kcredden
June 24th, 2005, 02:06 PM
Sourceforge writes:
OpenOffice.org Writer vs. Microsoft Word
Several years ago, I wrote "Opening Up to OpenOffice.org: Finding an Alternative to Microsoft Word" -- my most quoted article. At that time OpenOffice.org (OOo) was barely known, so I confined myself to highlights. Now that OOo is starting to be used in business, a more detailed look seems overdue. Accordingly, I compared the beta of OOo Writer 2.0 with Microsoft Word 2003. Both are adequate for most users' purposes, so I focused on functions that power users are likely to want:
more here: http://software.newsforge.com/software/05/06/14/2137222.shtml?tid=152&tid=93
RHP Studios
October 19th, 2005, 09:23 AM
I use open office daily. I have also used ms office products in the past. This is just my personal experience and what I feel will help others.
Open Office = $0 (available for windows, linux, and others)
MS Office = $ greater than $400 (unless you are a student)
The transition from one to the other was simple. They both share similar layouts and button locations, with easy to read drop down menus. Shortcuts are similar too. I have never had any problems opening a file in open office that was created in ms office. Nobody that I communicate with that uses ms office has had any problems opening a file I created in open office.
Some added features of open office that are not in ms office:
1 - you can create pdf files without owning adobe acrobat
2 - you can create flash swf files without owning macromedia flash.
For examples of both of the above, check out the pdf and flash files on http://www.edwiget.name
Open Office isnt a holy grail either. I sometimes teach at the local community college and this is where I had my first "negative" experience with open office. You see, the local campus is heavily stuck in bill gates grasps. (anyone who knows me will tell you I despise windows........). When teaching at the college, I needed to narrate a slide presentation so it could be used on a distance learning system at the college. I had no problems creating the presentation in open office. But, when it came time to narrate the presentation.......it simply could not be done in open office impress - which is very similar to microsoft powerpoint. I was originally using open office 1.2 at the time, and upgraded to the then beta 1.3. I was still unable to add the narrations, which was simply recording voice for the slides (necessary for compliance with those with disabilities). After the presentation was created in impress, I then had to import it into powerpoint (meaning I had to install windows under vmware in linux to get this done). This gave me no problems with the import, but you can bet all the money you have that I was highly upset that I had to teach a linux course using windows software.......and as of beta 1.9.x of open office, this still stands true.
Other than the above, I have experienced no problems with open office.....so unless you are someone who needs to narrate presentations.....you shouldnt have any problems switching to open office and you can save a considerable amount of money too.
Oh, and I also posted several messages to the open office forums and found that doing narrations in open office impress is on the to-do list but there is a disagreement about the format of the file being used. To explain this, ms office uses a wav file when you record. WAV files are basically raw uncompressed audio and very large in size - so a narrated presentation can grow very large quickly. The default audio used on linux is ogg, although it supports wav, mp3, and more other audio formats than windows......but the point is - windows uses wav as default, linux uses ogg as default and the developers need to be able to support both formats on the platform being used. I have been told this will be fixed possibly as soon as the final open office 2.0