OpenOffice or Microsoft Office?

[Icedrake]

I've seen images and stuff about OpenOffice, and I think it looks pretty sweet. I have Office 2003 right now, (because I don't feel like wasting my money for 2007). Sooo... Which one should I stick with? Open, or Microsoft?

[Keithuk]

Well OpenOffice is free and its supposed to be compatable with MS Office you are supposed to be able to open docs and xls files so I'm told.

 

http://www.filehippo.com/download_openoffice/

[Andavari]

About the only way to decide is make a System Restore point, then download and install OpenOffice and play around in it a bit - if you don't like it uninstall it and completely get rid of it with that restore point.

 

I really didn't care for it, but that's down to me liking Word and Publisher so much to the point that I wouldn't want to use a computer without both of them installed.

[Corona]

I downloaded Open Office about 6 months ago and took a look around. It felt like I was wandering around inside a math equation. Weird apps.

[YoKenny]

I downloaded Open Office about 6 months ago and took a look around. It felt like I was wandering around inside a math equation. Weird apps.

So it did not integrate well with you and put calculus on your geometry plus a touch of algebra on your thinking and made you do some long division in your head

[1984]

About the only way to decide is make a System Restore point, then download and install OpenOffice and play around in it a bit - if you don't like it uninstall it and completely get rid of it with that restore point.

 

I really didn't care for it, but that's down to me liking Word and Publisher so much to the point that I wouldn't want to use a computer without both of them installed.

 

 

ditto. i prefer microsofts word to any other one that i have tried and will stick with it.

[CeeCee]

Notepad is enough for me.

 

For DOC files i have Word Viewer and for excel files i have Excel Viewer. Rarely need to use them though.

[acooldozen]

I'm giving aShampoo Office a Trial right now. It's not free, but damn cheap compared to Microsoft. Like it so far!

[CeeCee]

What are you guys doing with those office programs, i mean mainly? I don't have any office programs. I had OpenOffice on my previous 98SE system, but i never used it.

[Icedrake]

Um, I use it to edit, and type etc. with important documents.

 

I also just found out about the extensions thing for OpenOffice, I think they add new features to it or something like that...

 

1+ for OpenOffice?

[Andavari]

Notepad is enough for me.

For text editors there's far better than the feeble Notepad to say the least. I like MetaPad, which can also view RTF documents (just don't re-save them as they'll be converted into plain text). Of course there's also Notepad++.

[CeeCee]

For text editors there's far better than the feeble Notepad to say the least. I like MetaPad, which can also view RTF documents (just don't re-save them as they'll be converted into plain text). Of course there's also Notepad++.

I have Notepad++, but to be honest, i really don't have any use for it. Anyway, i use ConTEXT as my default website source code reader.

[sam999]

Um, I use it to edit, and type etc. with important documents.

 

I also just found out about the extensions thing for OpenOffice, I think they add new features to it or something like that...

 

1+ for OpenOffice?

 

hello everyone,

Well I have used both and they each have some good points. Like in Open Office I found I could add images to a word doc and even resize and move them around-----can't do it in Word 2003. I was working on an ad for a friend's booth in a show and it was a great time saver; did not have to use fireworks or photoshop.

 

But then in Word, I can save URLs I want and it keeps them as a link-------Open Office does not seem to have that feature. So there you go, some more useless information for your decision making!

[Talldog9]

I don't really use word processors, but regularly use the mentioned Notepad++, ConTEXT as well as PSPad. I decide which tasks would be better done in different editors. Not really an all in one editor from what I've seen. I've tried out Office '07, liked the new ribbon in Word and felt like it could make one more productive, but OOo Writer has many pluses to it. I don't need either though, the most powerful thing I've ever had to use was Abiword. Long ago.

 

Edit2: Just reread original post, OOo Writer dev versions Pwn old Word versions. Unless you can't risk losing something or whatever because of the dev status, then I still think stable OOo Writer is better than using an old Word. idk.

[Glenn]

hello everyone,

Well I have used both and they each have some good points. Like in Open Office I found I could add images to a word doc and even resize and move them around-----can't do it in Word 2003. I was working on an ad for a friend's booth in a show and it was a great time saver; did not have to use fireworks or photoshop.

 

But then in Word, I can save URLs I want and it keeps them as a link-------Open Office does not seem to have that feature. So there you go, some more useless information for your decision making!

You can insert, resize and otherwise reformat images in Word 2003 easily. You can use the dropdown menus or simply use View > Toolbars > Picture to open the handy toolbar.

[Winapp2.ini]

Notepad is enough for me.

 

For DOC files i have Word Viewer and for excel files i have Excel Viewer. Rarely need to use them though.

 

 

Same, but I use GetDiz for a lot of files that have ASCII art.

 

I used open office and I didn't really like the UI, so I stuck with Microsoft Office

[JBinarao]

I think it all comes down to preference. I actually use Office 2000, Office XP, Office 2003, Office 2007, and OpenOffice 2.4.1. Out of all these, I personally like Office 2007 the most.

 

The Building Blocks feature in Office 2007 save me loads of time so that I don't have to keep entering repetitive information, and I also like that I can hover over font setting and preview the what the document will look like before applying the change. The "ribbon" was easy for me to get used to, and it made it easier to find features that were always in earlier versions of Office but they were hard to find. Download the Save As PDF add-on to save Office documents as PDF, but sometimes the images (like in Visio) are not good.

 

OpenOffice has a cool auto complete feature, but some may find it annoying (I like it). You can also save the documents as PDF. The ?XML Form Document? is similar to Office InfoPath, and you can create fillable forms. OpenOffice does have a bit of an Office 2003 feel to it. OpenOffice is an entire suite of applications (Writer, Spreadsheet, Presentation, Drawing, Database, and so on), and I say that the best value is definitely OpenOffice! It does take some getting used to.

[Keithuk]

I actually use Office 2000, Office XP, Office 2003, Office 2007, and OpenOffice 2.4.1. Out of all these, I personally like Office 2007 the most.

Not on the same machine JBinarao?

[rridgely]

If you have MS office available to you there is NO reason to use openoffice unless you just want to.

It doesn't do anything MS office doesn't do better. However MS office is expensive and openoffice is sufficient for basic stuff(I did years of school work on it until MS offered the $60 offer for 07 and college students. Looking back I wish I just bought the student version for 150 or whatever it is.

 

The real down fall for openoffice is that its powerpoint clone is not fully compatible with even .ppt files. It opens them but often the ones you create with it will display funky in ms office. The word part of it is ok but not as good with doing advanced formatting.

[1984]

welcome back rridgely.

[JBinarao]

Not on the same machine JBinarao?

 

Good question; and well, no; the varying versions of MS Office Suites I use are not all on the same machine. I have 6 physical machines, and around 3-dozen virtual machines. Some type of Office application is installed on about 95% of them, but they are different versions for the most part.

 

The machine that I use the most has Office 2007 and OpenOffice installed. I switch back and forth between the two office suites when I need to do something and (1) I want to see if a particular routine is available or (2) how simple it is.