office suites, but then again: I haven't really exchanged any OTT complex docs, so
As for compatability... I don't know. I switched to NeoOffice because I don't like the X11 interface of OpenOffice on the Mac. I haven't had any real problems exchanging docs with other people using different office suites, but then again: I haven't really exchanged any OTT complex docs, so
Thanks for replying.
I agree that it's more stable. My wife is a graphic designer and found that all the Word documents clients sent her would crash her ENTIRE G5, not just the Microsoft program, but the whole system!
Opening Word got to have a 95% crash rate!!
Since switching to NeoOffice, there hasn't been one single file opening crash. Excellent.
However, she only uses it to open files and then copies them into Quark for Design stuff. I actually WRITE in these programs, and find NeoOffice good, but a bit clunky and slow. Make no mistake, I'm an Open Source on the Mac convert. But it would be nice if it was a bit faster. Is speed an issue for you? Maybe it's my old G4, but NeoOffice Writer files take forever to open and save, etc. It's so slow that to type this reply I am using stickies rather than NeoOffice. (And then I copy and paste into the browser, which is even slower than NeoOffice.)
The KOffice stuff is rumoured to be faster... but I have yet to verify this.
I agree that it's more stable. My wife is a graphic designer and found that all the Word documents clients sent her would crash her ENTIRE G5, not just the Microsoft program, but the whole system!
Opening Word got to have a 95% crash rate!!
Since switching to NeoOffice, there hasn't been one single file opening crash. Excellent.
However, she only uses it to open files and then copies them into Quark for Design stuff. I actually WRITE in these programs, and find NeoOffice good, but a bit clunky and slow. Make no mistake, I'm an Open Source on the Mac convert. But it would be nice if it was a bit faster. Is speed an issue for you? Maybe it's my old G4, but NeoOffice Writer files take forever to open and save, etc. It's so slow that to type this reply I am using stickies rather than NeoOffice. (And then I copy and paste into the browser, which is even slower than NeoOffice.)
The KOffice stuff is rumoured to be faster... but I have yet to verify this.
I've used both KOffice and OpenOffice on Linux and would have to come down in favour of OO as being the better substitute for MSOffice's functionality. Whilst OpenOffice can be run on Mac under X11, running natively under aqua is another matter. There's an alpha of OO/aqua available for download, but it's a long way short of being ready for prime time.
However, there's a solution. NeoOffice is a third-party port based on the OpenOffice codebase, but has been running natively in aqua for some years now. It's a little slow to launch, but once running works extremely well. I use it every day for work, and have found it to be rather more stable than MSOffice, whilst offering good interoperability with MSOffice native formats.
Give it a try - it's something of a gem =]
Ok, I have used Open Office for years (albeit on a Windows machine)
I found the aqua, neo to lack some fuctionality on my Mac Book, new convert to mac
But, until MS released Office '07 for Windows, I used exclusively Open Office to write my manuals. It handled frames better, it handled Table of content better, it hanled design better.
These days I write the document on I-Works, I had to get it to get the machine from small dogs, small sacrifice, so I will see how well I-Works and word work side by side.
By the way, for our user of Quark, at times I have used open source to do the same, and will soon download it for the Mac, so will let you know how that works
But I am a fan of open source.
I have used the GIMP for years, as well as Open Office
My concern would be wiht K-Office, if they have a port... and K has always lagged behind Open in what it has
Now as a writer, I also have found Avenir for the Mac to be extremely good... so back to work I guess
OpenSource ftw. I'm using OpenOffice almost everywhere.
I like the Aqua version too, but I dont dare using it primary because it is said not to be stable yet..
I like the Aqua version too, but I dont dare using it primary because it is said not to be stable yet..
Speed? I depends. On my G4 iBook the latest NeoOffice versions are incredibly slow. So slow in fact that I'm considering downgrading a couple of versions. On my 24" iMac there's no problem. Okay, when I open document without having NeoOffice up and running it takes a second to launch, but I can easily live with that. Writing this, I'm thinking that writing speed may in fact just be a RAM issue, but since I have no spare RAM stricks lying around I can't test it.
Although I haven't used MS Office on the Mac, going on my PC experience launching MS Office isn't exactly fast either.
OpenSource ftw. I'm using OpenOffice almost everywhere.
I like the Aqua version too, but I dont dare using it primary because it is said not to be stable yet..
Hopefully by the time it becomes a beta, it will have picked up NeoOffice's good looks...
I will agree - Open Source is worth looking into and getting used to. I have been using OpenOffice 1 and 2 with my old PC (which got me through four years of university without spending a fortune on MS Office licenses) and now I have a Mac, I went with NeoOffice and the transition has been smooth.
I would recommend NeoOffice if you are looking for an alternative to MS Office. Seeing as my iWork tryout has expired, I can't give you a more in depth opinion of Pages, but I seem to recall it was ok. Not as feature-filled on the main document screen compared to MS Office or NeoOffice (most of the options were hidden away in context menus at the top of the screen) but still worth a look.
At least try OpenOffice or one of its flavours, it's not like you're going to have to spend money on it, just some time and bandwidth to grab a copy of it.
I would recommend NeoOffice if you are looking for an alternative to MS Office. Seeing as my iWork tryout has expired, I can't give you a more in depth opinion of Pages, but I seem to recall it was ok. Not as feature-filled on the main document screen compared to MS Office or NeoOffice (most of the options were hidden away in context menus at the top of the screen) but still worth a look.
At least try OpenOffice or one of its flavours, it's not like you're going to have to spend money on it, just some time and bandwidth to grab a copy of it.