Office alternative for Mac OS X

D

Doryman

New member
Via my Mac user group:

> OpenOffice Comes Natively to Mac!
> by Matt H, matth@smalldog.com
>
> I'm writing this today using a free open source fully-featured office
> suite called OpenOffice. Developed by Sun Microsystems, OpenOffice
> has all of the functionality, sleekness, and compatibility of
> expensive office suite products, in a easy to use, downloadable, free
> package. Now in its third release, it is available to run natively on
> Mac OS X.
>
> Though still in beta stages, this release shows no signs of bugs nor
> short comings. Sun has really put a clean face on this Mac release
> completely packaged with a simple install all Mac users will be
> familiar with. Mount the package downloaded from Sun and you'll the
> familiar window of 'Package and Applications' alias. Drag and drop,
> and you're installed and ready to go!
>
> One of the nicest features of OpenOffice is that it is fully
> compatible with all Microsoft products as well as having better
> compatibility with older office programs that Microsoft has left
> behind. You can easily set up OpenOffice to open and save in
> Microsoft formats directly, something I imagine most users will want
> to do.
>
> From within OpenOffice, either in Word Processing, Spreadsheet, or
> Presentation mode, the options are shared between them, and once set,
> it's ready for everything.
> 1. Click the OpenOffice.org menu from the top and select
> Preferences, or Command-
> 2. Under Load/Save General, you can choose what format to
> automatically save Text/Spreadsheet/Presentation files.
> If saving under the Microsoft formats, as Word Documents, Excel
> spreadsheets, or PowerPoint presentations, it will give you an error
> saying some information may be lost. This is a small price to pay
> for free compatibility, but chances are, you probably won't even notice.
>
> That's it! You are now using a free alternative to the expensive MS
> Office suite, with full compatibility, set up in minutes! You can
> download the beta version of OpenOffice for Mac OS X here:
> http://download.openoffice.org/3.0beta/
 
Depends on what you're doing. For simple tasks, Open Office is fine. However, if you are working on complex documents with multiple other people some of the features of Office don't transfer well between "real" office and open office. In particular, edit/comment tracking, complex figure layouts and reference managers (like EndNote) don't interoperate. For most people this doesn't matter but for business (or science) use, Open Office just isn't workable. As soon as you start working on the same document with many co-authors, there's some real benefit to everyone using the same software (even if you don't like microsoft).
 
Brent":3mlc81ml said:
Roger

Have you used Google docs or spreadsheets for collaboration?

? is open to all (on edit)
Click to expand...

No - for me the primary problem is that I have to interact with a number of others - most of whom are not going to modify their behavior/programs etc to interact with me. Hence, in practice, I am forced to use the "industry standard" word processing tool MS-Word. To give you a sense of the problem, I am currently working on a 70 page document that is a collaboration between myself and 6 others (including my administrative support staff). The document contains about 25 figures and references to about 200 other manuscripts. All references are individually numbered and referred to throughout the text. Without a reference manager (like EndNote - an add in for Word), the addition/deletion of a new reference requires renumbering of everything else. In addition, EndNote provides me an automated search tool to find new relevant references and a database of all references I have ever used in a document.

When every body uses the same tools - life is fairly easy. However, one individual refuses to use word (he only writes in LaTex) and sends me either PDF's or text. Just incorporating his references into the document takes several person hours - person hours that could be spent improving the writing.

So - in a case like mine, Office is really the only viable choice.
 
I've had excellent luck with iWork 08. While not free, it is reasonably priced and includes Word, Excel and PowerPoint clones that all work very well.
 
I use NeoOffice and am very happy with it - I have no issues with file compatibility, it has its own formats but also can open and save in MS formats as well. And it is free. I also have used OpenOffice on Ubuntu, and it is great too. I am a firm believer in Open Source (just started playing with Lazarus and MySQL), and am amazed at the high quality of so many Open Source offerings...I think Parallels is the only program I have had to pay for on my Mac...
ahpeterson":1x0u2utt said:
I've had excellent luck with iWork 08. While not free, it is reasonably priced and includes Word, Excel and PowerPoint clones that all work very well.
Click to expand...
 
Pat Anderson":312dqrjf said:
I am a firm believer in Open Source (just started playing with Lazarus and MySQL), and am amazed at the high quality of so many Open Source offerings...I think Parallels is the only program I have had to pay for on my Mac...
Click to expand...

I had no idea you were programming in Pascal, or programming at all for that matter...

Warren
 
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