Does anybody here use OpenOffice.org software?

[LuckyTheDog]

Is it any good? What ae the pros and cons?

[realisticphish]

1. yes

it's not always the most user-friendly program, but it certainly does a good job once you can navigate well. And it's free! ;)

I use NeoOffice, the Mac port. I've used it since Apple stopped updating Appleworks a few years ago.

[Feron]

2. I use it.

It is great software and I've used it for a few years now.

I haven't had any trouble opening MS documents in it, but you may have trouble if there are macros involved.

[pokerfan]

3. Yes

Pros: Cost, imports/exports Word docs.

Cons: Not quite as feature-rich as Word. (I consider this a Pro.)

[DarkTirade]

4. Yep. I like it.

Pros - does almost everything and its free.

Cons - every now and then you'll run into something really complicated that doesn't work. The casual user won't have this problem, though. In my case, the thing I couldn't get to work was something called Heroforge. Its an Excel spreadsheet made for designing character sheets in Dungeons and Dragons. Its ridiculously complicated and uses just about every feature Excel has to offer. So it only works in actual Excel, not in the OpenOffice version.

But things like that are going to be few and far between for casual users. If you just want to be able to see and make documents, spreadsheets, slideshows, ect. then its perfect.

[Pierre.Suave]

5. I use the Mac version, Neo-Office

exclusively. I gave up on word.

And for my purposes, it works great, and it is free!

[grace0418]

6. I have a mac but use Open Office. Is Neo-Office better?

Hmmm...

[Pierre.Suave]

15. well, it is a more mac version

you can read about it here:

http://www.neooffice.org/neojava/en/index.php

[grace0418]

7. It works great for me because I don't want to pay for Microsoft crap but clients send

me Word documents and Excel spreadsheets all the time with text and data to place into my design files. This has been perfect for opening them and converting them to what I need. However, I haven't really created much using the software because I put everything into Illustrator, Photoshop and/or InDesign.

[mwooldri]

8. Yes, I have it...

... since I haven't yet re-installed MS Office on Ubuntu (and THAT's going to be interesting...).

OpenOffice is good enough for IBM to essentially copy and repackage as Lotus Symphony - though IMO OpenOffice is better than Symphony.

As for downsides: of course there's a learning curve if you're used to MS Office 2005... things are in different places. Clip art leaves a little to be desired, though I suppose I could work out how to import the MS Clipart.

[boilerbabe]

9. Isn't Ubuntu a Linux platform? n/t

[mwooldri]

19. Yep, Ubuntu is a Linux distribution.

Definitely the easiest and best IMO distribution to date. The newest version boots really fast on my "old" hardware and for basic computer tasks like web browsing and light office work it's great for that. Plus the cost can't be beat too.

Mark.

[rucky]

10. Yep. Not as good as Office, but better than Google Docs.

And I like you're able to convert PowerPoint to Flash.

[TreasonousBastard]

11. The latest version is Da Bomb and might be the thing...

that gets me away from WordPerfect.

I don't have much use for an office suite any more, but I used to use WordPerfect exclusively because it did so much more than Office, and Word, for what I needed. I tried to use OO but it just fell short, and was buggy, in too many ways.

Got OO v3.0 a while ago and while I haven't put it through all its paces, what I've done with it is amazing-- it finally grew up to where it's serious competition to the rest of them. I still use WP for some things, but I suspect that's only because I haven't figured out how to do them in OO.

One gotcha, though, is that NOBODY can properly display a complex Word doc, or save a complex doc in Word format except Word, and only the right version of Word. Too many tables, oddball graphics or line spacings... confuses the conversion processes. But, even Word users are driven nuts with this problem.

The spreadsheet, presentation stuff, drawing stuff-- also all first rate from what I've seen.

And, the price is right.

[HopeHoops]

12. That's ALL I use.

It handles Micro$oft files just fine unless they're using esoteric bullshit and I've yet to find an incompatibility with files between Mac and PC (I use it on both).

StarOffice (older) had some compatibility problems, but OpenOffice is great. It also loads MUCH faster than M$ Office. Oh, and it is free - good feature.

[Pool Hall Ace]

13. Yes. I like that I can create invoices for clients and convert them

to PDFs. And as others have mentioned, it's free.

I had used Micro$oft for years and had no problem with Open Office. There are sites with nice online Open Office tutorials that should have answers to any questions you come across. If not, you can submit them.

Perhaps Microshaft Word documents can easily be converted too, by now, I don't know. But I love the fact that Open Office is not Microshaft. And as others have mentioned, it's free!

[Bossy Monkey]

14. A bit. Seems to work fine.

I was concerned that the word processor wouldn't really save a document to Word, so I made up a document with as many fonts, underlinings, and other geegaws I could think of, saved it as Word and sent it to a friend with Word and he said that everything came through. (He could tell because the text was stuff like, "And now I'm switching to Garamond 12pt...")

[Rob H.]

16. I use NeoOffice and really like it

I mainly downloaded it because our company has various versions of Word and I have one of two Macs in the building. I get ".docx" Word files occasionally and my version of Word isn't new enough to open them.

[Deja Q]

17. Like iWork, I could not get used to Openoffice.org. I'm using VMWare Fusion and Office 2007.

:blush:

Runs fast though... and I can use Access too.

I'm not sure I want to use Office 2008, given peoples' complaints - which are consistent enough for me to take note of.

[MorningGlow]

18. I've been using NeoOffice (Mac) for months--love it

I'm a professional writer, so I give it a good workout, and it hasn't given me any trouble at all.

It opens all sorts of documents with no trouble (unlike Word which is so version-specific).

The only thing I haven't figured out yet is how to get the formulas in a table to STAY PUT. (For my invoices.) I'm sure there's a way--I just haven't bothered to decipher the procedure.

[deucemagnet]

20. I like it.

I only have two complaints: First, some open office Impress presentations that I saved as power point files had some formatting issues when I opened them in power point. Second, open office will not open word files in .docx format.