Someone reviewed v on Jul 5, 2022

Pros: 555

Cons: 555

Bottom Line: 555

gsteele reviewed v4.1.11 on Oct 8, 2021

Pros: Looks like microsoft office

Cons: Better free alternatives such as Libreoffice

Bottom Line: Better free alternatives such as Libreoffice

chunmin89 reviewed v4.1.10 on May 18, 2021

Pros: Thank you for providing this interesting and interesting topic information. I will regularly update your next posts. atari breakout

Cons: anna

Bottom Line: suka

Da Xiang reviewed v4.1.7 on Sep 23, 2019

Pros: Does almost everything I need

Cons: It still doesn't allow me to copy from a document and paste it into a different Windows app.

Bottom Line: I finally gave up on it over the copy/paste issue and went back to Libre Office.

Sven123456789 reviewed v4.1.6 on Nov 20, 2018

Pros: Good alternative to MS Office

Cons: none

Bottom Line: Found Openoffice probably the best free alternative to MS Office. No problems found. I also found it interesting that the few fake trolls who gave this 1 star, also it was the only reviews on there profiles. I see this for RT and IMDB also. I guess they have nothing better to do than create a profile just to bad mouth something.

DudeBoyz reviewed v4.1.1 on Aug 22, 2014

I still think it's a great product, even though it's not cutting edge. But it's also more stable than LibreOffice, which for me, is a huge bonus. I also like that it outlines the printer margins in the page display by default.

Worth a download without a doubt.

PhredV reviewed v4.0.1 on Sep 27, 2013

softwaremagician must work for Microsoft......because this is a pretty decent office suite....and if you use it....who stands to lose out...?

bopb99 reviewed v4.0.0 on Jul 24, 2013

Pretty good, version 4.0 still comparable to libreoffice although this will probably change the coming year(s).

softwaremagician reviewed v3.4.1 on Dec 13, 2012

VERY BAD!!! DONT DOWNLOAD THIS s***!!! ITS CNO LONGER RELEVANT!!!SOFTWARE IS WORTHLESS & HEAVY ON YOUR PC>THIS s*** SHOULD BE TAKEN OUT AT ONCE>

Zootopia3001 reviewed v3.4.1 on Aug 23, 2012

@vodimitriy,
Funny, I can open Presentations with OpenOffice 3.4.

vodimitriy reviewed v3.4.1 on Aug 22, 2012

It can't open presentations, which Libreoffice easily open.

Music4Ever reviewed v3.4.1 on Aug 22, 2012

Now bettered by LibreOffice, either in Windows or Linux which has almost flawless integration with most MS Office files although is still good & may be right for some ~

ReallyAlive reviewed v3.4.0 on May 18, 2012

Get LibreOffice instead - http://fileforum.betanew...or-Windows/1288723415/1

OpenOffice.org is no longer relevant. Some of their programmers broke off and formed The Document Foundation and made LibreOffice, because Oracle would have ruined OpenOffice.org with their corporate mindset. Oracle refused to donate OpenOffice for the greater good, then later they abandoned it and gave it away not to the people, but to Apache, so now it has an Apache license.

LibreOffice uses the open source LGPL license and is made by some of the original OpenOffice.org team. Not only that, but the Go-oo project merged their code with LibreOffice, so it's better than OpenOffice ever was. LibreOffice is the office suite to use from now on.

PS - For anyone who doesn't like the Quickstarter feature, it can be un-selected during setup. If you didn't take care of it there, it can be disabled at any time in Tools > Options > Memory. If you un-selected it during the setup, the choice to disable won't appear in Options.

Zootopia3001 reviewed v3.4.0 on May 13, 2012

Went with this and uninstalled LibreOffice. LibreOffice apparently has an ODF file format issue that MS Office complains about. The files affected are those created via ODF 1.2 and 1.2 extended. OpenOffice 3.4 from what I've read does not have this issue. I'd rather have a quality product than a rushed effort like LibreOffice. Thank you Apache for keeping OpenOffice alive. Would give it 5 stars but the quickstarter feature is still awful. Having soffice constantly running in the background at 100mb's plus memory usage after Calc or Writer has already been closed is way unacceptable.

Hilbert reviewed v3.4.0 on May 11, 2012

@cdhanks: Of course you're absolutely correct but you have make allowances for newbies/neophytes.

Even though Wolf Sullivan hasn't a clue I can understand his frustration; UI and keyboard compatibility between software is a first class pain in the A. For example, for years I've whinged about the lack of keyboard shortcut compatibility between MS Office, Word etc. and OpenOffice.

No one has ever given me any reason--let alone a good one--why my beloved CTRL-Q, CTRL-T, CTRL-M, CTRL-SHIFT-T, M etc. from MS Office have been totally omitted from OpenOffice--there are NO* equivalents in OOo/LibO. Are the developers of OOo/LibreOffice a bit barmy, or have they lost the plot? Surely, attracting experienced MSO users would be much, much easier if they didn't have to laboriously work their way around the lack of these handy and very productive shortcuts. For me, the omission of these shortcuts in OpenOffice is about as debilitating as a driver losing the 'Drive' selector position from his auto's box. If anyone knows the reason for this debacle, then let us know.

BTW, in my organization--even though it's much more expensive--the sole reason why we've kept MSO is specifically because of the lack of these shortcuts in OpenOffice/LibO. It's maddening, it's crazy! What's wrong with these developers?

___

@ Wolf Sullivan:

1. The file/format compatibility between Microsoft Office and OpenOffice/LibreOffice is now almost perfect--these products are compatible. A couple of years back, Microsoft published MS Office's formats, DOC etc., so there's little reason why they wouldn't be compatible by now. You must, however, decide on what format you're going to work in for best interchange compatibility.

2. If you are publishing rather than just writing documents--that's to say if the layout of images etc. is very important then perhaps you ought to investigate the free and very excellent desktop publishing tool, Scribus:

http://www.scribus.net/canvas/Scribus

This is a remarkable package given that it's free--but the learning curve is a bit higher than for the common garden-variety word-processor.

_____

* http://www.openoffice.or...essing/Word-to-OOo.html - go to 'Use keyboard shortcuts'.

Artem S. Tashkinov reviewed v3.4.0 on May 9, 2012

Deprecated by LibreOffice, so there's no need to use this one.

Bala7 reviewed v3.4.0 on May 9, 2012

v.3.4.0 installer comes bundled with Java
unlike the original OOo giving you the option to install without Java.

cdhanks reviewed v3.4.0 Beta 1 on Jul 14, 2011

" I don't know what Word is like..." Why in the world would someone write a review comparing Openoffice with Word and HE DOESN'T KNOW WORD! Stupidity!

Wolf Sullivan reviewed v3.4.0 Beta 1 on Jul 14, 2011

The basic problem with openoffice is that it is an imitation of Microsoft Word. Imitations are always inferior. I don't know what Word is like, but it can't be worse than openoffice.

I only use openoffice Writer, and have no idea about the performance of the other features. Openoffice Writer is incompatible with MS Word, so why did they imitate it? Writer is crap! Plain and simple. I hate it, but I started a book with it and cannot transfer it to a superior format. NOBODY supports the openoffice format, which is incompatible with every format except perhaps PDF, which is very unfashionable today.

The book I am working on is a picture biography with about 100 photographs. It is almost impossible to work with. Every 10 minutes openoffice "saves" what I am working on. This process takes 10 minutes and freezes up my computer so I just have to sit and wait and wait and wait...

This morning I myself "Saved to" what I was working on. After 10 minutes it was finished, so I attempted to close the document. NO! Openoffice prompted me that I had "unsaved changes" (complete bulls***) and I had to wait another 10 ****ing minutes for it to "save" the document again.

Openoffice Writer is s***! Nobody supports its format, and it does not convert to other formats properly, with the possible exception of PDF. Perhaps it is suitable for office workers, but it is definitely something for professional writers to avoid. It's not a matter of you get what you pay for, because openoffice Writer constantly torments and punishes me when I try to use it. Over a dozen times openoffice Writer has crashed, and I had to "recover" it. Usually it is successful, but twice it failed to recover my book!

anomoly reviewed v3.4.0 Beta 1 on Apr 12, 2011

Love how for a dev it wants to install the older java re22 while I've already got the 24 version.
Libre looks exactly the same and seems to have a smarter startup than oo ever did and undoubtably is english based unlike that pix above.

Hallway reviewed v3.3.0 on Feb 20, 2011

Even simple things like sorting linked cells doesn't work.
This is not a serious product, and as been said, you better pay for something than using this slow bugfest for keeping your bills and agenda trustworthy.

methuselah reviewed v3.3.0 on Jan 26, 2011

Installed 3.3 of OpenOffice and 3.3 of LibreOffice today. I haven't had much time to do in depth testing, but both worked well for me on a document with some unusual formatting. Neither says release candidate. I downloaded them from the respective organizations' sites.

DudeBoyz reviewed v3.3.0 on Jan 26, 2011

Having trouble with the Contour Editing / Auto Contouring results in Writer. It's just a mess, compared to MS Publisher, for example.

If you head over to LibreOffice's home page and look at all the features that they have added to the OpenOffice codebase, OpenOffice looks much weaker than it did before, imo.

I feel like I could almost give it a 4, but for such a long, long test period, I feel like this final release should have been more stable and responsive. I'll do more extensive testing, but based on what I'm seeing in this update and what it lacks compared to LibreOffice, which was released the same day, I'm not as impressed as I thought I would be.

I hope 3.3.1 is coming soon and helps to close the gap in terms of stability in particular.

FatBastard reviewed v3.3.0 on Jan 26, 2011

I'd rather pay for MS Office than use this crap.

SteveJohnSteele reviewed v3.3.0 on Jan 25, 2011

Not all languages are available yet which is why the OpenOffice website has RC10 on the front page.

This is where you can find the most up-to-date version in your language
http://download.openoffice.org/other.html

roj reviewed v3.3.0 RC10 on Jan 20, 2011

OK, if you jokers are jerking around with TEN Release Candidates, the crashes caused by column blocking had better damned well be fixed.

THREE stars for blatantly obvious BS.

DudeBoyz reviewed v3.3.0 RC10 on Jan 19, 2011

I don't really understand what is going on here. 3.3.0 is actually a well-working platform. It has some good new features, remains lean, is simply a nice step up from earlier releases. It is NOT a piece of junk at all. It really should be worth using.

But RC10? WTH? Is the disarray at Oracle so intense that they just can't get this thing out due to tech issues? Or is it simply a rebranding to the Oracle name that is causing the delay?

The current code seems to be in a better state than Libre Office, and I can't find bugs or problems when I'm using it.

Even so, I'm getting pretty frustrated. I wish they would detail each RC to explain what is happening and what remains.

All of this lack of openness from Oracle and the long, tedious delays may end up driving loyal users away.

I hope they suck it up and get it done. I'd like to put a nice final release on my rigs.

mjmarshall reviewed v3.3.0 RC10 on Jan 19, 2011

Releasing an RC6 was bad enough - TEN Release Candidates means a serious problem with development and testing. As others have mentioned, they should have reverted to beta status - call it 3.3.1 Beta 1.
Myself, I wouldn't even TOUCH 3.3.0 Final after all this; I'd wait for 3.3.1 anyway...

mkeeley reviewed v3.3.0 RC10 on Jan 19, 2011

RC10, they're joking right?

roj reviewed v3.3.0 RC9 on Jan 13, 2011

Release Candidate NINE????

What kind of a farce is this?

THREE stars for a dev team that needs to get its head in gear.

klavc reviewed v3.3.0 RC8 on Jan 2, 2011

I would wish for both OpenOffice.org and LibreOffice to get a full sandbox as Gogole Chrome and Adobe Reader have.

roj reviewed v3.3.0 RC8 on Dec 16, 2010

OK, I've seen this time and time again.

A Release Candidate is the last kick at the can before Gold. It's to see if there are any significant eleventh hour show stoppers and the code is completely finished and tested. There are usually at worst three of them.

There Is No Such Thing As An Eighth Release Candidate.

If you have that many RCs, you are still in Beta because too many things are still going wrong with your code.

Call a spade a spade.

This is ridiculous.

THREE stars for a dev team that needs to give their collective heads a shake.

Generally the software rates a FOUR or more. I hope this isn't indicative of the new Oracle regime although that would not surprise me.

DudeBoyz reviewed v3.3.0 RC5 on Nov 17, 2010

I look forward to the final release of 3.3 for OpenOffice. It was a LONG time in coming. It's a very good alternative to MS Office for home users and stundents in particular, and I'm glad it is out there.

Due to the whole Oracle debacle, it looks like LibreOffice will be the best future alternative, but for now, I'm grateful that this is about to be finalized.

Thanks for those who did all the hard work. Colored Tabs for the WIN!

Aegis69 reviewed v3.3.0 RC5 on Nov 16, 2010

I know this is technically not a fork, but I find go-oo to be far more stable and faster than standard oo.

http://go-oo.org/

Plus now that all the developers have left to go work on LibreOffice, I think this project is gonna die. Nice job Oracle, I'm sure you'll kill VirtualBox next.

azazel666 reviewed v3.3.0 RC4 on Nov 10, 2010

Not a bad piece of software. i would still shell out the money for ms office if I have it. Otherwise, this is a good app, free.

Mr Swiffer reviewed v3.3.0 RC4 on Nov 9, 2010

OpenOffice.org is the fastest performing office suite in existence. It doesn't suffer from frequent crashes like Microsoft Office does. OpenOffice.org also doesn't rely on legacy proprietary document formats like DOCX, although it does support them mainly for the purpose of converting them to the open document format.

lehenryjr reviewed v3.3.0 RC2 on Oct 24, 2010

I have been using OpenOffice for years. It's very respectable in the market it serves and you can't beat the price. The suite continues to get better, it's supported and it's portable. For everyday functions; it's all you'll need.

Microsoft Office has some good points, no point in arguing that, but Microsoft Office can't touch OpenOffice on function and price ratio.

A must have application suite.

Until next time,
Larry Henry Jr.
LEHSYS.com

dannyboy832 reviewed v3.3.0 RC2 on Oct 24, 2010

erm, sorry to break your bubble, but MS Office, especially 2010, is not bloated, it starts faster, works quicker and is more anthropometically laid out. If you don't like the price, just go download it free on some torrent site
I use OpenOffice because I respect it, not because it's better.

Advantages to OpenOffice
Small for an office suite
can do lots of things and has support for lots of file types
free

disadvantages
ugly
not that easy or quick to use
a bit slow.

mancubs reviewed v3.3.0 RC2 on Oct 23, 2010

to those morons that love to buy m s office ,thank you to those people who have open office ,good on you , it is better by far ms offices is bloated its out lay is crap and it is slow so you m s office lemons go suck it

FatBastard reviewed v3.3.0 RC2 on Oct 23, 2010

The only good thing about OpenOffice is that it's free. Otherwise it sucks!

some guy reviewed v3.3.0 RC2 on Oct 23, 2010

it astounds me I see people complain about this office suit ! Sure it may not be as good as M.O but dam it's not bad for free go give your money to M.S and down load your A.O.L browser, then your Real Player media player & your MSN chat and shut the hell up!

gawd21 reviewed v3.3.0 RC2 on Oct 22, 2010

It is slower than loading ten versions of MS, it uses crappy Java! It is a bulls*** program. I loved this about 5-6 years ago. Now I wouldn't put it on a machine if I was paid to do it!

CobraPL reviewed v3.3.0 RC2 on Oct 22, 2010

It does its job. SImply.

And it does it for free, for everyone.

I think it is inferior to MS Office, but for my small business it is good enough.

DudeBoyz reviewed v3.3.0 RC1 on Oct 20, 2010

I really like OpenOffice, and it FINALLY gets colored tabs for the spreadsheet, which ROX - like 10 years late, but still. But I do worry about the Oracle buyout of Sun and the chilling effect it will have on the project. That's why the main contributors started that LibreOffice thing. I don't know how it will all playout - maybe LibreOffice will be more frequently updated and more inclusive in terms of contributions and the like. But for now at least, this particular version is doing pretty well. For me, colored tabs alone is reason to upgrade.

Hilbert reviewed v3.3.0 RC1 on Oct 19, 2010

I wish OpenOffice would become a cheap commercial product (say 20% of the rip-off price of MS Office).

If so, then we might just live long enough to see OOo at least equal the performance of the ten-years-old MS Office 2000 (only a cat with 9 lives might live long enough to see it exceed O2K feature list). Forget OOo ever catching up with the latest MSO let alone ever exceeding it. Pigs will fly sooner.

For instance, there's still no decent grammar checker in OOo let alone one that's even the equal of the pathetically-out-of-date one in MS Office (all versions).

And after seemingly decades, OOo's developers still don't seem capable of developing missing but essential basic formatting shortcuts such as those equivalent to MS Office's CTRL-T (hanging indent) or CTRL-Q (remove paragraph formatting) just to mention a few.

Many have argued that there isn’t the incentive to develop decent free software--at least for programs as complex as an office suite that requires years of development time, and I now believe them. Unfortunately, OpenOffice has to be the quintessential example of this proposition.

For years, I've thought that MS Office was a dog of a program because of its general lack of polish and untidy inconsistencies but it positively shines against OOo. As usually a harsh critic of Microsoft, it's a tragedy for me to have to admit this but facts are facts.

As always, this release of OpenOffice is too little too late.

____

P.S.: It's not as if I'm asking for bells and whistles in OOo, but I do expect the basic formatting of text not to be an issue at this point in the state of the art. Furthermore, it's unforgivable as OOo is a very long way from version one.

After all, it is now some 35 years after the general availability of the Wang word processor (the first widely used WP). One really has to wonder if there's anyone in charge of the OOo project (or if it's the tail wagging the dog). If so, then they've SFA idea about increasing OOo's market share.

(To prove my point: this post was written in MS Office 2000, if I'd wanted more than just the basics in my WP then I'd have upgraded it to at least Office 2003 years ago. Yet OOo doesn't even cut it this far.)

Orbiting235 reviewed v3.3.0 RC1 on Oct 18, 2010

I thought this was LibreOffice now?

DudeBoyz reviewed v3.3.0 Beta 1 on Aug 9, 2010

3.2.1 final seemed rock solid and working well. This is tweaky, and the font thing mentioned earlier is disturbing. ANYTHING that screws up your fonts = Bad News.

That said, for me on XP, OpenOffice 3.2.1 is just awesome.

But, right off the bat, this new release seems less than it should be. Yes, not a final product, but to go from 3.2.1 to this is not what I expected. I hope they suck it up and get it done right.

It's still a great app, and I'll go 4 instead of 3 (I'd go 3.5 if I could) but that is a pretty close call.

Jaz-M-Taz reviewed v3.2.1 on Jul 11, 2010

Most of my TT system ffonts were unregistered in Vista after installing. Made the alignment of the text appear differently in Microsoft Word, and OpenOffice. Had to re-register fonts in the fonts folder.

juanito1968 reviewed v3.2.1 on Jun 3, 2010

This isn't the final out-of-beta release, but the RC2 (Release Candidate 2); plz check http://download.openoffice.org/index.html for any further information.
FileForum or Open Office mistake? Similar mistake hes been done on the Mozilla Firefox 3.6.4 "RC1" (fake) release.

Virtual_ManPL reviewed v3.2.1 on Jun 3, 2010

5/5

smaragdus reviewed v3.2.1 on Jun 2, 2010

It is just terrible that Oracle bought StarOffice. I downloaded OOo 3.2.1, tested it and uninstalled it, reverting back to OOo 3.2.0. The new release is neither faster nor better than the previous one, but its start-up window is sterile and ugly, decorated with Oracle's abominable logo.

FatBastard reviewed v3.2.1 on Jun 2, 2010

God I hate this software. I'd rather pay for using MS Office than use OpenOffice for free.

garretthylltun reviewed v3.2.1 RC on May 21, 2010

I've been following OpenOffice for a long time now, I think since it's initial public releases for Windows.

My biggest complaints were speed; OpenOffice was so slow that it was unbearable to use, and MS Office Compatibility; there was always some quirk that would create incompatibilities between using OpenOffice and MS Office.

With the release of this version both issues have been resolved to my satisfaction. Speed is more than acceptable for me now and I rarely encounter any compatibility issues now. I know there may still be some compatibility issues, but for me and my family, we do not seem to be running into them now.

I have since uninstalled my old MS Office 2000 which I have kept on using because I didn't want to upgrade to the newer more bloated versions. I was so close to purchasing MS Office 2007 too! Now I am so glad that I did not.

I am also so very glad that OpenOffice didn't adopt the Ribbon style toolbars that everyone seems to be going nuts for these days. I can't stand the Ribbon bars and I despise them. Give me a title bar, a menu bar and the tool bars that allow me to flow quickly through my work.

OpenOffice has come a very very long way. If you don't need all the higher end features of MS Office, then OpenOffice is all you'll ever need.

livecd reviewed v3.2.1 RC on May 10, 2010

>Still, if you have typical users on computers whose work consists of 80% word processing documents, OpenOffice is simply outstanding. It has many features that MS Word lacks, yet lacks nothing that MS Word has.

Sorry but Oo 3.2 versus MS-Office 2000, 2003
1/ is slow to start-up, try for instance to open 30 or 50 doc.
2/ as no good grammar checker even in English, German, French, Spanish and I am not speaking of other languages.
3/ toolbar's customisation is back to a Windows 3.11 interface
4/ I haven't look in bulk emailing or version control but I fear that it lacks of functionality.

DudeBoyz reviewed v3.2.1 RC on May 10, 2010

An increasingly capable and impressive alternative, especially for people having trouble with the new "ribbon interface" paradigm. Configuration is becoming less cryptic and more consistent across the suite, and the fact that it includes a solid functional database with ODBC support is impressive. Leaner and cleaner than many alternatives, and available for no cost to users. Well done.

Virtual_ManPL reviewed v3.2.1 RC on May 8, 2010

5/5 - portable version of this pack is awesome ;)

gcaleval reviewed v3.2.1 RC on May 7, 2010

The value that you find in this software will depend heavily on your needs. If you are a business that requires outstanding wordprocessing software for clerks, quick and easy presentation building and mainstream spreadsheet work, OpenOffice will more than meet your needs.

However the reservations some reviewers hold are not all off-base. The database component of OOo is not up to business-class database jobs. It handles small databases with ease and can connect with virtually any existing database files you have. For example a common use is to use OpenOffice Base to manage Thunderbird e-mail address books into more comprehensive client files. But it is not the equal of MS Access. If you have serious database needs you need to look at MySQL with a report writer.

Also, if you genuinely need tight integration between your office suite and your e-mail program, OOo does not offer that. The fact that the e-mail, calendar and contact functions are all external programs highlights the limits of so-called "office suites." However, by comparison, even though MS Office has these functions in the same suite, they are not truly integrated any more effectively than OpenOffice and Thunderbird. For example, in neither package can you click on a contact in the address book, add an appointment in the calendar and attach the letter you just wrote in the wordprocessor. Wide is the gap between integrated office functions and the overkill of full blown CRM, but no one seems to see a need to bridge that gap.

Still, if you have typical users on computers whose work consists of 80% word processing documents, OpenOffice is simply outstanding. It has many features that MS Word lacks, yet lacks nothing that MS Word has.

Complaints about the spreadsheet, Calc, may or may not be on target as I have never had need to input complicated scientific formulae into my spreadsheets. More than 90% of typical business users will also not have such a need. If you do, then test it.

The lack of natively importing or saving Microsoft presentation format is not an issue if you are building your own presentations. It becomes an issue if you want to open presentations others have built in MS to edit them to your own needs. The ability to publish your presentations to web, or to save them in a slide show of image files eliminates any worry about sending your presentations to MS Office users. Sending ppt files is pretty classless anyway since the recipient must open the files and view them first as editable pages and then either runs them in slide show mode or flips through them singly. A web presentation is much nicer.

Conclusion: for the vast majority of business and government computer users OpenOffice exceeds their needs. Every government dollar spent on commercial software like MS Word is an abuse of taxpayers and every business dollar so spent is an abuse of shareholders.

Limit the commercial solutions like MS Access to those employees who genuinely need the added functionality.

Orbiting235 reviewed v3.2.1 RC on May 7, 2010

Fantastic software! Beware of reviews that stink and falsely bash this great program!

FatBastard reviewed v3.2.1 RC on May 7, 2010

I love free software but I'm sorry to say that OpenOffice stinks :(

-Lord- reviewed v3.2.1 RC on May 7, 2010

I'll have to go middle of the road here. While Open Office IS free, and that earns it some serious points in the ratings game, it does fall short on a few things. The funny thing here, is that its shortcomings can be seen as both a curse and a blessing too. For one, the powerpoint thing. Can't be ignored. It needs support for PPS. Plain and simple. Curse.
Next is Calc. It's functions for formulae are weak, sometimes not accepting full formula that excel can, and therefore not calculating correctly. Curse.
Then there's Base. A not bad database alternative, but weak in fucntionality and doesn't use standard sql. uses an alternative to it. It helped me learn what I needed to do in access, but it's functions and functionality left lots to be desired.

if money is the issue, get this. If not, use it for checking things out, but stick with office if you can. It's got a long way to go.

Sven123456789 reviewed v3.2.0 on Apr 16, 2010

Great alternative to MS software. And its free. There should be no one complaining about this for that reason alone.

mancubs reviewed v3.2.0 on Mar 10, 2010

ms is crap its bloatware, ooo is better and its free so if you are stupid enough to pay ms its ripe of price , go for it

bobad reviewed v3.2.0 on Feb 10, 2010

Nice, very nice. Great for home and small office, all you'll ever need. Only 3 complaints:

1. Needs a Power Point viewer to quickly view PPS files.
2. Needs to lose the Java. Just code it in C++ or C#
3. Need to fix the cut and paste bugs for large files.

JustForMyMemory reviewed v3.2.0 on Feb 10, 2010

number one: i hate java - it is slow, scary and buggy.

number two: ugly compared to Office 2010, fonts are not anti-aliased like Word 2007 (onward)

though: office is bloater 3 times than this. but currently it can't beat office ^^^

I RATHER USE PIRATED VERSION of OFFICE 2010 FOR FREE and AESTHETIC.

FatBastard reviewed v3.2.0 on Feb 9, 2010

This is RC5

mjm01010101 reviewed v3.2.0 on Feb 9, 2010

Fantastic startup. Now comparable to Office 2010 Beta! I'd say 1.5 seconds to load any OO app now, uncached, and .25 seconds cached.

I really don't like what Microsoft has done with Outlook 2010. The tabs at the top needlessly putfunctions I frequently need on different "pages" so it's actually slowed me down quite a bit.
There's little reason for me, personally and professionally, to stay with Expen$ive Microsoft Offi$e.

some guy reviewed v3.2.0 on Feb 9, 2010

a free blown office suit a must have

Aegis69 reviewed v3.2.0 RC4 on Jan 27, 2010

3.2 does load faster, thank the gods.

For those needing an outlook replacement, Thunderbird 3 + Lightning does the trick.

Floodland reviewed v3.2.0 RC4 on Jan 26, 2010

Top rate. It does 90% MS office offer for free, and does not infect your computer with +10mb useless registry entries, useless components and such crap. Small, and free is the way I like it. It only lacks an Outlook replacement, but unless you need to use a Exchange mailbox, that is not an issue.
I would startup faster, but comparing against $400 suite, well, Open Office is gold!

mancubs reviewed v3.2.0 RC4 on Jan 26, 2010

to all those on here that knock ooo ,firstley i bought ms off,its crap its over priced and to say that oo is not as good ,ok free to use ,has every thing ,and dose more if you take the time to use it and learn it so i will give it 5 rock on all you guys and girls ,Ooo

cool_guy reviewed v3.2.0 RC2 on Jan 14, 2010

If you go to their web site: http://www.openoffice.or...beta.html#general_speed

"OpenOffice.org 3.2 Calc and Writer have both reduced 'cold start' time by 46% since version 3.0 was released just over a year ago, according to tests by our developers (results will vary on different operating systems and hardware)."

This is actually true and it was the first thing I noticed. These two programs indeed start a lot quicker than previous versions. Although the start-up time is now acceptable, I would still recommend further improvements however it is a very good start so well done OOo! team!

In relation to the UI, I miss the original StarOffice 5.2 toolbar look. http://linuxbook.orbdesi...h11/images/btlb1116.jpg

I personally like that look better over the today's one except for the fact that toolbars cannot be docked/un-docked. Back in the late 90s, when StarOffice was not owned by Sun, I preferred it over MS Office.

OOo team, in the past I've rated you low because of slow start-up speed but this time I am giving you 5 stars because you truly deserve it and I am actually quite happy with what you have done. Keep up the good work! 5 stars from me!

b0mmel reviewed v3.2.0 RC2 on Jan 14, 2010

I really try to like it and evaluate it every 6 months but OOo got so outpaced by MS Office that it's no longer an option. If you have a couple of equations in a text it still gets dead slow. No SmartArt. Hideous interface. Hideous looking graphs. No noteworthy spellchecker.

I acknowledge it's free but MS Office H&S is so cheap now that this is now longer an argument. One also has to consider its prospects when changing to its OpenDocument format: OOo now has as little as 20 developers remaining and future support by Oracle is uncertain. MS Office has how many developers? Maybe 500 and support by MS is out of question.

Unfortunately not recommended.

roj reviewed v3.2.0 RC1 on Dec 21, 2009

Have they FINALLY fixed the Recently used Documents to allow you to 1) clear it and 2) auto remove documents that no longer exist or have moved form their location?

That's an obvious glaring UI oversight and its omission is completely asinine.

Also, in case you haven't figured it out, Sun's Staroffice uses the same code base pretty much beta tested by users of OO. It's a nice way to cut testing costs. They don't need more developers - they have them. What they need is more forward thinking guidance.

THREE stars - one star lost for little refinements like that which are missing.

Alpha258 reviewed v3.2.0 RC1 on Dec 21, 2009

It sure doesn't look very pretty but they will beautify the GUI in the future so I don't mind. I actually prefer this over MS Office because it makes some features really easy to use.

MS Office is too complicated in many different ways. To access some of the same features in MS Office I have to search the internet for some kind of shortcut using Ctrl and F(x) etc. This wastes alot of the time I could be using to write my essay/letter/etc.

ezh reviewed v3.2.0 RC1 on Dec 19, 2009

Wow! Impressed with the speed improvemet over 3.1! And many new nice improvements ovelall: http://www.openoffice.or.../features/3.2/beta.html

Sure OOo has long way to go to catch MSO, but it's free. Donate, so they can employ more developers.

DaComboMan reviewed v3.2.0 RC1 on Dec 19, 2009

Hilbert,

Glad you enjoy your Microsoft program.
If i had to pay for one similar, i would go for Corel's Office Suite.

At least OO users can still use whatever updated version of their program to open their files. For free of course!

OO has come a long way and is being used in many places for free.
Free as in freedom.

MSN or Corel will never give you that pleasure.

Hilbert reviewed v3.2.0 RC1 on Dec 19, 2009

For years I've tried to escape the clutches of M$ Office. Have used OO many times on many different machines--since before Sun when it was StarOffice and every time I have to return to M$ Office because of a gotcha--often many multiple gotchas.

- There's no decent grammar checker.

- MS Office 2000--right ancient 2000--speller leaves OO for dead.

- And for years OO hasn't even been able to provide shortcut keys that even keep up with M$ Office, let alone exceed them. For example, where's the OO equivalent of CTRL-T or CTRL-Q? Right, how many years has MSO had them? 15 years or more, yet OO can't even get a shortcut right! Heaven forbid, it's only shortcut keys after all.

- There are so many places where OO's feature set is STILL a subset of M$ Office 2000. Once we open software advocates expected OO to lead in the feature set but that's nothing but a forlorn hope long dead.

- There are all sorts of rough edges in the configuration it'd take too long to describe here.

- Simply, M$ Office 2000 (not 2007) is always our reference for when we do comparisons of other office products. Continually, year after year, OpenOffice lags behind M$ Office 2000 in the most elementary and necessary operational features.

- OO can't even call it self OpenOffice--it has to add an org (just because the name is registered in one European country and they're too damn lazy to make an exception for that country). Every time one deploys OO one has to go around multiple machines and rename all the shortcuts from OpenOffice.org to OpenOffice (users think dot org goes to the net). When they continually screw up minor details like this year after year, version after version even open software zealots like me have to call it quits.

This latest version adds nothing of use except perhaps the last rotation of the Titanic's deckchairs.

It's a terrible shame that the so-called flagship of the open software movement has become so moribund. Unfortunately, M$ laughs all the way to the bank saying 'we told you free software was crap'. Tragedy is M$ is not wrong.

frankwick reviewed v3.2.0 RC1 on Dec 18, 2009

I followed OO for years even before Sun owned it. I love the concept but when compared to MS Office, it's hard to compete. The UI seems stuck in the 1990s. At least on Windows -- I haven't tried the Linux version in a year or so. On Windows, Office sets the standard and the ribbon has left OO furter behind.

mancubs reviewed v3.2 Beta on Dec 6, 2009

Well hi foxes just bought ofices 2007 ,what aload of rubbish that is ,then treid ooo ,BOY IT ROCKS it dose more than offices anybody out their with a brain do the right thing go OOOO

Earwicker reviewed v3.2 Beta on Oct 20, 2009

It's still a wee bit slow to start in Windows, but that's the only bad thing I can say about it. With a simple add-on it even edits PDFs now, in addition to creating them. There's no two ways about it, this is awesome. Calc still lags a little way behind Excel, but for 99.99% of purposes there's nothing in it, and Writer is quite the wordprocessor of the moment, with some pretty impressive DTP capabilities.

netean reviewed v3.2 Beta on Oct 19, 2009

Openoffice, y'know, its' OK. it'll do the job. But in windows, it's got an fugly interface (linux version seems to be nicer somehow)
it's slow to start, really slow. and stupidly large.

We're on version 3, yet I still can't pick and choose which parts of office I want to download - I'm only EVER going to using the word processing portion, yet I have to download the whole suite. - and then I have to download the whole thing again with up bug fix, and minor update.

It's free, it's good, but it's still way behind in a lot of ways.

All in all I much much prefer Office 07, for day to day word processing, I think abiword is better, at least it's faster and visually nicer to use. Kword (linux) is v. nice too. I'd use openoffice if I couldn't use any of those first. But try it, you might love it.

mjm01010101 reviewed v3.1.1 on Aug 31, 2009

Strangely organized list of fixes here:
http://development.openo...org/releases/3.1.1.html

Update: 9/8/2009 Crashed on export to PDF. Could not recover the document even though I previously saved it. This is a showstopper for me.

Aegis69 reviewed v3.1.1 on Aug 27, 2009

Wow, guys I have to say that downloading 130megs for a .01 upgrade is getting silly. I love openoffice, its all I use, but maybe wait till you have a serious version upgrade, like 3.1 to 3.2 or something before recompiling the entire app.

Or, implement a patch system. Please.

(edit) jeezuz now I gotta restart my system too? COME ON!

mjm01010101 reviewed v3.1.0 on May 20, 2009

Crashes at the "welcome to OpenOffice" screen if you update the one extension available. repeatable.

Otherwise works fine.

MCHAL reviewed v3.1.0 on May 5, 2009

Yes, OpenOffice is really great! I love it! But apparently there are good paid alternatives out there, such as Softmaker Office. So could any of you visiting guys make an "expert" review or the like about this shareware product?

Thanks!

irateman reviewed v3.1.0 on May 5, 2009

There a few things about OO that just make sense :
1) install on just about any system
2) no cost
3) standard, open and compatible
4) easy installation of add-ons even in OS of different languages

I must admit that there a few things that I cannot do with OO that can be done with Framemaker, like preceding and following text or graphics for paragraph styles, but that could be implemented with an add-on.
Compared to MS Office, its performance is pretty much the same. I cannot see why anyone would pay for Office 2007. Besides, I cannot stand the interface.

I have worked with documents over a 150 pages with graphics, columns, indexes, tables etc. and have had no problems. If you use the paragraph styles, everything flows nicely.

coover reviewed v3.1.0 on May 4, 2009

This is a good example of an inexpensive product vs. an expensive one. This one has all the qualities of the inexpensive one. It will do the job ... but you won't be as happy with it as you would with the expensive product.

However, Open Office is free (as long as the time to download it is not costly to you), so it is better than "inexpensive". To make the comparison between the expensive product and Open Office fair, you have to factor in it's actual cost .. zip, nada, nothing, freeeeeeeeeeeee! It all depends on what YOU can afford.

If you can afford the expensive product, I suggest you purchase it. You will be happier with it. But if you simply don't have the money, Open Office will do the job.

There is nothing wrong with Open Office. It isn't dangerous, it won't introduce malware, and if you wish to share Office files, it won't easily give away to the folks with which you share that you are so poor (or cheap) that you use something other than the expensive product (as long as you use the right file extensions).

So if you need it, get it. it is worth every penny you pay for it (and more).

netean reviewed v3.1.0 RC2 on Apr 28, 2009

well, it's ok.. It's a terrific feat of programming to create an office suit of this complexity and for FREE it's superb, the best free office suite there is (sort of)

Sadly, on Windows, it's a bit second rate (it's much much much better in linux) - its' slow to load, it's a huge application to download - particularly if you don't want the whole suite, (you still can't simply download the components you need/want) Nor can you update easily, you have to download and install the whole suite again!

Furthermore, it's fine if you're using Ooo to create a document from scratch, and it works fine with long documents, but if you're editing a document that's already been written with MS Office, or even worse, swapping back and forth between Openoffice and MS Office, it's a bit of a nightmare, it doesn't work well with long MS office Documents (I'm talking about the writer component)
The presentation component, is... well it's OK, it's like using Powerpoint from about 5 years ago, gets the job done, but it's slowly and certainly without any pleasure.

That's the sad things about openoffice, it looks old-fashioned and rather ghastly (again, it looks better in linux) and just isn't very enjoyable to use, it's functional, but not pleasurable.

I think IBM have done a good job with Openoffice by morphing it into Symphony, sure that has its own problems but it's much prettier, friendlier and much more usable (ifor the most part)

Infidelus reviewed v3.1.0 RC1 on Apr 6, 2009

While OOo is a nice product for basic usage (I only really use the Writer component regularly, and occasionally Calc), I find it fails quite badly when trying to work with more complicated Word documents.

For example, I downloaded an application form for a job which had various tables and tickboxes. Not only did OOo not display the page correctly, it also made some of the boxes untickable and worse still, after saving the document, it lost a whole load of free text that had been typed by me. If you opened the saved document in Notepad or Wordpad, you could see that the text was actually there, but for whatever reason OOo refused to display it again.

Now there may well be settings somewhere hidden in the options that make all these things work, but after searching high and low and failing to find them, combined with the fact that they work 'out of the box' in MS Word, it makes it exremely difficult to give up using the commercial product.

gcaleval reviewed v3.1.0 RC1 on Apr 6, 2009

For production work I use the stable release which is 3.01.

I used Open Office to produce a 48 page Policy Manual and the exercise was much smoother than when I had used Word for the same purposes. If this does not quality as a "big/complex project" I don't know what does.

The spreadsheet and word processor are stand out quality.

The database is not effective for significant databases and can very slow at performing relatively basic queries on more than a few thousand records. But remember that Access is not part of the core MS Office suite and big bucks need to be spent to get access to Access.

OOo should consider carving the database off to have it focus on being a great interface to MySql which users would have to install separately.

I have also noted that the entire OOo suite operates orders of magnitude faster on Ubuntu than on XP or Vista. It loads almost instantaneously on Ubunut running on an old 486 box, but takes a few moments getting going on the Windows platforms with the newest hardware.

myboy reviewed v3.1.0 m7 on Mar 30, 2009

Okay for routine work, but useless for dealing with complex/large projects. The database module in particular is a disaster; it might as well be just a sql command line prompt. I also HATE how OO launches whatever module IT thinks is appropriate for a file, no matter what you intend. Transferring/importing/embedding data between word processor and spreadsheet is so irritating it is better to simply cut & paste. Better than msworks but nowhere as complete as msoffice.

sn0wflake reviewed v3.0.1 on Mar 4, 2009

I rarely have to open/edit Office documents but when I have to this does the job. Also includes excellent support for saving documents in PDF format which I prefer. Dropped Microsoft Office many years ago.

Ian C. reviewed v3.0.1 on Feb 14, 2009

Spell check doesn't work, don't know if the dictionary is missing or what. Spell check is a critical feature, it should be working immediately after install without having to mess with settings.

Mystiqq reviewed v3.0.1 on Feb 11, 2009

Amazing free software but the following should have been caught in the "possible causes for crash by user error". Following thing i managed to do accidentally while doing things in a hurry...

CTRL+C, CTRL+A and CTRL+V = "program is not responding"

Jaz-M-Taz reviewed v3.0.1 RC2 on Jan 18, 2009

3.0.1 RC2

Great suite, and I've used it for many years now. This release however, is corrupting my files with tables when I save in .doc format for Word. Apparent when I open them in actual Word.

roj reviewed v3.0.1 RC2 on Jan 15, 2009

I love this suite but it has one Most Moronic oversight:

Why the hell can't I clear the Recently used Documents list without jumping through hoops (shutting the app and the loader down and editing the text file MANUALLY)?

Why doesn't it check to see if the document is there and if it isn't, do something truly revolutionary like Remove It Automatically From The List??? Furthermore, why isn't there an OPTION to clear the list if I see fit?

DUHHHH!!!!!

FIVE stars and a slap across the back of the head to the twit who overlooked this most obvious of usability features.

Stingray57 reviewed v3.0.1 RC2 on Jan 15, 2009

Consistently impressive. A marvel of open source effort and execution. Although it lacks a 'Outlook' it's a direct competitor to Microsoft office and it's bloated code. [Windows] Evolution could fix that real easy.

I love the portable version and the use of extensions now. Being able to post directly to WORDPRESS/BLOG from OO Write is nice.

I agree with a patching system, 140mb downloads get old, but as long as you've a hs connection, it's not that bad.

Well worth it. Can't beat the price...

netean reviewed v3.0.1 RC2 on Jan 14, 2009

superb if you run linux, just above average for windows users. Linux users get incremental upgrades (if they have apt-get style package updating). Windows users have to download the entire suits for even slightest bug fix.

It's slow in windows and looks hideous. MUch more visually appealing if using ubuntu et al.

aloishammer reviewed v3.0.1 RC2 on Jan 14, 2009

@Aegis69: Hate to point this out, but if you think back to XPSP2 and previous, there's a required download before you can use Windows/Microsoft Update: it's Microsoft's own in-house binary delta patch applier. It was written to make patches much smaller.

Crack open any HotFix, Service Pack, or any other kind of patch, and you'll see entire DLLs, EXEs, and the rest-- sometimes multiple versions for multiple SP revs. Binary deltas? Missing in action. I haven't seen binary deltas since RTPatch on DOS-- and I once saw someone use RTPatch for Windows.

DudeBoyz reviewed v3.0.1 RC2 on Jan 14, 2009

Still a great suite. But this wacky long RC to Beta to Release stuff takes forever.

Aegis69 reviewed v3.0.1 RC2 on Jan 14, 2009

I have to agree with netean, can't they build a patch system for this application? Getting sick of 140meg downloads every time.

gehtnix reviewed v3.0.1 RC2 on Jan 14, 2009

excellent free office suite that comes with everything you need. ok, not really "everything", but still unbeaten by MS, no matter what they have tried and will try. i rate it 5 for being being open source, not "only" being freeware.

craigun reviewed v3.0.1 RC2 on Jan 14, 2009

This program just keeps on improving. Thanks for the memory tip Testman!

cgcrawford reviewed v3.0.1 RC1 on Dec 26, 2008

Testman - thank you for the information on how to adjust the memory to speed up the program opening. Why are these settings not the default?

mjm01010101 reviewed v3.0.1 RC1 on Dec 25, 2008

netean

So don't download it then.

netean reviewed v3.0.1 RC1 on Dec 24, 2008

rated 1 for being nothing but a minor bugfix (it's a .0.1 release) but insists you download and install the whole suite -

Just sheer lunacy... can't they just develop a patching system or let you update certain components.
When the download is 142mb each time it sure stacks up. Never mind how long it'll take to download this via dialup!

testman@wimberley-tx.com reviewed v3.0.1 RC1 on Dec 24, 2008

So, you think it opens slow, well you just need to make an adjustment to how much memory it uses. It is easy to do so, just go to the menu and choose, Tools, then Options, then Memory. Once there you change the number of steps to around 5 and then the number of objects to around 4 and most importantly, you change the number of Graphic Cache for use by Open Office to 64 MB, then hit OK and then close down Open Office, now reopen it, it should open a lot quicker.

Love the program, keeps improving over time, but you got to know how to set it up so it is not a slug.

robmanic44 reviewed v3.0.1 RC1 on Dec 24, 2008

I use its big brother, StarOffice 9, and I'm not thrilled about it. It's definitely not superior to Microsoft Office. In fact, it will probably be uninstalled.

bobad reviewed v3.0.1 RC1 on Dec 24, 2008

Great office suite, free or not. I use the portable version from portableapps.org. I hate to bring up the "MS" word, but there will inevitably be comparisons. I do light documents and occasional spreadsheets, and it's perfect for me. I never want for more. My wife does more heavy duty work,including some honking big spreadsheets, and she gets along fine with it too. It launches a little slowly, but you get used to it. The only thing I really miss about using MS Office is the Document Handling, specifically OCR scanning directly into the word processor. But I use my printer's OCR just fine.

Ian C. reviewed v3.0.1 RC1 on Dec 23, 2008

Really? Not ever? Imho this got less intuitive with version 3, but did speed up a bit. Enough for most people, but really can't hold a candle to MS Office.

PagingDrLeoMarvin reviewed v3.0.0 Final on Nov 11, 2008

OpenOffice is fantastic, I'll never use a Microsoft Office program again, ever!

Sven123456789 reviewed v3.0.0 Final on Oct 14, 2008

Pretty damn good. Has everything i need except one small feature i get with Word (in Office XP)involving labels. I can type in an address to print on a standard envelope in word. Its under Envelopes and Labels in word. Thats about the only gripe. For the people who have any complaints about this. Are you nuts... If you work with old pc's like me, allot of them dont have a full Office product. This gives you a chance to put it on there and it works on older versions of windows. I would imagine the people who complain had some form of the newer version of a office suite already on there pc, but tried this for the heck of it and don't think its up to snuff. Name another free software package as good as this for the nay sayers....

DACWILSOL reviewed v3.0.0 Final on Oct 13, 2008

Finally! OOo has done an excellent job with powering OO up to meet and surpass MS Office. This new version is everything I wanted and needed. The .docx imports are perfect. I did not have any trouble importing other file formats and the wizard is even better than before. On its own, OO has been easy to use and has simply the best. I use Mozilla Thunderbird for e-mail (PIM). The pdf import is another excellent feature of the program. By the time of this posting, I will officially uninstall MS Office student/teacher edition and use OO only. The way of the future.

retpyrc reviewed v3.0.0 Final on Oct 13, 2008

FYI, The website has just been updated, OpenOffice v3.0 is official now, enjoy

molumen reviewed v3.0.0 Final on Oct 12, 2008

The GUI has been updated since version 2 and is now much more friendly. I like it. Also, I specially enjoy the new extension system. Reminds me of the Firefox approach. Installing languages, export and import abilities, and many other things is very easy now!!

sx66gns reviewed v3.0.0 Final on Oct 11, 2008

The Best of the Best right here , International Standard is no small feat.

Installed on more than 5,000 Machines since 2.0 without issue and with this release added support for big capitalist proprietary formats , amazing.

xprotocalx reviewed v3.0.0 Final on Oct 10, 2008

This is an excellent piece of open source software.
It has certainly progressed since it's initial release like 7 years ago.

Despite the quick-launch feature being a tad slow (perhaps on a slow machine) it's quite fast.

There are many reasons to use this suite, I've picked to the I like the most:
a) ability to export to PDF
b) a free office suite that is backwards compatible with MS Office!

5/5

mring reviewed v3.0.0 Final on Oct 9, 2008

Great for free, but I've used Office 2007 since release, and the UI is more than just good looks. It makes prolonged use much easier. Another OOo version that'd I'd recommend to kids and grandparents, but not to anyone with real work to get done.

ranasrule reviewed v3.0.0 Final on Oct 9, 2008

reminds me of MS Office97 ...except its much slower

ezh reviewed v3.0.0 Final on Oct 9, 2008

OOo 3.0 will be officially announced on Monday, 13.10.2008.

3.0 is a big step forward, but I agree, the UI must be redone...

zridling reviewed v3.0.0 Final on Oct 9, 2008

OOo site still listing 2.4.1, not 3.0.

roj reviewed v3.0.0 Final on Oct 9, 2008

If yo0u're shallow enough to have the fact that it looks like an older version of MS Office bother you, then the improvements will be largely wasted on you.

I've waited quite a while for this mature release.

Happy now.

FIVE stars.

Daddy_Spank reviewed v3.0.0 Final on Oct 9, 2008

If you only care about the fact that its free then I guess the fact that this Suite looks like Word 97 doesnt matter.

Gripweed reviewed v3.0.0 Final on Oct 9, 2008

The only problem is that at this time OpenOffice.org still lists version 2.41 as the stable release and RC4 is still listed as the current 3.0 version. I've been burned here before by jumping the gun by downloading what FileForum says is available. I'll wait this out a little longer and get it directly from OpenOffice.org.

netean reviewed v3.0.0 Final on Oct 9, 2008

so glad I didn't download the previous release candidate, all but 3-4 days ago... otherwise I'd have to do it all over again now.

really, when will they start including small patch updates, or allowing you to download the components you need and not the rest (i'll never use their database, or presentation offering, please dont' make me download it)

mjm01010101 reviewed v3.0.0 Final on Oct 9, 2008

Since I wrote this review, my score has gone downhill.

Some initial issues:
1. Isn't removing 2.4 from all programs start menu for default installs. This makes me sad panda.

2. The splash screen has icons that do nothing when you hover over them using RDP...

3. On a few machines, OO doesn't open after running the setup wizard.

4. Update check fails, and doesn't time out.

So I'm going to wait until a few more revisions before rolling it out.

aruprc reviewed v3.0.0 Final on Oct 9, 2008

Excellent as usual......loading times have greatly improved.

gate1975mlm reviewed v3.0.0 Final on Oct 9, 2008

Open Office 3.0 is much better!

yokozuna reviewed v3.0.0 RC4 on Oct 9, 2008

OOo 3.0 Final is already available: http://ftp.stardiv.de/pu...Intel_install_en-US.exe

morrigen reviewed v3.0.0 RC4 on Oct 7, 2008

Hariskar,I went to the sight,and it is just that an RC,in other words not final and might or will change on actual full release to public.

some guy reviewed v3.0.0 RC4 on Oct 6, 2008

rock solid
free It may not have the paper clip. but gezz don't wine it's free

mjm01010101 reviewed v3.0.0 RC4 on Oct 6, 2008

This version did not ask to close Vuze while seeding.

I'm seeding the torrent for a few days.

Not sure how people can knock the interface for Open Office. It looks almost exactly like every Office version before 2007 (and that is a good thing, IMO.)

This new version, after Writer is in the cache, opens in 1 second, which is FASTER than Office '07 on same machine. I'm testing this all on a 6 year old Windows XP box with 2G ram.

Andy Dean reviewed v3.0.0 RC4 on Oct 6, 2008

It does the job but I still think it's slow compared to Microsoft Office.
Just to add, No I don't particularly like Microsoft, just I feel they do a better job in this case.

osric reviewed v3.0.0 RC4 on Oct 6, 2008

@mjm01010101: It asked you to close Vuze? What's the exact error message? Which JRE are you using? I am using OOo and Vuze at the same time.

netean reviewed v3.0.0 RC4 on Oct 6, 2008

It's free and an AWFUL lot of work has gone into openoffice. It has some very good features and is probably the closest thing to Microsoft Office at this point. But no matter how much I love open source and free software this is just not enjoyable to use..

It's ugly.. Still ugly after all these years, moreover, there is something about it that just doesn't make it even remotely enjoyable to use it's a chore. It makes me feel like I'm using Office 95 or 97.

There is still no decent patch update facility, so the slightest bug fix means installing the entire office suite again (that's just crazy)

There are still lots of things that don't work how I expect and that makes it frustrating - it doesn't have to be a MS office clone just more intuitive than it is right now.

I'd much prefer MS office 2003 or 2007 to Openoffice, I much prefer KOffice to openoffice, I much prefer Abiword to openoffice writer. Sadly, I even prefer wordpad to openoffice writer!

gate1975mlm reviewed v3.0.0 RC4 on Oct 6, 2008

WoW this is the first tiome trying the new OpenOffice.org 3.0 aznd it is a huge improvment over 2.0 as far as speed goes!

3.0 opens way faster! :)

Looking forward to the final version!

mjm01010101 reviewed v3.0.0 RC3 on Sep 30, 2008

I find it funny that Open Office wants me to close Vuze which is seeding the Openoffice P2P torrent I have running in the background...

I asked it to remove the previous version during install and it did this except kept the "start-->programs-->open office 2.4 folder" still there.

roj reviewed v3.0.0 RC2 on Sep 24, 2008

Looks DO matter in software.

A VERY great deal.

It's why I refuse to use that retroactive abortion called The Gimp. It's also why I will continue to use Openoffice at the office instead of that utterly moronic "ribbon" rubbish that Micro$oft has foisted upon its victims, er, users.

I'm thinking that this will end up being the final - I can't find a thing wrong with it.

FIVE stars.

stranded reviewed v3.0.0 RC2 on Sep 23, 2008

I really like OpenOffice. I've been using it since version 1.4 I guess. Why do I like it? Well it can basically replace Microsoft Office - but I think it's safe to say - only for home use. Although it's main flaw is the speed, it's slow, really slow sometimes, but that's because of Java. But yeah, it is free.

zridling reviewed v3.0.0 RC2 on Sep 23, 2008

I'll take menus and customizable toolbars over that ridiculous ribbon any day. Some cool features in version 3 let me discard other programs, like FinePrint. Vera nize!

aruprc reviewed v3.0.0 RC2 on Sep 23, 2008

Looks don't matter, what matters is that it works and works good and its FREE.

Midichlorian_Joe reviewed v3.0.0 RC2 on Sep 23, 2008

No, people are absolutely right to attack the look of this software. People have been pushing for a better looking app for years. The team just doesn't seem to care, and so this is really software that's being left behind. There seems to be an assumption that anyone worth programming for shouldn't care about the look of the software. And yet documentation on things as simple as macro programming is a nightmare too, so its high-end use is limited too. Between the two, it's pretty much dropped to the level of Works or Appleworks, not the MS Office 2003 level. (Lucky for them Office 2007's Use-the-ribbon-or-get-lost policy helps keep OO alive.) Open Source and Cross Platform doesn't have to mean poor appearance. Another bland-looking version of OpenOffice with 1994 icons on bland cream backgrounds? Oh well. But OMG! Did you hear the next X-Wing expansion pack is going to let you fly the B-Wing??? 1994 visuals. Pfffft.

Aegis69 reviewed v3.0.0 RC2 on Sep 22, 2008

"Daddy_Spank - Looks like its from the early 90's"

Wow that comment reveals your level of intelligence pretty dramatically, don't bother to comment on the app itself, just look at the screen cap and make a dumba** comment.

Ain Soph Aur reviewed v3.0.0 RC2 on Sep 22, 2008

it works very good, can read all my .doc and .docx files (not the password protected) and looks very clean and tidy :)

as a private person, i dont see a reason to use MS Office...

great software!!

DudeBoyz reviewed v3.0.0 RC2 on Sep 22, 2008

Not much has changed from RC1 to RC2, it seems, but I'm still just as pleased with the nearly finalized 3.x version.

It looks just fine, it works just fine and feels more "integrated" than MS Office does. It's not like MS Office isn't a cohesive product, but I think Open Office just gives an impression of continuity.

I kinda like the "Welcome to OpenOffice.org" screen that pops up when you start it normally. It has a nice look about it and I like the drop shadow effect.

But I also have to admit to liking the Quickstarter thing that they have in the system tray after the initial install.

If you have the memory and a dual core or higher, it doesn't seem like much of a resource drain, so the preloading of some of the core code ends up making the apps feel snappier when you load them individually.

I like the list of options that pops up when you right-click on that tray icon. It makes it really easy to work with and again makes it feel sort of "quicker" as a result. It's hard to explain, exactly, but I just like how it works.

I do wish that they would put a Quickstarter link in the Start Menu folder it creates so that it was easier to find. If you at first disable it from loading at startup, but later want to have it load again, it would be simpler and more obvious if all you had to do was go to that Start Menu folder and select it.

But at least you can find it if you look in the Tools, Options, Memory dialog of settings.

It is kind of silly that due to Copyright reasons, they had to change the name of the product to OpenOffice.ORG, but Copyrights are just wacky that way sometimes.

But all things considered, it's a nice little bundle of free apps, weighing in at about a 130 meg download. Nothing fancy really, just a free productivity suite that is easy to use and get used to.

I'm not going to dump my copy of MS Office 2000 Pro for it, but I think if I didn't own MS Office, I could get along quite nicely with this updated Office Suite.

Daddy_Spank reviewed v3.0.0 RC2 on Sep 22, 2008

Looks like its from the early 90's.

tickleonthetum reviewed v3.0.0 RC1 on Sep 9, 2008

I still believe that this needs background saving to be able to compete with MS Office. It just takes to long to save. If you are working on a large complex document you need to have autosave set to save every 1 minute, but it makes this software unusable as it can take it 15 seconds to save in it's native format. that means you have to keep stopping and waiting for it to do it's thing, which is useless for a touch typist!

Apart from this one, all be it big, problem this software IS an MS killer. It is as easy to use as MS WORD/EXCEL etc. and can be customised to look almost identical if so required!

BruddaMan reviewed v3.0.0 RC1 on Sep 8, 2008

its free and its easy to use and works fine on xp machines and has the interface that is familiar so you can find commands fast and the toolbars look normal and has adobe acrobat pdf writing where you can save to pdf without buying anything. its beta software and this is betanews so you rate betas. it doesnt have to be final released versions. i cant afford office from microsoft so openoffice works good enough. it has a database and a drawing so you dont need access or coreldraw. if it cost money maybe rate it low but it is free so it deserves 5 rating points.

Metshrine reviewed v3.0.0 RC1 on Sep 7, 2008

This version offers very little in terms of upgrade reasons. I do agree that it should be labeled 2.5. This may be a fine product for people who cannot afford a commercial suite, or who just believe all software should be free (A trend in the current generation) but it doesn't touch the commercial products in any way in terms of functionality, ease of use, and robustness of the interface. I wish OOo.org would implement a ribbon style interface because, once you learn it, it is extremely easy to use.

But, for what it is now, minus the sluggishness of the applications and the lack of features I am used to in O2K7 which I use daily, I will give this a 4/5.

To the reviewer below:

Why should I reserve my comments for a production release? This is BETA news, you rate BETA's, or in some cases alphas, and as such you should be able to review the RELEASED version on this site as you would the released production version when it comes here. Also, the fact that YOU feel you HAVE to balance out negative reviews is just stupid. Review the software, if you feel like it or have to, but don't think you are required to counter a negative review. That is the problem with betanews is that users feel they have to counter negative reviews because they either A. Do not agree with them, or B. Have a differing opinion. Just review the product or do not. Simple.

gcaleval reviewed v3.0.0 RC1 on Sep 7, 2008

This package, altho in beta, is superior to the commercial alternatives in dozens of ways. The current production release (2.4.1) already has MS Office 2007 outstripped with many unique feature and, you don't have to pony up hundreds of dollars to get a complete suite.

I don't get the almost whining reviews as they seem wholly out of context. If all you want is a lean-mean word processing app, there are dozens around. If you are seriously worried about how much hard drive space packages consume, then rush back to DOS when real programmers wrote Assembly code to run apps in 640K memory and occupy less than 360K drive space. Heck my old TI94A only has 16K Total RAM.

However, if you want a complete, professional office suite that includes advanced word processing, spreadsheet, drawing, presentation AND database; all tightly integrated so generating a databased report out of a spreadsheet is a trivial and pleasing experience; and get all of that plus a huge community of willing supporters for production advice (how can I do X in my formula), not just technical support, then OpenOffice.Org is an outstanding option. For small businesses with a handful of staff, it's an option that will save them thousands of dollars.

The database is a true joy, able to work with almost every imaginable data source effortlessly.

I would hope that in beta forums, users would report Beta problems, rather than forcing others to balance comments that should be reserved for production releases. But I can't let a couple of hit-and-run slaps against such a fine product sit in the forum unanswered.

guti reviewed v3.0.0 RC1 on Sep 6, 2008

Not a real major update compared to 2.4.1, it should be called 2.5. A bit faster, and a bit prettier, but still slower and uglier than Office 2007.
Still no native Win64 version, but a good product being free.

jcunews reviewed v3.0.0 RC1 on Sep 6, 2008

Microsoft Office has been (storage) bloating since Office XP. That's why I keep my Office 2000. It only take 100MB of my harddisk space.

Open Office has been (code) bloating since its first release. That's why I keep my Office 2000. Heck, even Office 2007 is still faster.

However, for those who have less than 1-2 years system, and are not geeks, there's no harm on trying this one out. Who knows, you might like it.

Sven123456789 reviewed v3.0.0 RC1 on Sep 6, 2008

Great free software. Almost as good as office. Couple features less than office, but overall a good solid office software.

netean reviewed v3.0.0 RC1 on Sep 6, 2008

ugly, very very ugly... not a pleasure to use at all.

and everytime there's the slightest update you have to download the ever growing whole package.

I actually prefer using Lotus symphony to this, but abiword is a very good alternative (free) word processor and of course the lovely Koffice (if you have linux)

If you can afford it, stay with Microsoft office. If you cant', look for something better than this (which there are)

mflip reviewed v3.0.0 RC1 on Sep 6, 2008

It's like getting Microsoft Office for free.

teranova52 reviewed v3.0.0 RC1 on Sep 6, 2008

I started to use Open office, since the time that i got my legal XP license .

The Open office suite , gave to the many , one free and easy solution to edit and create documents .

The truth are, that i had never understand, why Microsoft wanted to abuse so much the people , so to offer them the ability to create documents.

I will continue use and support, the Open Office suite , for the most simple reasons ...
1) It works !
2) Its made by the people for the people.

mjm01010101 reviewed v3.0.0 RC1 on Sep 6, 2008

Office 07 is the definition of bloat:
http://www.infoworld.com...fice-performance_1.html

photonboy reviewed v3.0.0 RC1 on Sep 6, 2008

Money aside, I still prefer Microsoft Office 2007.

Yes, I do like OpenOffice and its progressing nicely.

However, without getting technical, it's just not quite as good as MS Office 2007. And yes, I love the new ribbon (which you can minimize by the way).

The term "bloated" applies to coding which is inefficient thus slowing down the application. It does NOT simply refer to the overall size. Office 2007 is a little quicker; this has been well benchmarked. However, considering how little time is taken to open a document compared to how long is spent editing it, who really cares?

OpenOffice is still a great program and more than adequate for most tasks.

DudeBoyz reviewed v3.0.0 RC1 on Sep 6, 2008

Installation of RC1 on XP SP2 was fast and problem free and from what I have been able to see so far, it looks like a promising release.

Yes, it would be nice if the code were better optimized and more efficient in terms of memory handling, and cross-platform font issues still may be present, but overall I feel it is a product worth using.

The interface is familiar and productive, so for those who are not that happy with Microsoft and the Ribbon interface, this is a great option.

I own Office 97 Pro, Office 2000 Pro and Office XP Pro. I personally use Office 2000 Pro, but Office XP Pro is on the other machine.

I don't see myself investing in another version of Microsoft Office if there is any way I can avoid it. I also don't think it would be fair to rip Open Office for "bloat" without recognizing just how much bloat is in the latest version of MS Office.

This is a solid product and very usable, and also happens to be free. I do wish it was 100% open source in all versions and that it did not rely on Java for anything, but that said, with todays machines, I don't think most users would be disappointed with how it functions or performs.

If you have a machine that can run Vista well, then Open Office 3.x should have no problems performing well.

I'm very glad that they have this product available as an alternative to Microsoft Office and I hope that more users with concerns take the time to get involved in the project. If you can optimize the code and submit it, you can actually make it a better product - if you choose to get involved.

But if this product is not for you, then no harm done, right?

BTW, don't forget to disable quick starter if you want to free up resources.

some guy reviewed v3.0.0 RC1 on Sep 5, 2008

hey its free and works well.
MS fan boys be quite think before you speak

Jaz-M-Taz reviewed v3.0.0 RC1 on Sep 5, 2008

Great Job everyone. The file associations seem to be fixed again, and the spell check dictionaries are also. And I love the new splash screens, and icon cahnges.

Louis Serveaux reviewed v3.0.0 RC1 on Sep 5, 2008

One of the few free alternatives that is actually more slow, buggy and bloated than it's paid ancestor.

roj reviewed v3.0.0 RC1 on Sep 5, 2008

Eagerly awaiting the final. Dumped the oversized, overbloated and overpriced Microshaft rubbish years ago and never looked back. OOo does not insinuate itself into my OS, doesn't include vast numbers of "features", 85% of which no mere mortal uses and gets the job done with no predatory licensing based on FUD. Got my kids to use this so the latest myth of "usability" (the ridiculous ribbon in 2007) doesn't get perpetuated.

Never seen the corrupt nonsense mentioned here.

Bravo, OOo!

FIVE stars for excellence.

Undesired Username reviewed v3.0.0 RC1 on Sep 5, 2008

You call OpenOrifice.org a "MS Office beater"? Yeah, right. I stopped using OpenOrifice.org when I discovered that it created corrupt versions of MS Word documents. So much for "compatibility". (I don't care who has seen or not seen similar behavior.)

The proofing features and the overall performance are also not up to snuff, and the help system blows as well.

I bet the vast majority of the MS Office haters have never even owned a copy of MS Office, or if they have, it was in 1996.

tickleonthetum reviewed v3.0.0 Beta 2 on Aug 2, 2008

OOo is finally an MSOffice beater in all but one respect... background saving. It is very annoying when working on a very large or complex document to have to wait while it performs a save. MS Word allows you to continue working while it saves the document in the background, and so should OOo!

osric reviewed v3.0.0 Beta 2 on Jul 17, 2008

Any torrent links?

http://distribution.openoffice.org/p2p doesn't seem to work.

Jaz-M-Taz reviewed v3.0.0 Beta 2 on Jul 13, 2008

I've used OpenOffice for several years now, but the latest series of Dev builds and betas seem to be having some problems. The file associations have not worked for some time now, and I'm having to manually create them each time there is a new release. Now the spell check dictionary seems to have no entries, so it tells me that everything is mispelled?

AntiochMedia reviewed v3.0.0 Beta 2 on Jul 11, 2008

As an enthusiast, I would appreciate if an abbreviated update log would appear on BN... OOo doesn't have the most intuitive website.

rhy7s reviewed v3.0.0 Beta 2 RC1 on Jul 7, 2008

Prefer the OO.o interface over Office, doesn't try and second guess you all the time. The styles and formatting interface is much easier to use and encourages the use of well structured documents. Great to have the future proofing of an open format. Overall a solid and workman-like offering.

Sloeberke reviewed v3.0.0 Beta 2 RC1 on Jul 6, 2008

Not bad,
But what do I do with all my Outlook-things?

Umapathy reviewed v3.0.0 Beta 2 RC1 on Jul 5, 2008

I am on a dialup link now. Not yet downloaded the program. But by the way is there any way to make silent installer if so does any body knows the switches? Would appreciate if some body makes nLite addon. Further I have noticed conditional formating in Microsoft Excel 2003 has limitation and Excel 2007 doesn't have any limitation at all? has this been changed in Open office Calc? Would appreciate if they make such changes atleast 5 conditional formating. My job makes use of such feature. Thanks in advance.

darkxiiindp reviewed v3.0.0 Beta 2 RC1 on Jul 5, 2008

Microsoft Office's wannabe. Everything OpenOffice does is trying to copy Microsoft Office feature.
3 star (normal software, no good, no bad) but -1 for being slow.

Daddy_Spank reviewed v3.0.0 Beta 2 RC1 on Jul 4, 2008

So let me get this... People diss MS when they copy features, but as long as its Open Source, copying a whole office suite is totally fine. Am I right? Its just that I hate the double standards here.

bigmama reviewed v3.0.0 Beta 2 RC1 on Jul 4, 2008

very good alternative

mso2007 is much better

ooo sucks in speed
a better compatibility with mso is needed too

BigDick reviewed v3.0.0 Beta 2 RC1 on Jul 3, 2008

LOL !

Finally a Microsoft concurrent that ends up even bloatier and slower than the original.

charlie---- reviewed v3.0.0_m21 on Jun 28, 2008

daddy spank still openoffice is new but believe me that ooo just looks like a twin of ms word
but it also includes some more features if you chech you ll know and believe me its better

improvelence reviewed v3.0.0_m21 on Jun 26, 2008

I have to agree with Daddy_Spank...I mean I love what they are doing here but MS has a good thing going with their Office package, nothing else compares. Its a shame they didn't put that kind of quality into their operating system. Anyhow, I still do use OpenOffice on both my mac, linux and even my windows box from time to time for odt files and whatnot but in a perfect world, MS office Would come with windows and everyone would be happy. I still give this a 5 because its the next best thing and it does not cost a thing, which is awesome. Thanks Open Source.

Daddy_Spank reviewed v3.0.0_m21 on Jun 26, 2008

its only good because its free. But Office 2007 is simply a lot better.

monzi reviewed v3.0.0_m21 on Jun 25, 2008

I would give it a 3 if it wasnt free. But since its free some things can be forgiven. Main problem with this office package is that its so slow compared to MS Office

yokozuna reviewed v3.0.0_m20 on Jun 23, 2008

I have to say that OOo is great. Ironically, I feel that I will not use it, but I know that the source code is a perfect basis for forks like Lotus Symhony or Go-OO http://go-oo.org/discover/ And I am sure I will use one of them. Everything stays in the family :-)

photonboy reviewed v3.0.0_m19 on Jun 17, 2008

I use Office 2007 (and love it), but I periodically install Open Office and I have to say it's pretty great. I recommended it to everyone I know after testing it thoroughly.

Simply amazing for a free application and highly compatible with other document formats.

Earwicker reviewed v3.0.0 Beta on Jun 2, 2008

Anyone needing evidence that the best things in life are free...!

Thanks guys, this is fabulous.

De Julien reviewed v3.0.0 Beta on May 30, 2008

bloated slow pile of Java-crap.

otonet reviewed v3.0.0 Beta on May 26, 2008

Wow, always keeps getting better! One feature in Calc I am still missing is the ability to move entire rows/columns. In MS Office this can be done with "cut" followed by "insert cut cells" at the appropriate location.
On my PC, this beta crashes every time I select "Save as...".

tickleonthetum reviewed v3.0.0 Beta on May 12, 2008

A very impressive Beta. OOo finally feels like a MS Office replacement. A couple of crashes (it is Beta after all) but it recovered from them perfectly. The only thing I still long for is Background Saving. It can take a long while to save a large document in the native .odt format.

spikeoscar reviewed v3.0.0 Beta on May 10, 2008

beta 3 is compatible with Microsoft Office 2007 docx, run in 64kb of memory, in win xp.
really is a good work.
trank you Sun Microsystems

osric reviewed v3.0.0 Beta on May 9, 2008

Does anyone a torrent link for the beta version. The official website only lists torrents for the MacOSX version of OOo 3.0 beta

http://distribution.openoffice.org/p2p/

EDIT:
Found a torrent on the pirate bay:
http://torrents.thepirat...tel.4177747.TPB.torrent
Torrents are really great to handle corrupt downloads. I was downloading OOo via the direct download link; but the download got corrupted. Got the torrent and gave the save location as the same folder in which the corrupt file was located. It checked the file and then started downloaded only those parts that were corrupted.

alshawwa reviewed v3.0.0 Beta on May 9, 2008

an excellent replacement for Microsoft office products , but it does not mean it is better , they still need to catchup with MS office.

Darkman00 reviewed v3.0.0 Beta on May 8, 2008

3.0.0 will NOT run on Windows ME (and i guess 98, etc) any longer! :(

"Upgrade your windows", etc (the message says) - when trying to install it on Windows ME.....

hideki reviewed v3.0.0 Beta on May 8, 2008

Started using it to do some work things.
Quite stable so far; crashed once, but recovered just fine.

I think it's getting better and better.

Banquo reviewed v3.0.0 Beta on May 8, 2008

Works great here. As for XP x64 the user base isn't big enough to care about, virtually no one supports it. Not even Microsoft really. Might as well support Windows 3.1 too.

guti reviewed v3.0.0 Beta on May 8, 2008

Too bad. Still no Win x64 native version.
It was expected to add that native build onto 3.0 branch...

mjm01010101 reviewed v3.0.0 Beta on May 8, 2008

Our company is using Office XP next to Open Office, and mulling switching over to Open Office. We will see some situations where MS Office cannot open a document of it's own type, and OO can!

coch reviewed v3.0.0 Beta on May 8, 2008

He might be referring to an Excel 2007 calculation bug: try 850 x 77.1 on a calculator, then try the same in Excel 2007. There might be others I am not aware of as well.

Open office is a great office suite in my opinion, although I am biased towards non microsoft products. I still prefer WordPerfect for day-to-day use though (yes, WP has its flaws, but I am used to it and it seems more powerful to me)

darthbeads reviewed v3.0.0 Beta on May 8, 2008

it doesn't have those nasty Excel calculation bugs that ruin your business and land you in court!

I'm sorry...what?!

zridling: just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they're not after you, am I right?

zridling reviewed v2.4.0 on Apr 8, 2008

Made the switch to OpenOffice two years ago and haven't looked back. The suite is very fine, but its native ODF file format makes a world of difference between document freedom and corporate lock-in via that company in Redmond with its truly awful and proprietary MS-OOXML spec. Oh, and it doesn't have those nasty Excel calculation bugs that ruin your business and land you in court!

bobad reviewed v2.4.0 on Mar 27, 2008

I'm really warming up to OOo. It's still just a bit slow, but it's been glitch free for over a year now. I have been recommending it to friends, and trying to talk public school teachers into using it at home and at work. It's ludicrous that schools should be spending our tax money on MS Office when OOo is free, and works just as reliably. Everyone should do the same, and OOo would soon become the de facto standard office suite for public schools. Personally, I use the portable version. I distribute many copies around to friends and family. Novices enjoy the ease of using the no install portable version.

Fnatte79 reviewed v2.4.0 on Mar 26, 2008

OpenOffice is by far the best free officesuite, I use it at both computers at home, at work and I always recomend to family and friends. Why buy something expensive when you can get i for free!?
Then the looks of it, I agree, it looks old but have you tried to change icons? It can look better!

(Tools -> Options -> OpenOffice.org -> View)
There you can change icon size and style!

minasinahanmetehe reviewed v2.4.0 on Mar 26, 2008

Hey De Julien, Speed depends, take your Office2007 and try to make X-Y chart with some thousand datapoints (this is normal, not extreme, in engineering world). Enjoy your speed...

I have been using heavily and daily both MS and Oo over the past 5+ years. The only remaining app I use voluntarily from MS is Excel and they are trying effectively to degrade its usability too.
There is a lot of areas where Oo is much better than MS. For example styles, linking pictures (this never worked in Powerpoint, does it work in 2007?), templates, color setup in one place for all, use of physical dimensions with objects (very easy to print picture having size x*y or print out labels from cells having same dimesions as the label package says), etc.. tens of areas where Oo is better.
Try to make 500+ pages document with MS, I have tried over the years two times. Lost work and time, MS can not handle large documents, it makes suicide corrupting the document.
Have you tried to recover lost MS documents, try Oo it works 10x better.
I do not worry about the price, license is the troublemaker with Office. If you do something large with Oo, you know that whoever in whatever company can modify your work. Just send the same Oo version installation as you used. That have never worked with MS. Lot of lost MS work over the years, none with Oo.

ToeKneeC reviewed v2.4.0 on Mar 25, 2008

Without a doubt one of the best opensource FREE programs. That said, I still like Office. I use office on my main pc and openoffice on the other pc's in the house. I do have to agree though, the look of it (icons mainly) are from 8 years ago. I need more eye candy (it works for Apple).

DrTeeth reviewed v2.4.0 on Mar 25, 2008

It's free, not that slow and does what it says on the tin. Oh, and it's FREE.

netean reviewed v2.4.0 on Mar 25, 2008

slow, ugly and bloaty.

Why can't Ooo devs make a more modular system that allows for patch updates. 114mb for what amounts to a bug fix and minor update is just shocking... especially as in a month or two there will be another patch/update and another 110+mb to download.

All these updates and it's still ugly as sin too!

djurbino reviewed v2.4.0 on Mar 25, 2008

Offsetting the trolls & morons below.

picsoetje reviewed v2.4.0 on Mar 25, 2008

@ Banquo
@ Jegar48

Spam or spite = violating names = writing M$ instead of MS.

De Julien reviewed v2.4.0 on Mar 25, 2008

It's even slower than the Microsoft Suite, and that's one quite fine milestone !

Well done lads ! *roll*

why hello there reviewed v2.4.0 on Mar 25, 2008

First of all, they are having trouble keeping up to the demand, the link does work but you'll be lucky to get this on the first day of release.

Secondly for all those out there who care, the time is now ripe for Open Source to prove it can not only be just as good as closed source, but it can be better in every way and surpass closed source apps once and for all. Death to patents, death to closed source, death to Mac and Microsoft.

mflip reviewed v2.4.0 on Mar 25, 2008

Where is the download? It's not on the OpenOffice.org website (which lists version 2.3.1) and it's certainly not available on Betanews. Will gladly change rating for this version to 5 when the OpenOffice folks can get this straightened out.

zapatero reviewed v2.4.0 on Mar 25, 2008

The support of OOXML formats is expected in v. 3, due September 2008. This download does not work.

WebWarp reviewed v2.4.0 on Mar 25, 2008

Are there finally office 2007 format support (word exspeccially ??)

mjm01010101 reviewed v2.4.0 on Mar 25, 2008

Hooray! The best Office App gets updated!

I'm seeding:
http://distribution.openoffice.org/p2p/

anomoly reviewed v2.4.0 RC6 on Mar 18, 2008

'The picture in spanish' (frnch who cares) refers to the implementation of many languages which open office supported first in order to get it to smaller groups around the world (especially when the population is small and offi$e is out of reach) which MS conveniently overlooked (until they saw they were losing pocket change as well as face).
Open Source is worldwide. MS Office? Just a good marketing scheme and nothing more.

bouchonx reviewed v2.4.0 RC6 on Mar 17, 2008

Bravo dvferret !

rhy7s reviewed v2.4.0 RC6 on Mar 17, 2008

Prefer the styles interface over Office's implementation, and the interface in general. Would like the built in PDF export to deal with OpenType better but I use PDFCreator anyway so that's not an issue in actual use.

fredlkrue reviewed v2.4.0 RC6 on Mar 17, 2008

dvferret, it's not Spanish, it's French....

Banquo reviewed v2.4.0 RC6 on Mar 17, 2008

Works fine, and people who give it bad rating just for spite should be banned.

dvferret reviewed v2.4.0 RC6 on Mar 17, 2008

Lacks many features, would have gotten a couple points higher but had to counteract the guy before me. (and whats up with the picture in Spanish?)

EDIT: Ah, French, thanks for the clarification!

Jegar48 reviewed v2.4.0 RC6 on Mar 17, 2008

picso you need to grow up. Giving this a 5 although I think it's about a 4 just to counteract your spam

picsoetje reviewed v2.4.0 RC6 on Mar 17, 2008

As long as people are writing about M$ instead of MS - I will give this software a 1.

roj reviewed v2.4.0 RC6 on Mar 17, 2008

SIX Release Candidates? What is this? Azureus? C'mon folks - a RC is the last step before release. If you need 6, you're still in Beta.

FIVE stars.

zridling reviewed v2.4.0 RC4 on Mar 11, 2008

ernstblaauw, I think you mean that Lotus Symphony native file format is based on ODF 1.1, am I right?

wiak reviewed v2.4.0 RC4 on Mar 11, 2008

has a little less futures than m$ office, but it will save you alot in expenses and space

openoffice is small its like 300MB on disk vs m$ office is over 2GB+

it does what it does
its great for students, its 100% FREE and supports alot of operating systems!

ernstblaauw reviewed v2.4.0 RC4 on Mar 11, 2008

Lotus Symphony is based on OOo 1.1, and therefore I think we have to wait for Lotus Symphony 2 to get the best core (OOo 2) with the best interface (Symphony).

(This is based on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/...hony#IBM_Lotus_Symphony. They say the core of Lutus Symphony is based on OOo 1.1.4, not only the file formart)

zridling reviewed v2.4.0 RC3 on Mar 7, 2008

bigmama, have you tried Lotus Symphony? Its OpenOffice with a better UI than Office 2007 imo. Also free, and comes in a GNU/Linux version.

Alpha258 reviewed v2.4.0 RC3 on Mar 7, 2008

What can I say... it does what most people want and need. Its as simple as that.

LRN reviewed v2.4.0 RC3 on Mar 7, 2008

What i DO like about this office suite is...structuring.
In MS Office when you need to do something, you should look for very obvious feature that does exactly that, or something that fits good enough for that.
In OpenOffice it is (sometimes) less obvious. But once you find suitable feature, or get the idea behind some ways of how it works, it starts making sense. And you can assemble almost anything from such features and use them for different things.
Example: page numbers. OO puts page footer/header and you can insert anything you want there (there's special fields for page numbers, date and much more). And all this depends on page style (which may change from page to page regularly for left/right pages or by your wish), so i can make, for example, first page without a page number, and align page numbers to left corner on left pages and to right corner on right pages.
MSO just puts the numbers, providing me with a few options. But this is very narrow feature that isn't good for anything else than page numbers.
OpenOffice Math is also wonderous. I loved it the first moment i saw it.
And feature for scientific equation auto-numbering? It's great. Works very simple, yet it isn't a special feature - it just inserts a table and creates a reference.
And everything else is just like that. Just read the documentation, read the forums, and you'll learn a lot. And, most importantly, learn to love this piece of software.

-1 star for stability issues. Though MS Office may also crash sometimes...but, IMO, OO crashes more often.

bigmama reviewed v2.4.0 RC3 on Mar 7, 2008

Needs a facelift and a better compatibility with MsOffice2007

kegsy reviewed v2.4.0 RC2 on Mar 1, 2008

It's free, it works and is on par with MS office 2003, it has a ways to go to catch up with MS office 2007 IMO. ODF is just a small part of any office app as it is just a file format, the contents of those files and how you create the content it what matters for me anyway.

zridling reviewed v2.4.0 RC1 on Feb 15, 2008

Far better than MS Office because it uses the (honestly) ISO certified ODF format. Easily customizable, portable, and can be used accurately across all supported platforms. Oh, and if you use OpenOffice, Redmond will hate you for life. All the more reason!

brusco reviewed v2.4.0 RC1 on Feb 15, 2008

Does most of what MS Office does. The functionality that people actually want and need.

aruprc reviewed v2.4.0 RC1 on Feb 15, 2008

Excellent, full featured improving daily and has all I need and no bloat. Best of all its free, converts to PDF and you can do almost everything that MS Office does for considerable cost.

Banquo reviewed v2.4.0 RC1 on Feb 14, 2008

Just as good as Microsoft Office, maybe better.

wiak reviewed v2.4.0 RC1 on Feb 14, 2008

great little office suite that has everything you need

Sven123456789 reviewed v2.4.0 RC1 on Feb 14, 2008

Good release. Never had any probs with any of there last few releases. As for the newb moron below. Some people just are idiots. Go ahead and pay your couple hundred bucks for something that is basically free here and same type of product.

nika27 reviewed v2.4.0 RC1 on Feb 14, 2008

I have no prejudice against MS or any of its products, but for the work that I do, OpenOffice gets the job done perfectly, and therefore I see no reason for buying MS Office.

And instead of just bubbling nonsense, and suggesting to pirate MS Office, why don't you say something intelligent.

Alex1974BR reviewed v2.4.0 RC1 on Feb 14, 2008

Sorry, MS haters... But Microsoft Office rules! When you're ready to play serious, dumb this OO crap, and come play as a smart kid! Can't afford MS Office? Oh boy, get a job or even better get a pirated copy. Yes!!!! I don't care about Gates, Allen ou MS itself. But, MS Office is indeed the best. Can´t compare crappy OO with MS Office.
Bye!

4tehlulz reviewed v2.4.0 RC1 on Feb 14, 2008

Disable Java when you first install it, close it, then reopen it. You will notice it opening much faster, and you don't lose any features (I think only the database uses it).

mjm01010101 reviewed v2.4.0 RC1 on Feb 14, 2008

It's a great free product for those of us *with* a MS Office product. The company I work for uses both simultaneously without issues. Sometimes we use OO to open Microsoft .doc files that Microsoft Word can't open itself! This has happened more than once.

I use OO as my sole Office Suite at home and work, nobody knows the difference.

Sven123456789 reviewed v2.3.1 on Feb 7, 2008

Great free product for people who don't have any type of office product. I have Office xp myself and found them very similar. As for start up times, its about the same. Haven't tried the Linux version of Open office, but from what i read, its quicker on there. All in all, theres nothing bad you can say. Maybe a feature or two that i have in Office which thats not in Open that keeps me using it, not to mention i have it already. Still, its a great open source product. Already have it installed on one of my older pc's - one with a 133 mhz proc. and it worked good there.

victor4461 reviewed v2.3.1 on Dec 22, 2007

I am very satisfied with OpenOffice 2.3.1, I found this version to load alot faster then the prior versions. the best feature i love... is that it's free, I also tested a powerpoint & spreadsheet document, and it ran perfectly in Windows Xp

zridling reviewed v2.3.1 on Dec 4, 2007

Alpha258 is right — OpenOffice not only is superfast on Linux, but even looks better than its Windows counterpart. Could be the code; probably is the OS.

Alpha258 reviewed v2.3.1 on Dec 4, 2007

Yes Openoffice is a bit slow but it depends on your OS...

Startup time for openoffice 2.3.1:

Windows 8 secs
Ubuntu Linux 3 secs

I took 1 point away for the slow speed.

bigmama reviewed v2.3.1 on Dec 3, 2007

Great app!

Can handle all files and formats
Very good PDF export

------------------

mjm01010101 reviewed v2.3.1 on Dec 3, 2007

To make Open Office much faster:
Tools / Options / Memory
increase graphics cache to 64MB and memory per object to 8MB.

Optionally, set Undo to something less than 100 (its default). 50 is an improvement. I have mine set to 20. Who goes back more than 20 steps?

Though not recommended (as it disables some wizards and some of the database functions), disabling Java can nearly double OO.org's speed.

b0mmel reviewed v2.3.1 on Dec 3, 2007

I find the time it takes to open the program tolerable. OpenOffice as MASSIVE perfomance problems, though.

I have a Write document which is basically pure formulas. Only a few lines of text here and there. The documents is now six pages long and it takes about 10 seconds for the formula panel to appear when I want to change or add a formula. This is ridiculous. I now have an extra document to do the formulas and then cut and paste them over to the main doc.

Edit: This is not because my machine is slow (1.8 GHz DC, 2 GB RAM). If formula documents go over a few pages, the performance drops like a stone.

gate1975mlm reviewed v2.3.1 on Dec 3, 2007

OpenOffice is great except for one big thing. It opens as slow as a turtle. :(

I have tried lots of other writers and they all open way fastr then OpenOffice and they do not need a fast startup thing running in the tastbar like OpenOffice. But guess for free we should be lucky for what we get.

patmc7 reviewed v2.3.1 on Dec 3, 2007

It can be demanding on an older system but will still work. I have to turn off spellcheck in the work processor or the performance slows to a crawl.

bobad reviewed v2.3.1 on Dec 3, 2007

Great, but. It's starts too slow, even for a hot C2D machine with 2gb of RAM and a 10,000 RPM HDD. It also needs a freestanding PowerPoint style viewer. It's just too cumbersome to view PPT's in the presentation editor. I give it a solid 4.4.

egg83 reviewed v2.3.1 on Dec 3, 2007

Open Office has great usability, is quite compatible with MS Office, and let's not even talk about the price difference! Hands down winner, a must have for one's PC.

djurbino reviewed v2.3.1 RC1 on Nov 19, 2007

Never had any problems with speed or memory.

monzi reviewed v2.3.1 RC1 on Nov 18, 2007

Its free, thats a good thing. But M$ office is still better, this is slow and eats all your memory!

Tao2005 reviewed v2.3.1 RC1 on Nov 17, 2007

The best office suite, and compitition to ms office. And it's free.

Artem S. Tashkinov reviewed v2.3.1 RC1 on Nov 17, 2007

Changelog is here:

http://development.openo.../releases/2.3.1rc1.html

It's free but hell slow and memory hog.

Do not dare running it on a PC with less than 256 of RAM.

anomoly reviewed v2.3.1 RC1 on Nov 16, 2007

Copying program to the portable (2.2.1) version works fine.

smarterthanyou reviewed v2.3.1 RC1 on Nov 16, 2007

This office suite is the fastest office suite ever created and unlike MS Office 2003 and 2007, does not eat up all of your memory.

On my old single core AMD Opteron 1.4GHz computer with 1GB of memory, and 64-bit Vista Home Premium all of the OpenOffice.org applications launch instantly with no waiting whatsoever. This is true even without that quickstart OpenOffice.org feature running.

Rafel reviewed v2.3.1 RC1 on Nov 16, 2007

If MS office is your reference, pay 200-500€ and own M$ Office. This program is free, 0€. Five points.

b0mmel reviewed v2.3.1 RC1 on Nov 16, 2007

Good for the odd letter or household calculation but shows its limits quickly.

I don't understand why there isn't a variable for the current page number usable in conditional text fields. The default bullets are way too fat and you can't change them (I know you can use others through the style box). The interface is clunky. The style box leaves trails when you move it. Diagrams in Calc look anachronistic. Text input in Math is cool but the formulas don't look good. Overall OOo has a very "handmade" feel to it.

If it wasn't free I'd rate it a three (MS Office is my reference of five points).

Edit: Had to rerate it a one to make up for the fanboys who obviously don't use it. Sorry.

cool_guy reviewed v2.3.1 RC1 on Nov 16, 2007

5 stars - 1 for slowness and memory hog...otherwise a good office suite

roj reviewed v2.3.1 RC1 on Nov 16, 2007

This package is best summed up by tmy 15 year old son who has been using MS Office for years:

"This is BETTER than MS Office; it's smaller, faster, doesn't give you a lot of useless dreck that you'll never want and doesn't try and take over your machine."

Add to that built-in PDF export and the best file format conversion I've ever seen (that actually is better than a lot of the commercial offerings) and you have winner.

Perfect for home or small / medium office use. I stopped using the MS stuff two years ago - even at the office - and have never looked back.

FIVE stars for excellence.

hell0 reviewed v2.3.0 on Sep 19, 2007

Biggest problem with OpenOffice is that Writer is based on the Word model. Heck, if ya really want to compete with Microsoft, offer the user something BETTER, not just a clone. Take some tips from WordPerfect (despite getting worse with each successive release, still a vastly superior word processor) and others, maybe even invent something new.

Although OpenOffice has better integration among its modules than Office, there are still many missed opportunities. Why does Writer have its own table editor and drawing tools when you have all that code in Calc and Draw for the same purpose?

By comparison to Office 2003, Writer is as good as Word, Impress is as good as PowerPoint in every area except animations, Base is better than Access, and Calc is nearly as good as Excel.

If you're contemplating an up(???)grade to Office 2007, however, OpenOffice wins hands down. The incredible UNusability of the new "ribbon" model combined with much less configurability, many bugs and poor performance make Office 2007 a clear loser.

yokozuna reviewed v2.3.0 on Sep 18, 2007

I have to say that I love OpenOffice. I work for an international institution and OpenOffice makes exchanging documents as easy as ABC. Believe me that Microsoft office is horrible in reading the documents, for example try to open documents created with Chinese Office 2007 with, let say, German Office 2003. Good luck!
Interoperability is, in my case, the key factor. No other suite makes it better.

netean reviewed v2.3.0 on Sep 18, 2007

I soooo want to like OpenOffice. So much time and effort has gone into developing it that I hate the fact that I can't bear to use it.

Good Points: startup times are much much improved: even without the quickloader running, startup is much better than before.

Bad Points: it looks awful, icons are terrible, poor quality, old fashioned, the layout of each app just looks really tired and dated, reminds me of old Lotus Apps from the early 90s.

Writer, doesn't seem much different from previous version (from what I could tell) it still can't handle documents in more than one language.

Templates, used to be bane of my life in Openoffice, improved in this version, but still strangely confusing and not intuitive.

i'm sure for most people this will do as a suite of office apps, but I just find it unpleasant to use - it "feels" clunky and old and aged.

If I had to choose between M$ office 97 (or even 95) and openoffice 2.3 (ignoring price) I'd choose M$ Office 97 -especially for my need to write docs in more than one language.Ideally though I'd stick with Office 07 :)

QBgreen reviewed v2.3.0 on Sep 17, 2007

For my money, a stellar program! Seriously, for most people, this will serve all of your "Office" needs. A true gem that I use daily.

ZoarValley reviewed v2.3.0 on Sep 17, 2007

Just a Great program! I always load it onto friends computers when I upgrade or do a re-install on their machines. Click Betanews' link to the OpenOffice.org Homepage. To ease download congestion, now is the time to use your favorite Torrent client for a super quick download. Don't forget to seed, especially after the peer to seed ratio increases!

improvelence reviewed v2.3.0 on Sep 17, 2007

I wish I could say wonderful things about this, but its hard when it screws up documents on the occasion and the dictionary does not always work right. AbiWord is much better than OOO writer. But its still a nice free alternative to M$ office. But, as much as I hate to say this....its no M$ Office.

minasinahanmetehe reviewed v2.3.0 on Sep 17, 2007

I see many comments of how the OO looks like, toolbars etc.. Hey! do some real work. Take 500 pages documents with few hundred pictures and try to do that with Office... I tried and I have been using OO long time with and without troubles, but I have never lost any work done. Writer beats Word easily. Same with presentations, style handling is simply horrible with Office compared to OO. Excel is the only good thing in the Office.
Another thing ... take few thousand (small N in engineering work) samples and try to make XY (scatter) graph with Office2007. Crash ... right. Try to buy 20003 ... you can not buy. What to do? Enjoy monopoly with nice colored icons. Have fun with the Office. Use OO for the work.

Alpha258 reviewed v2.3.0 on Sep 17, 2007

All I can say is BOOM! major performance increase since version 2.2.1 .

Openoffice is going strongly and I hope it will continue to. I have switched to Openoffice ever since it came out. Why bother paying for M$ office when your money could be better spent on something else.

alanpalmer reviewed v2.3.0 on Sep 17, 2007

There are a few areas which are relatively clumsily put together, but otherwise an excellent software suite. Comparing it with MS Office 2007 is ridiculous. A company like MS can afford to spend money and resources on clever bells and whistles but not developers of open source software. It does its job well, and, most importantly, costs nothing.

EarlyMorningHours reviewed v2.3.0 on Sep 17, 2007

I have to think that the one star ratings here are either Microsoft employees or those that refuse to believe they've wasted several hundred dollars (per copy) for MS Office.

Sure there is room for improvement, but then I can't think of one piece of software where that isn't the case. The interface is generally fine, of not exciting, but it's also an interface that I've found people with MS Office 2000-XP-2003 experience much better adapt to than the move to MS Office 2007.

Any complaints about speed must be made in jest. Just look at the system requirements for Office 2007. At this point the only things keeping MS Office dominant are some people's religious faith in that product and the admittedly difficult migration from one office suite to another. Converting forms, templates, etc so that they work as expected is no easy (or cheap) task.

GoodThings2Life reviewed v2.3.0 on Sep 17, 2007

This reminds me of using an Apple IIe in school with AppleWorks. It seems perfect for teaching elementary school students how to use a computer and how to type. It's good for rudimentary data entry needs.

Beyond that, it's pretty useless and the interface, while getting better, is still stuck in 1997. I suppose that's why some people like it though... it's "simplistic" for people who don't really know much about computers.

bigmama reviewed v2.3.0 on Sep 17, 2007

New plugin system is a very good feature.
I'd like to see a face-lift.
MsOffice07 GUI is very good.

Off course oo has everything you got. 5/5 complete suite

fss69 reviewed v2.3.0 on Sep 17, 2007

It still runs a bit slower than I think it should and the interface needs to be touched up in a few places. However, other than that, they've made tremendous progress. A worthy competitor to MS Office.

ranasrule reviewed v2.3.0 on Sep 17, 2007

reminds me of Office 97....its still at least 7-8 years behind MS OFFICE....not to mention its slow as molasses

zridling reviewed v2.3.0 on Sep 17, 2007

It's got two things MS Office does not: (1) ODF! (not that converter crap it pretends), and (2) IBM just joined in development, so with Sun, Google, and IBM on its side, Microsoft is left alone in a corner with an empty bong.

mjm01010101 reviewed v2.3.0 on Sep 17, 2007

Easily beats Office from version 2003-2007.

Nobody asked for a new interface, Microsoft. Especially to pay hundreds to get it...

yokozuna reviewed v2.3.0 RC3 on Sep 15, 2007

One can already download the final version of the suite from here: http://ftp.fernuni-hagen...Intel_install_en-US.exe

computershack reviewed v2.3.0 RC3 on Sep 11, 2007

To "kbsoftware", try increasing the width of the column so it can show all the data.

photonboy reviewed v2.3.0 RC2 on Sep 9, 2007

It's very difficult to compare this with MS Office. For many people it does everything you would want. Others may find it inadequate, especially if your work requires Microsoft software. You should experiment with the format you use to determine maximum compatibility. For example, Microsoft might not IMPORT an OpenOffice document well, but SAVING to a Microsoft Word, for example, beforehand might be best. I typed up a Word document adding BOLD, color, tables and more. Generally, converting between formats was quite good. (Don't expect Microsoft to optimize itself for IMPORTING Openoffice formats.)

The bottom line is, that it is FREE, very good, and if it works for you then why bother paying a LOT of money for another program?

For many people, this is a solid 5 STARS!

hRLE reviewed v2.3.0 RC2 on Sep 8, 2007

This kind of software always make me happy. If you want a free Office software this is bingo! It has less feature than Microsoft Office (but then again Microsoft Office Word has less feature then Adobe PaigeMaker...). OpenOffice.org is good, it is free, it is powerfull, but it can be also slow. The most pleasing thing to hear is that OpenOffice.org is steadly development.

kbsoftware reviewed v2.3.0 RC2 on Sep 8, 2007

I tried using math to create some nice tables to help keep track of the km's and step I walk.
I set one set of columns to the date format and it started out ok. I would enter the date and it would show up as Saturday September 7, 2007 no problems but then I noticed on some dates instead of the date showing I would get ####. There's nothing wrong with the column (I selected them all and set the format to date), even when I enter a different date in that some cell no problems but I re-enter September 5, 2007 and boom back to ####
Trying to figure out how to send a bug report is as fun as a root canal so I just eventually gave up.
Any suggestions on a different program I could use, since that's all I want and really have no use for the large OpenOffice.

patmc7 reviewed v2.3.0 RC1 on Sep 5, 2007

Star Office started as the freeware program. When Star Office became commercial, Open Office was created, but with a few less features. So Open Office is the rebuild. I used Star Office before Open Office came about. One thing that's missing from the old version is a browser which came in handy for creating a separate workspace for SO work, but it was also a little clunky.

Open Office beats all other freeware Office Suites. It may not have quite all the features of paid programs like Microsoft Office, but that's like comparing a TV show to a movie.

netean reviewed v2.3.0 RC1 on Sep 5, 2007

Always big praise for open source. but OoO isn't that great: it's a massive download for a start. Takes forever to load. Looks dreadful - the UI really needs sorting out.

Long document support is dreadful
It (still) can't cope with documents written in more than one language - therefore, still can't spell check in 2 or more languages, in the same document (which I do a lot)

If you want a free office suite, it's ok... but be prepared to live with it's problems.

Working with office docs is... well it's ok... in an office environment it causes problems converting between ms office and ooo... (Ms office format files saved in ooo are often problematic to reopen in Ms office)

Personally, I'd rather not download this, but use Google Docs or Ajax-write/Calc/Present anyday. For most of the needs people have for spreadsheets, presentation or word processing, Google Docs or AJax-Write does the job.

and as for the ODF (open document format) against Microsoft "open" format... no one but geeks and nerds really cares.

Tao2005 reviewed v2.3.0 RC1 on Sep 5, 2007

Great Program. I use the previous version. I was deciding to install an old version of MS Office. Decided to download this packet. I would rather recommend this, instead of MS Office. Free is a very good price. :)

darkripper reviewed v2.3.0 RC1 on Sep 5, 2007

very good
although a face lift is needed

MsOffice 07 has a great and very fast to use gui

zridling reviewed v2.3.0 RC1 on Sep 5, 2007

With the second rejection of MS-OOXML, ODF gets a boost and will begin to expand beyond the current crop of 17 apps and suites. As for OpenOffice itself, I was a MS Office fanboy and certified expert, but I haven't looked back.

Zarggg reviewed v2.3.0 RC1 on Sep 5, 2007

I've been using OO.o since before v2, and have had no complaints. Here's hoping that 2.3.0 is just as good!

@Ian C.

Star Office is not a "premium version" of OpenOffice.org. It is a rebranding of the same program compiled by Sun and includes a technical support pacakge.

war593122 reviewed v2.3.0 RC1 on Sep 4, 2007

Here are the release notes by the way:

http://development.openo.../releases/2.3.0rc1.html

Ian C. reviewed v2.3.0 RC1 on Sep 4, 2007

Great product, but now that you can get the premium version, Star Office, for free in Google Pack, why would you choose this?

... Well, I guess if you're not running windows.

Ameba#1 reviewed v2.3.0 RC1 on Sep 4, 2007

Very slow. Must use MFC widgets for its GUI and Shortcut keys should be the same as MS Office.

ModderXManiac reviewed v2.3.0 RC1 on Sep 4, 2007

Dude-Boyz summarized it pretty well what this needs: more seamless font integration, better resource management in ALL areas, and some gui work.

I already have MSOffice 2k and Star Office, both of which are quite superior in many ways. Star Office ftw.

brusco reviewed v2.2.1 on Aug 30, 2007

Does everything I need it to, and a whole lot more that i dont need (yet).

Free, Cross platform, and MSOffice document format compatible.

Win-Win!

IMKey reviewed v2.2.1 on Jul 18, 2007

like I said before,

If you are a student and writing papers with equations, OpenOffice is THE way (type "fn" and press F3 for eqn centered and numbered by reference) to go unless you are comfortable with latex. Having an integrated pdf export is also useful. It is much faster than the acrobat + word combo for larger documents.

DudeBoyz reviewed v2.2.1 on Jun 14, 2007

They really need to make this code more efficient. It uses up too much memory and seems to have memory leaks and not use the memory it does take up very efficiently.

They need to improve font consistency through all apps and make it consistent throughout all platforms, from Windows to Mac to Linux.

alanpalmer reviewed v2.2.1 on Jun 12, 2007

The changelog is at http://development.openo...org/releases/2.2.1.html

It looks fairly short and appears to be all bugfixes. There are no new features.

DatabaseBen reviewed v2.2.1 on Jun 12, 2007

I think that the untertaking and distributin of Open Office has many (many) benefits.

Howver, the benefit also extends to malicious code writers.

Keeping in mind, that MSOffice continously undergoes security inspections and as we know there are multitudes of updates to patch up the flaws and vulnerabilities.

I think it is a reasonable precaution for anyone who uses Open Office to also consider that malware writers will use the path of least resistance.

bigmama reviewed v2.2.1 on Jun 12, 2007

good, good

but where is the changelog?????????????????

QBgreen reviewed v2.2.1 on Jun 11, 2007

Rated "5" with no doubt. For the average Joe and Jane out there, a perfectly fine suite of office applications that will serve the majority very well.

mjm01010101 reviewed v2.2.1 on Jun 11, 2007

Woot.

We are using this more and more in comparison to MS office...

h377r1d3r reviewed v2.2.1 RC3 on Jun 6, 2007

@bigmama: you can prefetch oo, there's an option during install to load part of oo to memory during windows startup, so that it starts quicker.

when u use m$office it does it, and u don't even know about it.

tickleonthetum reviewed v2.2.1 RC3 on Jun 5, 2007

Here are the Release Notes/Change Log:

http://development.openo.../releases/2.2.1rc3.html

I just wish they'd implement background saving, that's a show stopper on long documents for me!

bigmama reviewed v2.2.1 RC3 on Jun 5, 2007

M$ office 07

pros
----
fresh GUI
math equations
many prototypes to use

cons
----
price
___________________________________________

openoffice 2

pros
----
free
good pdf export
many localizations (dictionaries etc...)

cons
----
slow startups

_________________________________________________

changelog plz... without a changelog it's silly to release a beta version. i don't know if betanews forgot it ;but if sun doesn't give us changelog how can we test new features and report bugs?

molumen reviewed v2.2.1 RC3 on Jun 5, 2007

OOo is a very helpful tool. It is free, it is stable, it is powerful. In some ways maybe not as powerful as MS Office, but it has all the features and functionality that a small to medium business needs.
We use OOo On all the 12 computers (on Windows XP) in our design studio, mainly for text generation/edition before inserting it into a layouting program (Quark, Indesign). Also we use OOo to create reports, business plans, invoices (exported as PDFs and sent to clients), presentations and many more things. And for OOo on all the 12 machines, we paid NOTHING. OOo has all we need (evem more than that). I recommend it to a lot of our clients and they are very happy when they realise that they can cut software costs by not buying a proprietary office software suite.

OOo is just great...

zridling reviewed v2.2.1 RC3 on Jun 5, 2007

ODF is document freedom — for myself, my company, and my data's future. And now that virtually every online word processor supports ODF (none support Office 2007's steaming pile of MS-OOXML), document portability is easier than ever.

h377r1d3r reviewed v2.2.1 RC2 on Jun 4, 2007

I switched to OO long time ago, never looked back at M$Office again.

// inser here all the stuff like "wow the features are like WoW and WoW"//

One "feature" oo has, M$Office lacks and will lack forever :) is math. 'Typing', more like drawing equation in M$Office takes bloody forever. Story is different for Open Office Writer, just click insert equation, nice dialog will pop up at the bottom of the screen and write your equation, like:

lalign e=mc^2 endl
lalign {2+2} over {b cdot c} = X endl

If you are studying technical degree and have to write reports, i don't know easier way to write it than using OO.

btw photonboy, on may 24th DELL has shipped Laptops equiped with Ubuntu :) and i u said exactly what i'm thinking.

photonboy reviewed v2.2.1 RC2 on May 24, 2007

*There's tonnes of reviews, but the bottom line is that this program works awesome and it's FREE.

Even when I was in school writing essays and technical reports I only needed the most basic of features that have been around for fifteen years.

I doubt very many people actually need Microsoft's full features. In fact, many businesses are starting to realize this. Many businesses have chucked Microsoft altogether in favor of Linux.

Programs like OpenOffice, Thunderbird, Firefox and Sunfire (to name a few) are beginning to set the stage for a switch to Linux. A lot of people bought Vista but there are many people who realize that Vista isn't adding much for them.

Personally, I'm using XP and intend to use it for several more years but I'm NOT going Vista despite the promises of DX10 Nirvana. If Linux can get its GAME on then Microsoft's in trouble.

Microsoft has a habit of sitting on features and repairs to justify the next Operating System upgrade you buy. While I do get it, Microsoft can really take this to the extreme. This is going to be a major factor in switching to Linux which is a Community of people with the OPPOSITE opinion. Make it free and fix it NOW! Of course, OpenOffice will continue to be improved (we need an AutoUpdate feature for one).

Linux is fast approaching Critical Mass. A lot of people are just itching to switch but a few things need to be done. Ubuntu might not be the #1 Linux distro in my mind, but it's got the right backing and strategy. I expect it to take off. Again, the gaming issue is the problem. Hell, people happy with XP are being "forced" to upgrade to Vista just to play DX10 games. Double Hell, you need Vista to play Halo 2 for the PC despite it being released with a DX9 version as well as DX10! (thieving bastiges..)

In a few years we're going to see super-cheap PC's for the masses. Let's see, a $200 PC with a feature-rich Linux distro or a $200 with $700 of Microsoft software? It's going to get interesting..

I digress.
OpenOffice rocks. Who cares about online reviews? Try it yourself.

bigmama reviewed v2.2.1 RC2 on May 22, 2007

M$ office 07

pros
----
fresh GUI
math equations
many prototypes to use

cons
----
price
___________________________________________

openoffice 2

pros
----
free
good pdf export
many localizations (dictionaries etc...)

cons
----
slow startups

_________________________________________________

changelog plz
plz betanews include changelog...

stefeq reviewed v2.2.1 RC1 on May 14, 2007

Actually there is a great grammar checker for OpenOffice and I would recommend it to anyone

Dwiebelhaus reviewed v2.2 Build OOF680_m15 on Apr 19, 2007

I've been using this for about 5 years and installing it on customers computers when they don't have ms office for about 2 and a half years , it is my honest opinion that it's better than ms office , recommended 100%.

zridling reviewed v2.2 Build OOF680_m15 on Apr 18, 2007

Dude, try actually using the program before reviewing it.

— Thesaurus? Yep, it's been there, and is still there.
— Templates? There are thousands of ODF-based templates all over the web.
— Incompatible templates? Not a single .dot one.
— I frequently see [dictionary] words that are correct underlined. Sorta like "incompatable," "nsurmountable," and "compatable"?
— Envelope > Sender box at bottom? Same place as Word last time I checked.
— Grammar checker? Come now, how passe, indeed.
— Good for the "price"? Yea, can't beat free.
— Not better than MS Word? The file format is ISO certified; none are for any version of Microsoft Office.

Any more "quirks" you want to share?

alleshateinende reviewed v2.2.0 on Apr 5, 2007

Lousy default templates (needs more native templates in general). Of course you can use MS Office's templates but you just hope that it's in the 95% compatable camp and not 5% incompatable one. Dictionary is fair but I frequently see words that are correct underlined. No thesaurus but be added later. No grammar checker.

Overall, I think AbiWord is a better word processor. It's a bit more polished. OpenOffice Writer has many quirks. While not nsurmountable, I find it really annoying. For instance, when making an envelope, the sender text box is on the bottom! Bad design choice I must say.

OpenOffice on the whole is good for the price but it is not better than MS Office.

zridling reviewed v2.2.0 on Mar 28, 2007

Wow, very nice, solid version. Best part is the OpenDocument Format (ODF). OpenOffice is one of the half dozen software projects I make regular donations to. Runs on both Vista x64 and my several Linux distros with equal ease.

cyberguy reviewed v2.2.0 on Mar 28, 2007

Excellent software - particularly for the price. In the multi-platform world, kicks MS Office's booty.

@minc3d

It is apparent you have a problem with OpenOffice's preloader. The main reason others can't match MS Office's load times under Windows is because much of MS Office's time-critical portions are preloaded with Windows itself. Developers of non-Microsoft apps like OpenOffice simply do not have the "inside track" advantage of MS Office use of proprietary Windows APIs and components. Particularly if they want to maintain multi-platform support. Try running MS Office on Linux (under Wine) and you will see the situation reversing when MS Office does not have this unfair competitive advantage in a non-Microsoft operating system.

With the mix of MS Office document compatability, multiplatform support and price (uh, free), you can't beat OpenOffice with a stick.

minc3d reviewed v2.2.0 on Mar 28, 2007

Some people say Office 2007 and OO2.2 cannot be compared because of pricing variations (the obvious) but I am going to compare the two because as a student myself, I can purchase Office 2007 Pro for under $100, which is a fair price range for me. I am going to say right off the bat that Office 2007 is very clean and I enjoy using it. OO has long been a WONDERFUL alternative that I recommend to those who cannot afford Office, but there are still some areas that cannot be excused. For one, I think it's pathetic that a program needs to use a Windows startup loader in order to attempt to match loading times for Office 2007 apps. That's Adobe Reader-level bad coding. Also, why can't OO have a working OpenXML converter for its suite, like Office 2007 has for OpenDocument? In many regards, I give kudos to the OO team, but I hope OO3.0 will drop its Java dependencies and use a faster, more efficient coding base.

For a price tag of $0, you can't beat this app.

DudeBoyz reviewed v2.2.0 on Mar 28, 2007

I really, really, really like Open Office and am glad to see this update. I would like to see a changelog listed by the BetaNews team though.

This suite probably gives most people everything they actually need in a suite, without a lot of the bloat, cost and limitations of MS Office.

No new ribbon interface to learn and no continually changing file formats to worry about. No "product revisioning" that puts the screws to you when you invest heavily in an app. For example, Front Page ain't around like it was. What if you invested all that time putting in those custom extensions that required Microsoft Frontpage Server Extensions? Binder and Briefcase features never really get much support and are just being left to die on the vine. You spend weeks and weeks programming Access macros and code and in the next version of Office, you have to re-code because they changed stuff. Visual Basic for Applications? Move to DOT NET. At least if Microsoft included a compiler as a standard part of the Office suite, you could protect your investment without having to pay through the nose for a developers copy.

All this to say that Microsoft can, and does, push Office in whatever direction it wants and users have to spend time retraining and reworking just to keep pace. If you don't want to upgrade, they'll force you to upgrade by dropping security updates and platform support for what you have. There should be no reason why Office should not run on Windows 2000 Pro, should there? Arbitrary limitations like that are just plain annoying.

With Open Office, you don't have to sweat all of that. You don't have to put up with all that MS bull pucky. You can just focus on USING the software and not constantly adapting to it.

Perhaps the open doc formats that Microsoft is supposedly going to support may help ease the pain just a little bit, but I'd rather invest in a positive project like Open Office than be mandated to by a greed-induced dictatorship like Microsoft.

Please keep up the good work on this excellent multi-platform alternative.

DigiBrian reviewed v2.2.0 on Mar 28, 2007

Why are people comparing OO with Office 2007? last time I checked Open Office was FREE and Office 2007 cost around $500.

This is hands down the BEST free office suite you can get.

some guy reviewed v2.2.0 RC4 on Mar 21, 2007

Great low footprint.
Does a great job and it's free:)
Great Job!

minasinahanmetehe reviewed v2.2.0 RC4 on Mar 21, 2007

Much faster document loading. Getting all the time better. Thank you. I have writer document with 350+ pages and 500 or so pictures.
Based on 3 years of use, OOwriter is really good to make manuals, posters etc. I ´have tried with Word too and it can not manage large documents with styles etc.
My choice of OO over Office is performance not the price. I use both. Excel from Office and Writer,Drawing from OO.
Keep in mind: OO is very good to open corrupted Office documents.

Btw Excel 2007 is unusable for scientific work. Charting with large amount of data will cause crash (use google to see more of this bug). You can not open old Excel documents with large charts. Even 1000 data points slow down Excel a lot. We had to uninstall Office 2007. It is unusable before the fix.
This reflects Microsoft corporate culture. They released the product by knowing that it can not manage charts. If not, their test routines are in bad shape. Release date was coming and finance guys decided "go ahead and fix it later", like large part of the industry nowadays.
I think Corporates will only start to behave better only after few large class actions in a court room.

bigmama reviewed v2.2.0 RC4 on Mar 21, 2007

open office was the best until m$office 2007 arrival.

Microsoft did a very good job, with 2007 version -especially in gui.

OO.org must improve gui and compatibility with MsO-2007

However still has better pdf support than microsoft-office, and handles more formats.

sergioccg reviewed v2.2.0 RC3 on Mar 7, 2007

OpenOffice rocks... but I must admit that Office 2007's ribbon is great even when it takes so much space... but if you have a big screen and resolution it doesn't manner... and most of us have more toolbars in our browsers....

PD. I can't to see OpenOffice 3.0

Ian C. reviewed v2.2.0 RC2 on Feb 26, 2007

Great program, however I've started doing more work in Google Docs and less with this. I only really use this when I need to write a paper with complicated formatting.

Onsoku reviewed v2.2.0 RC2 on Feb 26, 2007

Good stuff! Now, how can I update my usb version "OpenOffice.org Portable 2.0.3?"

zridling reviewed v2.2.0 RC2 on Feb 26, 2007

gate1975mlm, there will be some UI updates when 3.0 comes out later this year (check the roadmap), which will be better than Office 2007's ribbon. The ribbon really takes up too much space and OpenOffice is considering a sidebar option for toolbars for all those with new widescreen monitors. (I hate the ribbon!)

Vimes reviewed v2.2.0 RC2 on Feb 26, 2007

A lot depends upon your needs but for me this application is superb at fulfilling mine.

JaDaDowntown reviewed v2.2.0 RC2 on Feb 26, 2007

How care's about the GUI!
What I like is that openoffice getting now better to handle Math and Presentations!

gate1975mlm reviewed v2.2.0 Build OOF680_m8 RC1 on Feb 20, 2007

I really like OpenOffice but I wish it looked more like the new Office 2007 toolbar thing.

zapatero reviewed v2.2.0 Build OOF680_m8 RC1 on Feb 19, 2007

Portable OpenOffice:

http://portableapps.com/...ice/openoffice_portable

Onsoku reviewed v2.2.0 Build OOF680_m8 RC1 on Feb 19, 2007

Great prog. I install this on my customer builds, but recently someone asked for a usb drive version? Is there such a thing out there?

mikefromuk reviewed v2.2.0 Build OOF680_m6 Beta on Feb 8, 2007

Only gets better each release, top marks for a great program at a great price!

yokozuna reviewed v2.2.0 Build OOF680_m6 Beta on Feb 8, 2007

tafugate, I am glad I can help! Thank you for nice words!

BTW, I've found an interesting experimental plugin known as LanguageTool http://www.danielnaber.de/languagetool/ It still needs quite a lot of work, but it works pretty well anyway. The plugin is planned to be a part of OpenOffice.org.

Tene reviewed v2.2.0 Build OOF680_m6 Beta on Feb 8, 2007

>OpenOffice.org rulz! It's free and easy to use. >Still, some little interface tweaks would be great >'cause it looks old (win98 looks better)

What are you talking about? It lets XP or Vista theme it perfectly. It fits right in, and follows Microsoft's interface guidelines perfectly.

It would get a five from me if it wasn't for being so darned slow.

Sven123456789 reviewed v2.2.0 Build OOF680_m6 Beta on Feb 7, 2007

Great alt. top office xp and other bsn suite. And its free. Hope they keep up the great work.

zridling reviewed v2.2.0 Build OOF680_m6 Beta on Feb 7, 2007

Those "interface tweaks" are coming this year. Here's the OpenOffice Features Roadmap.

lucianct reviewed v2.2.0 Build OOF680_m5 Beta on Feb 6, 2007

OpenOffice.org rulz! It's free and easy to use. Still, some little interface tweaks would be great 'cause it looks old (win98 looks better)

tafugate reviewed v2.2.0 Build OOF680_m5 Beta on Feb 6, 2007

thank you, yokozuna. i downloaded m6 instead. you saved me a download.

DudeBoyz reviewed v2.2.0 Build OOF680_m5 Beta on Feb 6, 2007

Changelog?

Still the best alternative to Microsoft Office, and the best part is they haven't jacked up the interface so you have to relearn stuff.

smarterthanyou reviewed v2.2.0 Build OOF680_m5 Beta on Feb 6, 2007

Best office suite available. As for those complaining about the apparent lack of Win64 builds, is a 64-bit version of simple business productivity applications (like a word processor or simple spreadsheet program) really going to improve performance that much?

The only kinds of 64-bit applications that will show a significant performance improvement are high-end scientific applications, audio/video recording and editing software, and games.

guti reviewed v2.2.0 Build OOF680_m5 Beta on Feb 6, 2007

Still no Win64 builds.

yokozuna reviewed v2.2.0 Build OOF680_m5 Beta on Feb 5, 2007

Actually, m6s are already available, including the 64-bit versions of the suite: http://ftp.linux.cz/pub/...penOffice.org/devel/680/

robmanic44 reviewed v2.2.0 Beta on Jan 25, 2007

When is KDE 4.0 being released? Will it be ported to Windows? K-Office is a much better product than OO.

artisanicview reviewed v2.2.0 Beta on Jan 24, 2007

SteveJohnSteele, you can actually change the icon theme in the windows version of OOo. Just check Tools/Options/OpenOffice.org/View and can change the icon set from "User Interface" pannel. More exactly from "Icon size and style".

SteveJohnSteele reviewed v2.2.0 Beta on Jan 22, 2007

While Open Office is a good program

However I must draw attention to some areas it's lacking (IMHO)

1. The icons are poor quality, not as clear, don't stand out enough (* Windows version)
2. Open Office is the first program I've found that doesn't work with Dragon Naturally Speaking

fix these two and I would happily give it a 5 rating

* I see that versions on Linux allows for different icons - which I feel are much clearer

yokozuna reviewed v2.2.0 Beta on Jan 22, 2007

Anyone who is wondering what will be new in v.2.2 should follow this link: http://wiki.services.ope...re_Freeze_Testing_2_2_0

The autokerning of documents by default sound good.

zridling reviewed v2.2.0 Beta on Jan 22, 2007

For all the word processors out there not using OASIS OpenDocument Format (ODF), they should be, as even Microsoft's OXML can't match it. OpenOffice also wins because it doesn't share that stupid ribbon, among many other reasons.

tobypowell reviewed v2.1.0 on Dec 12, 2006

For reference, I believe this is the second release candidate NOT the actual final release.

Be careful, it's not officially safe for use in a production environment yet, there may yet be another release candidate

http://development.openo.../releases/2.1.0rc2.html

says "This release will install as OpenOffice.org2.1"

Bandyt reviewed v2.1.0 on Dec 11, 2006

Why in the world read another site concerning a review made here? I couldn't agree more with zridling's comment (Thanks go to the Office 2007 team for helping me make up my mind with that 1st grader UI.)

As a professional writer OpenOffice gives me what I want, not Microsoft's one flavor fits all dumbed down to the lowest common denominator.

Metshrine reviewed v2.1.0 on Dec 11, 2006

Dont see what dc.com has to do with openoffice, but oh well.
4/5 for a superb office suite that does what most users will require. While it has its quirks, I cant rate it less than 4/5 for them. I feel that this will be 5/5 worthy when 3.0 comes out.

When it comes to file conversions, Dont rush to convert your files to ODF if there is no need for it, and use whatever fits the need they require at the time. Converting all files to one format just to spite a corporation is just silly if the current format works just fine and can be read by the application you are using.

Good job OoO team.

To Toby, it is final because I got the newsletter from the OOo mailing list ;-)

DipThong reviewed v2.1.0 on Dec 11, 2006

Yes, you do that, and then when you realize that the next business you work with requires office, you will convert them back.

Openoffice is a nice program for those who dont require the advanced functions in MS office. However, for those of us that do, openoffice is lacking in that department. However, for basic functionality, 5/5.

zridling reviewed v2.1.0 on Dec 11, 2006

OpenOffice is now essentially Office 2003, only without the bloat-factor. The ISO-certified ODF format tips the scale in favor or OpenOffice over MS Office 2007's OXML for good now. I'll spend 2007 converting 20 years of files to ODF and never look back. (Thanks go to the Office 2007 team for helping me make up my mind with that 1st grader UI.)

alanpalmer reviewed v2.1.0 on Dec 11, 2006

An excellent program now. I now use it although I have MS Office installed. I don't need the few features that Office has that are not covered by OOo.

tobypowell reviewed v2.1.0 RC2 on Dec 4, 2006

The changelog for RC2 is here:
http://development.openo.../releases/2.1.0rc2.html

DudeBoyz reviewed v2.1.0 RC1 on Nov 28, 2006

Changelog would be nice.

zridling reviewed v2.1.0 RC1 on Nov 27, 2006

If you're a student or writer, then nested folders is coming soon, and with its database, it already does citations more accurately than MSO 2007. Besides, if for no other reason, OpenOffice (or StarOffice), gives control back to you with the OASIS OpenDocument format, no commercial licenses, and availability on any platform you may switch to in the future. And don't miss Solveig Haugland's OpenOffice Tips blog.

yokozuna reviewed v2.0.4 on Nov 19, 2006

As I already said I love OOo. Pity that OxygenOffice Pro (a fork of OOo previously known as OpenOffice Premium, available for free from http://sourceforge.net/projects/ooop - contains more templates, fonts, ect.) is not available in my mother tongue. I do hope it will be soon. Anyway, I think I will not buy any Ms Office anymore. OOo does what I demand from an office suite.

zapatero reviewed v2.0.4 on Oct 12, 2006

2.0.4 is buggy. Perhaps this is why it is not available for downloading at the official OOo Website as of 12 Oct. 2006.

bobad reviewed v2.0.4 on Oct 12, 2006

My main wish is that the drawing applet was compatible with MS Publisher. I also wish that OOo bundled a Power Point viewer. I also wish it remembered your install folder. I wish the developers would port it to C, and get rid of the lag and bloat by 50%. Everything else is great. Even with all the gripes it still rates a 4.6/10

zridling reviewed v2.0.4 on Oct 10, 2006

OMG, a final version? Woohoo! As usual, faster than I expect, and a file format that can never die. If you're not hooked on Microsoft Office, OpenOffice will cover just about every base you'll need. Here's some "incredible" trivia about the document handling capacity of this version of OpenOffice. I created a document that has:

— 65,535 pages;
— Took 3:18 to save;
— 1:30 to open; and was
— 3.59M in size

Microsoft Word 2007 will only create a document just over 32,000 pages long. Remember that the next time you have to write a long letter!

iamanon reviewed v2.0.4 on Oct 10, 2006

robmanic44 -- Koffice for Windows -- oh no please. I wish that the KDE develpers would just ditch Koffice and spend their time on other better stuff for KDE. Openoffice is the best choice in office suites for Windows and Linux.

photonboy reviewed v2.0.4 RC3 on Oct 2, 2006

It's hard to compare this program to Word due to pricing.

This program has everything most people need and is very compatible. I wish I'd had a program this good in College.

I say get this program before even considering a program, and if it does the job then great. If not, try Wordperfect, Word or a few others in demo form.

I created a form using bullets, tables, fonts, colors, underlining etc. and it almost perfectly was exported so Word could read it. (and vice versa)

Just awesome. (Office 2007 TR1 is incredible but how much do you want to pay for it? And would you even use the features?)

benZin reviewed v2.0.4 RC3 on Sep 29, 2006

A really must have alternative software.

tickleonthetum reviewed v2.0.4 RC3 on Sep 29, 2006

For the vast majority of people this is all they will ever need. The features it lacks when compared to, for example, MS Word are ones that only a few select users will need. I am sure that eventually it will be 100% comparable to MS Office. If you are a home user who just needs to type the odd letter or the kids need to do their homework, then this is excellent. If you're a business that types letters, reports and spreadsheets then this is more than adequate. Give it a try and think of the money you'll save!

Earwicker reviewed v2.0.4 RC3 on Sep 29, 2006

This fabulous software is going from strength to strength. A top recommendation.

robmanic44 reviewed v2.0.4 RC3 on Sep 29, 2006

I'm hoping that KOffice will eventually be available for Windows. It's a far better office suite than Open Office. I think it would be snapped up by a lot of people who are familiar with it.

IMKey reviewed v2.0.4 RC3 on Sep 28, 2006

awesome stuff...
the equation editor is top notch...
writing 60+ equations for my paper is definitely a lot easier in OpenOffice then the basic eq editor that comes with word. Latex would be optimal but... this is an awesome intermediate solution. Word's equation editor leaves a lot to be desired...

also look for the portable version of this at portableapps dot com. great for use on a usb key :D

keen2learn reviewed v2.0.4 RC2 on Sep 19, 2006

Still need lots of room to paly catch-up.
The most important for me is the spreadsheet could be customize to become a streaming stock charting windows that excel allow me to do but not OpenOffice.

photonboy reviewed v2.0.4 RC2 on Sep 16, 2006

A great program and a step in the direction of completely free software. I've reviewed it on XP and it's very compatible with MS Word and Corel Wordperfect documents (I did a test with tables, colors, fonts, bullets and more)

Just remember, EXPORTING is not the same as IMPORTING, so if importing into Word doesn't work, try saving the file from this program into Word format and vice versa.

It will be a long time until we see a wide-spread free Operating System replace Windows or OS X, but for users buying a new PC in 2007 I recommend the basic Vista and choose from a slew of free apps such as this one to fill any other need you have. (make sure to get a Cool 'n Quiet compatible motherboard and CPU)

I haven't tested this with Vista RC1 but I have every reason to believe that 95-100% of it will be fully functional.

rhoadesb reviewed v2.0.4 RC2 on Sep 16, 2006

regarding version 2.03:
It is a little slow on loading, but other than that, it is a fine suite of programs. I recommend it.

Corbit reviewed v2.0.4 RC2 on Sep 15, 2006

Just a great office suite. 90% of the functionality of MS Office. 0% of the cost. Not bad.

hondaman reviewed v2.0.4 RC2 on Sep 15, 2006

I just love this program! I dont do much word processing, etc, so there is no reason in the world for me, personally, to buy Office. I use it to open various .doc and .xls files I get off the internet here and there.

DudeBoyz reviewed v2.0.4 RC1 on Sep 6, 2006

Excellent Open Source product, and I'm very glad to see them continually update it.

I do wish it was more code efficient - in effect leaner and cleaner - but it's hard to argue with the incredible value.

It has a lot of great features and is actually going to be a more comfortable product for me, since Microsoft is so totally changing the interface of its office product.

Keep up the good work and much thanks to those involved.

Ian C. reviewed v2.0.4 RC1 on Sep 6, 2006

Well since qt4 is out, lots of formerly *nix only applications are working diligently towards releasing windows builds. When Koffice is finally available on windows, I'm pretty sure it will kill OOo, especially considering what I've heard about how quickly OOo code is becoming unmanageable. Anyway, it's built in database format still doesn't work. It bugs out after several minutes of use, and usually ends up randomly deleting data. Other than that, it's great!

OSU OSL Mirror

utomo reviewed v2.0.4 RC1 on Sep 5, 2006

It still need to improve, Yes. it is correct, it still not yet perfect.
if you have problems please report it
http://qa.openoffice.org...submission_gateway.html

with the documents to proof the problems, the developer will look at it and try to solve it.

if you just complains without the documents or proof we cannot fix it.

Thanks

yokozuna reviewed v2.0.4 RC1 on Sep 5, 2006

Well, I am a fan of TextMaker too, but it is located in another department of the shop ;-)

I like OOo but I need one feature - something like Quick Locale Switcher (T'bird). I have to create documents in many languages and digging in the menu settings is like pain in the neck. I do not want to change the language settings only. I also want change the notation (e.g. 0.005 in some counties is 0,005, etc.) with one click. I think it is essential for multinational environments. I am pretty surprised that the feature has not implemented in the office suite.

mjm01010101 reviewed v2.0.4 RC1 on Sep 5, 2006

"The size of OpenOffice is getting unwieldy to say the least. It's heading toward Nero territory."

Except Open Office *should* be a somewhat large application. It does a lot more than nero does, and it does it well.

The MAZZTer reviewed v2.0.4 RC1 on Sep 5, 2006

If download link is still a 404, try: http://ftp.uni-muenster...._Win32Intel_install.exe

OpenOffice has always been my office suite of choice.

zridling reviewed v2.0.4 RC1 on Sep 5, 2006

The size of OpenOffice is getting unwieldy to say the least. It's heading toward Nero territory. I haven't had any problems among conversions. Been using the new TextMaker lately which really gives you both great document control and power to create a document of any size, unlike OpenOffice.

DigiBrian reviewed v2.0.4 RC1 on Sep 5, 2006

It ****s up my Word documents, they lose formatting and doesnt print right when read in OpenOffice.

Got great potential but not quite there yet.

themanhimself reviewed v2.0.4 RC1 on Sep 5, 2006

I give it 5 as its free and useable. Great for people on a budget and families. It may have issues but its useable

comeoffit reviewed v2.0.180 Beta on Aug 12, 2006

"The viral hazard attached to OpenOffice.org is at least as high as that for the Microsoft Office suite, and even higher when considering some ... aspects."

http://www.infoworld.com...enofficesecurity_1.html

What were you idiots saying about a "free, secure alternative to MSO"?

I give a 3 because, as roj points out, it's more a toy than a real MSO replacement. It's just not robust, mature, secure, or compatible enough.

crashoverride reviewed v2.0.178 Beta on Jul 29, 2006

Switched to this from Office 2003. It does everything I need it to. While Office 2007 is good, the new UI is quite simply an eyesore.

yokozuna reviewed v2.0.178 Beta on Jul 28, 2006

donpacman, take a look here: http://development.openo...OpenOffice_org_2_x.html It should clear up your doubts.

*donpacman, you welcome! I am glad I can help! :-)
BTW, I am waiting for OOo 2.0.5 which will probably provide two important features introduced by Novell's version of OOo (SLED 10) - MS Excel VBA interoperability plus the support of Excel pivot tables.

donpacman reviewed v2.0.178 Beta on Jul 28, 2006

I thought this is 2.0.3 not 2.0.178?

* Thanks, yokozuna :)

roj reviewed v2.0.3 on Jul 2, 2006

This is NOT nor can it ever be a replacement for Microsoft Office in a corporate environment. Any intimations to that effect are delusional at best and seriously misguided at worst.

That ebing said, it is certainly an adequate replacement for Microsoft Works and well suited for home and school use. It is relatively full-featured and the price is right.

For its niche (non-corporate) I give it FIVE stars.

b0mmel reviewed v2.0.3 on Jul 1, 2006

Good for home use if you don't need your documents on other computers that only have MS Office installed.

It's free but if it would cost something it wouldn't be worth more than what Sun charges for StarOffice ($60 or so).

EarlyMorningHours reviewed v2.0.3 on Jun 30, 2006

I certainly am not an advanced PowerPoint user, but I do need to whip up some basic presentations now and then and I've yet to have any of my old PP files import with any errors or anomolies. OOo suits me just perfect. My organization migrated away from MS Office when OOo hit version 2.0.2 and we've never looked back since. Now we all just use Outlook Web Access until we dump the Exchange server.

utomo reviewed v2.0.3 on Jun 30, 2006

if you say the compatibility nearly 100% for powerpoint, you did not test it enough.

There are some known issue with the powerpoint compatibility.
such as the shockwave problems, and others. look at
http://qa.openoffice.org...s/show_bug.cgi?id=60059
http://qa.openoffice.org...s/show_bug.cgi?id=49706
http://qa.openoffice.org...s/show_bug.cgi?id=49719
http://qa.openoffice.org...s/show_bug.cgi?id=49822
http://qa.openoffice.org...s/show_bug.cgi?id=25287
http://qa.openoffice.org...s/show_bug.cgi?id=26988
http://qa.openoffice.org...s/show_bug.cgi?id=28445

and for the other applications also look at
http://qa.openoffice.org...s/show_bug.cgi?id=24195
http://qa.openoffice.org...s/show_bug.cgi?id=25518
http://qa.openoffice.org...s/show_bug.cgi?id=25528
http://qa.openoffice.org...s/show_bug.cgi?id=25437

But please report the problems with data, not just with compatibility problems only, but show what is wrong in details, and better with the sample file to make it easier to proof and solve.

Please accept that OOo not a perfect alternative yet. but we need to give report and input to make it much better. so lets help OOo by reporting what is wrong and need to fix, by reporting it
http://qa.openoffice.org/issues/enter_bug.cgi

Thanks

Don Juan reviewed v2.0.3 on Jun 29, 2006

About time they gave us a final release.

sixpac: Outlook replacements are a dime a dozen, they probably figured they didn't need to make another. Have you tried Mozilla Thunderbird.

bobad: I've been using OOo Impress with PowerPoint files since version OOo 1.x. I don't know why you keep complaining about it not being compatible, the compatibility was nearly 100% with version one.

If you happen to delete your install files before you uninstall the old version, then after you manually delete everything and clean the registry, you still won't be able to install due to the entry in the windows installer database. Use this utility to fix that:
http://support.microsoft...px?scid=kb;en-us;290301

CyberDog reviewed v2.0.3 on Jun 29, 2006

If you have Office, use Office. If you need the most powerful productivity suite available, buy Office. If neither of the above applies to you, this is a great package for the price.

bobad reviewed v2.0.3 on Jun 29, 2006

Good improvements in this release. I appreciate the release notes being posted too. However, OOo isn't going very much further. Until OOo has Power Point compatibliity, it's dead in the water. If the developers quit being stubborn and implement PP compatibility, it will become the de facto standard in schools and universities, and usage will explode. I've had HS kids and even a junior HS kid throw it back at me because they couldn't make a PP presentation for their homework. That's just frustrating! Such a great program rendered all but useless by the lack of PP compatibility!

Banquo reviewed v2.0.3 on Jun 29, 2006

Great program, but I suggest going to the official page and finding a better mirror. The download link here is some ftp site in Germany and it's terribly slow; of course with it just being released they are probably being hit hard.

yokozuna reviewed v2.0.3 RC7 on Jun 27, 2006

hurzx, no way because OOo 2.0.3 will be released next weekend http://wiki.services.ope....org/wiki/OOoRelease203

sixpac reviewed v2.0.3 RC7 on Jun 26, 2006

Office features are nice, but (this ia big but) it has no feautre similar to Outlook. For me Outlook is a killer app and Oo needs something to challenge it.

For this I don't find it a full feature rich Office suite.

hurzx reviewed v2.0.3 RC7 on Jun 26, 2006

I'll wait for RC23 in a couple of weeks to download it...

computershack reviewed v2.0.3 RC7 on Jun 26, 2006

bobad, OOo loads extremely quickly on Vista...far faster than on XP.

Kramy reviewed v2.0.3 RC6 on Jun 25, 2006

This is great for people that used to pirate MS Office!

I haven't had the v2.0.x's crash in at least a month now, so stability is improving. Speed seems reasonable as well, with it taking 2-3 seconds to cold-start without the quickstarter enabled.

Can't beat the price.

bobad reviewed v2.0.3 RC6 on Jun 25, 2006

Did you ever see a stupid chicken walk almost across a road, and when a car comes, instead of stepping across to safety, it turns back and gets flattened? The goal is excellence, and it's very close, but OOo refuses to reach out and grasp it! The love fest with OOo is now officially over for me. I think everyone will agree the development team has had long enough to address the lethatgic loading issue. They have also had time to address the Power Point compatibility issue, which is preventing OOo from replacing MS Office as the de facto standard in schools and universities. I'm also tired of hearing how "small" the program is. It's larger than MS Office! Everyone knows Java sucks! Dump it! Fix these deficiencies, and this program will bite MS Office in the butt! Come on team, it's time to reach for excellence and FINISH IT!

guti reviewed v2.0.3 RC6 on Jun 25, 2006

It should load faster with no Java at all. But unfortunatelly, in that case, the DB options would be not available.

Vimes reviewed v2.0.3 RC6 on Jun 25, 2006

If I had to ONLY rate this for the price then it would get a 10. Not ignoring the price totally, but not giving it a great emphasis, I will rate it as a 5. For me it has been compatible each time I have needed it to be with MS Office, to share documents etc with other people. My daughter has been able to share her work between this and MS Office at Uni with no problems. Its functionality and stability has been fine. Speed issues - well I haven't noticed anything that bothers me, then again maybe I'm not too bothered about that 'feature' in such an application.
I am amazed at how small it is in comparison with other paid for applications that do a similar job.

As usual YMMV.

Well worth trying it out.

zridling reviewed v2.0.3 RC6 on Jun 25, 2006

Thanks for the tip, Don Juan. I upgraded JAVA and it worked out well. I just can't tolerate my word processor being as slow as an Adobe product.

Don Juan reviewed v2.0.3 RC6 on Jun 25, 2006

Love this program. Lots of people complain about the speed. If you're using the JRE 6 it significantly improves the loading speed of this app, actually loads as fast or faster than MS office.

Link to Sun JRE 6 beta 2:
http://fileforum.betanew...onment_JRE/1011824317/1

hariskar reviewed v2.0.3 RC6 on Jun 25, 2006

roj: what is your problem with the many RCs??

Would you prefer a product with bugs?
5 stars for this great free product.

photonboy reviewed v2.0.3 RC6 on Jun 25, 2006

It doesn't rate a 4 if you compare it to Microsoft Office without factoring in price, but price is a HUGE difference.
Many people just need basic tools and this works just great. I created a document using colors, TABS, bullets, tables, shading and this really does a great job of converting between Microsoft formats. Even though you can sometimes IMPORT in Word or OpenOffice a program from the other editor it's usually better to EXPORT in the desired program. (ie export from OpenOffice in DOC format if you want to open in MS Word)

I'm such a basic user that I don't really notice any changes in the product. To me, it's basically ready.

I really love Office 2007 beta. But I wouldn't pay for the real version. Speaking of compatibility, I send my dad a Word document and he couldn't open it. I didn't notice that the default in Word 2007 Beta was the new Markup language. To read this format users of earlier Word versions need to download one or two files. As simple as this is I hope that Microsoft updates earlier versions automatically via Microsoft Update.
However, won't this be problematic if people start sending documents to people and discovering they need to resend in a format that their colleague can actually EDIT? I know formats change, and progress grinds forward but as a retired Canadian Forces member I can tell you that the military had just updated to Office 2000 on Windows 98, no wait I think it was still Windows 95! (not everyone loves change)

The bottom line is that if you want a free suite for office applications this is a great way to go. Don't worry about reviews if this does everything you need it to do. Who really uses all the features in Microsoft Office anyway?

yokozuna reviewed v2.0.3 RC6 on Jun 25, 2006

Nice, but the final version of OOo should be released soon: http://wiki.services.ope....org/wiki/OOoRelease203 so I will neither download nor install the release candidate.

roj reviewed v2.0.3 RC6 on Jun 24, 2006

This is getting tedious. SIX release candidates. perhaps that security flaw was a lot more than the OpenOffice hype machine downplayed it to be.

**** or get off the pot folks.

Four stars for a final that's taking too long.

ds0934 reviewed v2.0.3 RC5 on Jun 1, 2006

WTF? What's with RCx these days??? When does a product go from "beta" to "rc" anyway? This is getting stupid. Just call it "beta" until you're ready to release the darn thing. All this clever labelling seems silly.

I applaud the OO effort. I still say, if you don't have to deal with 100% MS-office compatability issues, it's the way to go.

Don Juan reviewed v2.0.3 RC5 on Jun 1, 2006

Open Office has always loaded almost instantly for me, without the quick start, and on a pretty old computer with only 512MB of RAM. Maybe it's because I'm using the Java 6 beta. You can get it here:

http://java.sun.com/javase/6/download.jsp

Read this if you don't understand the concept of release candidates:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_beta

yokozuna reviewed v2.0.3 RC5 on May 31, 2006

Earwicker, the PDFs are large because they are not really PDFs - they cannot be opened by Adobe Acrobat, however, they are correctly displayed by Acrobat Reader and Foxit.

I wish OO Writer split up. I need two app: a writer (a relatively simple one) and a DTP app. Today both are merged into OO Writer, which makes it a bit too complicated in everyday use.

sn0wflake reviewed v2.0.3 RC5 on May 31, 2006

"put 2 gigs in your system and no problems to report" *LOL* That's the Microsoft solution to all problems. Optimize the code instead.

Earwicker reviewed v2.0.3 RC5 on May 31, 2006

Fabulous. I've been using it off and on for about a month, installing the latest RCs (release candidates?) as they come. Writer is the best word processor out there, bar none. I've produced some very highly formatted documents lately, including hi-res photos and graphics, plenty of DTP-type work, and I can't fault it. I've just been doing some engineering calculations on Calc, and ditto: perfect. The XML based file format is nice and compact for emailing and also very powerful, and it supports a whole host of other formats too. The PDF files it writes are rather large (not sure why) but never mind.

So all in all, this is the way forward. I hope my colleagues will come round to my way of thinking!

mjm01010101 reviewed v2.0.3 RC5 on May 31, 2006

It is slow, but it's worthwhile. Memory is cheap, put 2 gigs in your system and no problems to report.

johnusa@email.com reviewed v2.0.3 RC4 on May 29, 2006

I read the following that is supposed to speed up OO. It is worth a try:

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=27292

Don Juan reviewed v2.0.3 RC4 on May 29, 2006

Fast as ever. If you're having speed problems with it on your computer, then it's time for a new one (or maybe just a defrag). It's runs every bit as fast as MS Office on my 5 year old system with only 512MB of RAM, and I don't use the quick launch.

zridling reviewed v2.0.3 RC4 on May 29, 2006

Got to finally agree with the others — OO is better than ever, but has become as slow as cold molasses, and that will hurt it more than anything. When I have tons of memory, huge HDs, and a top-end processor and a program is STILL slow on it, I'm through.

guti reviewed v2.0.3 RC4 on May 29, 2006

When a Win64 version?

hurzx reviewed v2.0.3 RC3 on May 24, 2006

Yes, I am sorry to confirm : awfully slow...
This build is the slowest I've seen for long.

landfish reviewed v2.0.3 RC3 on May 23, 2006

just_riiiiiiiiiiight

Don Juan reviewed v2.0.3 RC3 on May 23, 2006

faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaast

ranasrule reviewed v2.0.3 RC3 on May 23, 2006

sloooooooooooooooow

lalf reviewed v2.0.3 RC3 on May 23, 2006

2.0.3 Release Candidate 3 - Release Notes

http://development.openo.../releases/2.0.3rc3.html

9i08 reviewed v2.0.3 RC2 on May 22, 2006

It does work nicely, seemed to be having problems with Corel WordPerfect X3 so downloaded OO and imported all my documents, and saved them in OOs native text format which preserved all of my documents. Toolbars are fairly movable and the menu's are easy to navigate once you get the feel of the program more, all in all it works for what I need. The page layout/format menu is also easy to use, and you can arrange width, height and margins within a matter of clicks before hand depending on you're preferences for a given document.

sn0wflake reviewed v2.0.3 RC2 on May 22, 2006

marty: yeah, if you have 30 minutes to find the changelog. Please post a direct link on the frontpage of website.

Other than that I really prefer OpenOffice. MS Word is such a pain to use. Latest problem occured today with extracting an embedded photo. The best solution I could think of was taking a screenshot and edit it in Photoshop. *LOL*

yokozuna reviewed v2.0.3 RC2 on May 20, 2006

gingko_w, it seems that something is wrong with the Chinese language version of OpenOffice.org. I checked the Japanese one, and everything seems to work OK.

I do not know if it is my impression only but v.2.0.3.RCs work much smoother than v. 2.0.2.

ginkgo_w reviewed v2.0.3 RC2 on May 20, 2006

I think it just what I want.
I can use this do about 99% that ms word can do.

There is something about the double byte language (like the chinese),use the find&replace can not work fine. And the chinese version can do this good.

I hope the english version can do this good.

Don Juan reviewed v2.0.3 RC2 on May 20, 2006

Everyone keeps saying that it has no compatibility with PowerPoint. Last time I used Impress/PowerPoint was about a year ago, and it had nearly perfect compatibility. It also seems to be significantly faster at starting up with these last few releases.

utomo reviewed v2.0.3 RC1 on May 19, 2006

OOo is good but still need to improve.

Please report the bugs in the website.

If you have problems please report it there.
but if you cannot report it in the website, please email me at utomo99@openoffice.org
with clear explanation about the problems

But, DONT send Big (more than 200Kb) attachements on this email.
Email me first and I will tell where to email me big attachements

Thanks.

marty reviewed v2.0.3 RC1 on May 18, 2006

Bobab. Please reread your post. You give OO a 4.5 in the text and a 1 in the voting. I know that PowerPoint files are in fact compatible with Impress. This suite has been updated just a little bit more often the M$ Office. You can read the change log, in fine detail, on the OpenOffice web site.

ezh reviewed v2.0.3 RC1 on May 18, 2006

We do use OpenOffice in our firm and are 90% happy. It would be great to install small updates instead of full download.

But it's free!

coover reviewed v2.0.3 RC1 on May 18, 2006

It's worth the price!

bobad reviewed v2.0.3 RC1 on May 18, 2006

Here we go again! Still no compatibility with Power Point files, "M$" in the posts, no way to upgrade except downloading the whole kettle of fish, still no change log posted on FF. It's still the best free office suite by far. Give it a 4.5. It's a great app in spite of what horsecharles says.

NOTE to OOo developers: If you would only add PowerPoint compatibility, students would start using it. It would then take a big bite out of MS Office, which is a good thing!

netean reviewed v2.0.3 RC1 on May 18, 2006

Ooo is probably the most comprehensive and complete office package there is - after M$ office and it's free. so that can't be bad at all.
M$ office compatability is... well it's ok as long as your office doc is basic, otherwise it's not good but not perfect.

Downside: still no way to edit a document in more than one language, and spell check in more than one language at the same time.

Still no way to install the components you want and not the ones you don't want. I.e. I only really want the word processor but can't just select that.

Updates, bugfixes... no way to update without installing the whole suite again. (which is just awful if you're on dialup)

Non-US dictionaries and thesauri aren't that great, they're... ok... but a bit on the poor side - not to mention not as simple to install as I'd like to see.

Overall, OOo is getting there, but still doesn't "feel" right. I'd agree that it feels raw, it feels a bit like an old office suite. The layout, graphics, icons, the whole thing feels dated and unfinished (even though it's become quite a mature product now)

If you don't want use M$ office or can't afford to, then it's definately the next best thing... but it's quite a long way behind M$ office (sadly)

mjm01010101 reviewed v2.0.3 RC1 on May 18, 2006

I'm not slamming MS. But I'm also under the impression that Office hasn't truly "innovated" for about 9 years now, and this alternative is superior in many ways, certainly price/features area.

No it's not a corporate replacement.

One of our clients just started using it exclusively, however, so it can and will do the job.

Don Juan reviewed v2.0.3 RC1 on May 18, 2006

Seems they fixed all the little bugs in the database component that I would occasionally see when using their format database.

MS Office compatibility isn't so much an issue now. There is a plugin (finished but not publicly available yet) that allows MS office to open and save Open Document Format files. Also the ODF format has very recently become ISO certified.

ds0934 reviewed v2.0.3 RC1 on May 18, 2006

Getting closer and closer to becoming a true MS-Office killer. Not quite yet. If you don't need to worry about 100% MS compatability, this is your solution. If you are encumbered with 100% compatability reqts, it's not. That's probably the simplest way to put it.

the artist reviewed v2.0.169 on May 15, 2006

it is a greeeat program, but it feels a bit 'raw'. 'raw' would be my word. Anyway, it has gone a lot better in this version, i just hope we see OOo 3.0 soon.

bobad, kill yourself before posting stupidities like that again.

(to everyone: sorry to be offensive, i just can't look over those commentaries)

ggvrsn reviewed v2.0.169 on May 15, 2006

Having been a StarOffice user for ages(since 3.x), I have to say OpenOffice has come a long way. I love the fact that it is so much faster than before.

I will have to disagree with this person who says it is not intuitive. Within OpenOffice, to format a page, you click on Format->Page, but with MS Office, you will have to click on File->page_setup. How is this easier? Formatting a page is understandable (sane/common-sense) than File-> page setup. The OpenOffice interface is more human friendly than MS Office.

I do use MS Office on occasion, but there is really no need for me to have such a pricey, bloated, virus-ridden software on my PC/workstation.

-GGR

Arakiel reviewed v2.0.169 on May 14, 2006

*sigh* i WANT to like this program SO much but I just can't get beyond its incredibly slow startup, the need for a tray app in order to make it at least tolerably fast and the interface...I just can't put my finger on what bugs me about the interface but what I do know is that MS Office is more intuitive to use. MS Office is bloated beyond belief, yes, but the UI is still easier to use IMO.

Floodland reviewed v2.0.169 on May 14, 2006

The best alternative, by far. Do you say that 90mb is big? Did you look any Micro$oft Office? 1, 2 or 3 cds, depending on the edition. That is at least, 10 times what OO takes. And Microsoft also infect the windows registry (+10mb difference before-after instalation), and load hundreds of dlls in system32 folder. And finaly, MS office short edition cost $400, you can have everything for free and the best is it works pretty good. No more comparisons, no need to, I'll stay with OO for a long time.

ernstblaauw reviewed v2.0.169 on May 14, 2006

I would like others here to rate the program and not the reviews of others. It is the PROGRAM you rate!

I like this program very much: PDF possibilities, and it is stable (at least my place).

bobad reviewed v2.0.169 on May 14, 2006

There's no doubt OOo is the best free office suite on the planet. Compared to the other Freeware suites, it rates a 5. But since I am still seeing "M$", I'm going to have to downgrade OOo again. 1 point off for not having Power Point compatibility. 1 point off for launching slowly. 1 point off for not posting a change log. 1 point off for being a 90mb download. 1 point off for having to download and install the entire program for every minor update instead of unzipping and overwriting a few files. There, a great program gets a zero just because some nice mother's whiny son insists on using a "$".

DeadFly reviewed v2.0.169 on May 13, 2006

@ Floske Tuf

Get a grip dude. When I point out that Microsoft is costly by using a $ in their name, it's not just from the perspective of shelling out money for one copy of Office to use on my home PC. In corporate licensing, they constantly find new things to get you to pay for. Like how they talked me into buying software assurance with my server licenses and the "release" that I got for my money was R2 rather than a new version like they promised. I could go on but this is suppossed to be a place to review Open Office...

...which is an awesome piece of software, hence another 5 from me.

Rabelais reviewed v2.0.169 on May 13, 2006

I just can't understand the amazing stupidity of people like "Floske Tuf": this is a Beta review page and we are asked to give our opinion (after having tried them, of course :-) on software in Beta stadium, not on irrelevant semantic questions on whether Micro$oft should be shortened as "MS" or "M$"!
I have been using OpenOffice - always trying the last available Beta - for the last two years for my work as a writer (I use the French and German versions of OpenOffice), after many years of working with Word, with the conclusion that OOffice is by far superior to its M($)S competitor in terms of flexibility and stability. The only thing I still miss in OOffice is the possibilty to vertically justify a text when "orphan" and "widow" paragraph options are set (better said: I haven't found how to do that yet). When this option is available, I think OOffice will just be perfect (for me).

Master- reviewed v2.0.169 on May 13, 2006

Same as hurzx.

hurzx reviewed v2.0.169 on May 13, 2006

I hate people like floske tuf...

mjm01010101 reviewed v2.0.169 on May 13, 2006

A Client of ours recently switched to all open source, which forced us to roll this out quickly to the entire company to adapt. It was amusing because usually it's the opposite way around: We typically have to adopt commercial software for clients. This was a no brainer and people quite like it.

Those complaining about patches/bugfixes: many of these are developer test/alpha/beta releases. Stick with your RC's and you are talking about 90MB downloads every 9 months or so.

netean reviewed v2.0.169 on May 13, 2006

another patch-come-bugfix.

92Mb for a bugfix is just outrageous.
When will this suite be more easily updatable.

92Mb on dialup takes days and days to download - not everyone has or can get broadband!!!

for all it's faults (and it has many) at least M$ office allows incrimental updates and patches.

vienastoks reviewed v2.0.166 on May 11, 2006

Works like charm and is a splendid substitute for MS Office (at least for me - I use maybe 5% of office suite power anyway).

The only problem under Windows XP SP2 with all desktop effects on appears to be a recurring slowdown of Writer or Calc window redraw after alt-tab or taskbar task switching. The problem is noted on OpenOffice forums but seems not corrected in latest releases.

TomA102210 reviewed v2.0.166 on May 9, 2006

"Get real, everybody uses pirated software. So, get the best!"
--------------------------------------------------
Of course "everybody" does. Get real yourself and use Open Office and stop using pirated software. If you do, don't complain about not being able to get upgrades.

DeadFly reviewed v2.0.166 on May 9, 2006

It may never be an equal match for M$ Office, but it does everything that 99% of users need.
I really think they took a wrong turn when they made it dependant on Java; kinda defeats the point of being opensource a bit. Here's an article about what is dependant on Java: http://software.newsforg....pl?sid=05/03/22/204244

bsr500 reviewed v2.0.166 on May 9, 2006

Best free office software, but doesn't beat Office 2003 (and surely not Office Live when that comes out).

ghammer reviewed v2.0.166 on May 9, 2006

I've used it alongside Office 2003.
Not nearly as polished. Requires Java to be installed for some features.

Lose the Java requirement (not likely as Sun forces that on everyone) and tighten integration.

Back to Office for now.

P.S. "Well, stop your coplaining because ITS FREE! "

No, free is not the be all and end all of the world. Free is free. If it is not suitable, it is not suitable. Regardless of price.

Targaff reviewed v2.0.166 on May 8, 2006

stopbuggingme: it's actually "OpenOffice.org Developer Snapshot Build src680_m166", I believe the 1.66 refers to the build number rather than a progression of the stable version.

Perfectly good alternative office app for those who don't want to pay any wonga or don't want to be a sheep to Microsoft's evil shepherd. I wonder whether the apparent OpenDoc plugin for MS Word won't be enough to convince some to stick with what they know, however.

AlexBR1974 reviewed v2.0.166 on May 8, 2006

Maybe it´s ok for companies, because it´s free. But MS Office is much better. Even WordPerfect Office is better.
Is there any home user who actually pays for MS Office? Get real, everybody uses pirated software. So, get the best!
OO.org is slow and has an ugly interface.

stopbuggingme reviewed v2.0.166 on May 8, 2006

How come is 2.0.166 beta when I have installed 2.0.2? Anywho, why all the fuss about 90MB? You all know that this is a office package, right? How big is $ office?
I love it: it's free, has anything u need and is under development.

wheel4hummer reviewed v2.0.166 on May 8, 2006

Stop whining! It's amazing how many people complain "oh, its too hard to install," "90MB is too much," or even "WHY DOES IT NEED JAVA?????!!!"

Well, stop your coplaining because ITS FREE!

iamtux reviewed v2.0.166 on May 8, 2006

Personally, I prefer MS Office, but OOo is, in my opinion, the best alternative out there. Its great for small businesses who doesn't want to have to pay hundreds of dollars for an Office system. I just wish they had a modular upgrading system that only downloads the things/apps that were changed. Overall, great program, I'd recommend it to anyone who wants a great, free office system.

Ampbeta reviewed v2.0.164 on Apr 28, 2006

its great and yes its 90 megs and i got dial up and it took me 5 hours to get it so shush

mjm01010101 reviewed v2.0.164 on Apr 28, 2006

Upgrade or die. Nobody complains about not being able to ride a horse and buggy on a highway.

I would rather slit my throat that use a dial-up modem ever again.

netean reviewed v2.0.164 on Apr 28, 2006

This is basically a patch and bugfix but it's 90mb.... 90Mb... that will take days on dialup connections. can't they just have a more modular system that just updates the right components, or lets you download just the applications you might want.

big, slow, old fashioned.

hicham reviewed v2.0.164 on Apr 28, 2006

OpenOffice is usually good enough but it certainly lacks a bit here and there. Of course, the wild amounts of memory it consumes is a problem. Another thing I don't like is that ******* Java: PLEASE, OH PLEASE, GET RID OF IT AND THE NEED FOR IT!!!!!

But as for functionality, the charting mechanism in MS Excel is lightyears ahead of its counterpart OOo Calc. Ever tried to put two lines on a chart? with different scales? Or even more data series? In excel it is quite clear and easy. In Calc...don't know even if it can be done. And the charting options are very scarce.

ijm51000 reviewed v2.0.164 on Apr 28, 2006

I have used OOo for 12 months now and have had no reason to go back to MS Office, it does what I need.
1. Export direct to PDF for email of quotes etc to clients, cant be done in MS office without acrobat
2. Never had a MS Office virus
3. Most of the rest of my organisation some 350,000 people use MS office no one has noticed I use OOo(ok I dont talk to everyone, but you get the point)
4. Have never had a problem with importing office documents from others.
5. Runs as a portable application on my data pen

it does the job well and for $0, I need nothing more.

utomo reviewed v2.0.164 on Apr 27, 2006

OOo need to reduce the memory usage as promised in the Q concept ( plan for OOo 2.0) which still high enough.
If OOo can reduce the memory usage only up to 20Mb many people will use OOo

Kramy reviewed v2.0.164 on Apr 27, 2006

Hey 1-rating guys...you're supposed to be reviewing OpenOffice, not giving it a 1 just because people claim it's better than MS Office.

MS Office twats all say "OMG bettur than freewarez Open OfFice crpzz0rs", so just accept that 20% of people are going to post stupid reasons and get on with posting how you actually feel.

Open Office is really speedy on my system now. One thing to consider is that Microsoft made windows. Their programs start fast because they utilize useless windows components. If you remove those components(through various means), then everything non-MS runs faster. For me OpenOffice cold-starts in about 3 seconds, and warm-starts in about 0.5s. My system was buildable 4 years ago.

OpenOffice is nice because it doesn't suffer from odd display/saving problems like Abiword seems to. I don't care about memory usage so long as the interface is responsive.

horsecharles reviewed v2.0.164 on Apr 27, 2006

V2 New Feature Guide: http://marketing.openoff...g/2.0/featureguide.html

For enterprise, production, heavy-duty purposes--when compared side-by-side w/ MS-- this deserves a rating somewhere between say, 2½-3½...you couldn't even give OO a 4 w/o being biased for it. MS Office-- the very latest business version with all components + all possible extras not included in the suite-- is in another league: with components that OO likely may never have. However, 1k+ retail(top version w/ all possible addons) VS. $0(w/ to boot included 30-day tech support & all the other extensive & free support forums/libraries)-- allows for plenty of rating bias.
The average user can very well make do with this only-- at that level there are no major issues or missing components to report: certainly none worthy of the price of a top of the line brand-spanking-new complete computer system. Any missing or substandard module re one's specific work needs can be obtained separately while still saving wads of money. And if this applies in the larger world economies, then it's several orders of magnitude more applicable for the remaining majority of the world.
In light of all that, the rating is a 5
It's a 5 because it comes with no major problems: someone on a budget is not forced to say, grit their teeth & put up with problems just because it's free-- OO holds its own very well.

davereid20 reviewed v2.0.164 on Apr 27, 2006

I love OpenOffice. When I cleaned out my laptop and reinstalled all my software, I chose not to install MS Office (even though I can get a valid CD copy/license for only $10 here at college).

There are some features I miss and have almost gotten me to re-install MS Office: an easy way to center text vertically on a page (without using tables!) and an easy way to crop images.

But so far, it's been a wonderful replacement and I've even tried to get other people to try it out. Plus, having Portable OpenOffice on my 5GB USB drive is a godsend when the university computer labs only have MS Office on them!

wognum reviewed v2.0.164 on Apr 27, 2006

then i'll rate this with 5 stars, although i would prefer to give just 4 stars

bobad reviewed v2.0.164 on Apr 27, 2006

Great office suite! Does everything well. The "draw" applet is under rated. My only real complaints are the slow launch and the huge size. It's actually as large as MS Office. Even the "Portable" version is huge. But all things considered, a great prtogram. I'm also rating it 1 star because of the silly "M$" kiddies. I'm just not interested in your personal politics.

deric0 reviewed v2.0.164 on Apr 27, 2006

I like Open Office and have been using it exclusively for about a year. It does a good job converting MS formated documents.

Floske Tuf reviewed v2.0.164 on Apr 27, 2006

The purpose of this review forum is to give your findings about OpenOffice.org. It is not meant to bash at MS-Office.
I hate the M$ instead of MS thing.
Although OpenOffice might be a good product, I give it a 1 due to the miserable behaviour of the childish posters before me.

ranasrule reviewed v2.0.164 on Apr 27, 2006

reminds me of MS Office 97.....and MS Office 2007 Beta kicks this lame puppies butt any day...ok here is my review....Open Office is slow as hell specially at startup....it uses JAVA so that makes it inherently slow....The interface is outdated...and worst of all there is now way to just download updated components, u have to download the whole damn thing....one last thing.i love open source software...half the software on my PC is open source...FIREFOX kicked IE's butt any day although IE7 Beta2 is very nice but still no match for the FOX ... i love the extension system.

arg0 reviewed v2.0.2 on Mar 9, 2006

Best office suite!!! nice, clean interface.
Ok, it could start faster, but for the price, who cares ;)
Netean, M$ Office is not nicer from the installation and upgrading point of view. M$ update may be nice if you have internet, but ever tried to upgrade an offline PC, since they do not release cumulative security updates and service packs?

the artist reviewed v2.0.2 on Mar 8, 2006

People like "NETEAN" smells too much like a Microsoft guy, who is more fascinated by catchy UIs than for a good working yet small, well organized and functional app. This is an excellent suite and your complaints dont really matter as much as to outweight the pros of it. Also, you can start downloading it, go to watch some tv and by the time you are back at your pc, the thing will be done. Otherwise, go spend $399 for M$ Office.

Try it again.

gilboa reviewed v2.0.2 on Mar 8, 2006

"STILL doesn't handle multiple languages in the same document."

Huh?
Since 1.1 I've written numerous multi-language documents (most under Linux, though), in both LTR and RTL.
Not only OO does a better job at it (compared to Office 2K3 I'm forced to use at work), the spell checker works on all languages out of the box.

Gilboa

netean reviewed v2.0.2 on Mar 8, 2006

At 80+Mb for a bug fix this will take days to download on a dialup connection. Not everyone has access to high speed connections! There should be a way to patch the effected files with each update, having to download the whole suite just for a minor update is ridiculous.
Oh and by the way, I hate USE M$ Office.

lewispaul reviewed v2.0.2 on Mar 7, 2006

I've tried in vain to simply copy and paste web pages into Office (Word). OpenOffice Writer does this job with ease! Well done. The speed up tips do help, I recommend them as well. There will be no more buying of Office for me.

JohnOhan reviewed v2.0.2 on Mar 7, 2006

An excellent FREE Office Suite.

TIP: To speed up usage of this program, read the following article here:

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=27292

Kramy reviewed v2.0.2 on Mar 7, 2006

Woah, the installer has Monkeys Audio icon!

http://www.monkeysaudio.com/images/screenshot.gif

Nice speed difference!

gate1975mlm reviewed v2.0.2 on Mar 7, 2006

Better and Better all the time!

yokozuna reviewed v2.0.2 on Mar 7, 2006

Wow! I am really impressed by the increase of speed!

Keep goin' guys!

anomoly reviewed v2.0.2 on Mar 7, 2006

to jfcarr-Mahalos for the info. looked but never saw
This prog really deserves a 10 in comparison to m$$$office
yeah! now I can remove office 12

arossetti reviewed v2.0.2 on Mar 7, 2006

Excellent software. It just keeps getting better and better.

FYI, the 2.0.2 version installs very nicely over existing 2.x installations, and will even preserve your setttings. I'm not sure about installs over earlier versions however, since I have not personally tested that setup.

Note: Anyone who has installed RC4, this is the same file and you don't need to re-download!!!

sn0wflake reviewed v2.0.2 on Mar 7, 2006

Weeee....

kazoom: you're very likely safe by installing it over the old version. That's what I do with all programs because I know that six to twelve months from now I'll probably be reinstalling Windows from scratch again.

kazoom reviewed v2.0.2 RC4 on Feb 27, 2006

Is it ok to install over previous version or should i do a clean install?

jfcarr reviewed v2.0.2 RC4 on Feb 27, 2006

Replying to anomoly:

In Writer, go to "Insert", then "Envelope". Is that what you're looking for?

anomoly reviewed v2.0.2 RC4 on Feb 27, 2006

My only gripe (and the only reason I still keep ms office installed too) is that oo does not have envelope printing capabilities, which I find a very nice feature in ms office

madmike reviewed v2.0.2 RC4 on Feb 27, 2006

Well, its gets better each new release;) top marks for the home or business user who has an empty purse and wants something that is going to do the job well, its the only quality choice with lots of decent peeps working on it to make it good for everyone.:)

Excellent!

udz2002 reviewed v2.0.2 RC3 on Feb 23, 2006

I love openoffice.org, but I am ready for an Auto Update feature. These ISOs are huge to be downloading every new release.

JohnOhan reviewed v2.0.2 RC3 on Feb 22, 2006

An excellent FREE replacement for MS Office.
Also, to speed up the running of this suite, please read following:
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=27292

Doubledoom reviewed v2.0.2 RC3 on Feb 22, 2006

Although great for the home user requiring a basic to medium feature set, it misses too many features we require at commercial level to make it viable. Plus integration with other software is limited. That isnt necessarily the fault of OO but if other software wants MS Word standards, there isnt a lot you can do. Shame as I really wanted this to be better than it was.

idius reviewed v2.0.2 RC3 on Feb 22, 2006

http://development.openo.../releases/2.0.2rc3.html

sn0wflake: On the OOO site, click on "download" at the top, then click on "Snapshots & Release Candidates 2.0.x - unstable" then you will see a link for the "OpenOffice.org 2.0 codeline." in the paragraph on the right side of the page. The codeline page lists the history of OOO 2.0.x and has release notes for each release, however RC3 isn't listed on the list yet. I just looked at the way they name their release files and typed in the appropriate name which was "2.0.2rc3.html" from past experience I've found that they will post release notes before they officially announce the release, but they sometimes take a few days to update the codeline page with the newest information.

sn0wflake reviewed v2.0.2 RC3 on Feb 22, 2006

Great free alternative to Microsoft Office.

ds0934: I tried to help you but somewhere between RC2 and RC3 somebody apparently decided that it's a secret. RC2 had a changelog. Where's the changelog? *sigh*

idius: Thank you. Now I'm wondering how you found it. I tried clicking on the Projects link and still couldn't see any obvious link to the changelog. How did you find it?

ds0934 reviewed v2.02 RC2 on Feb 21, 2006

Could someone post a link to the change log? I can't seem to find it anywhere.

Kramy reviewed v2.02 RC2 on Feb 21, 2006

This is great for Home users that don't want to pay, and non-IT companies with users of a variety of skill levels that all want to use their favourite and most productive OS(yet still have all documents compatible).

utomo: Is Publisher anything like NVU?

This version's loadtime is absolutely fine for me, though 2.0.1 only took about 5 seconds cold start.

Don Juan reviewed v2.02 RC2 on Feb 20, 2006

Seems to load a lot faster than 2.0.1. And the updated icons are pretty slick too.

Pegusis2 reviewed v2.02 RC2 on Feb 20, 2006

But Oooo... it says Beta folks, they are looking for the input here. If you have ideas, or see problems they Want you to submit them so they can get Feed Back from you... hence Beta.

Have good one. Alternatives are always good, espcially when they work and are Free, and don't forget you get what you Pay For and sometimes you get about the equivalent when you don't.

sn0wflake reviewed v2.02 RC2 on Feb 20, 2006

Free and secure :) Maybe I'll evaluate the next release candidate, maybe this one, maybe not at all until it's final. I'm not in a hurry because 2.01 is fine by me. Looking forward to all the new features and improvements though that I saw in the changelog.

utomo reviewed v2.02 RC1 on Feb 19, 2006

OOo did not have the publiser alternative.

but OOo have the powerpoint alternative. it is not yet fully compatible yet. but Ooo need you to submit the bugs report with the incompatible documents to make it more compatible (by analyzing incompatibe doc) and then trying to solve it.

It also still need improvements over the speed too.

if you like it but have bugs to report please go here
http://qa.openoffice.org...ing/project_issues.html

http://qa.openoffice.org...ing/pre_submission.html

Thanks for the help. and lets make OOo better

terracesider reviewed v2.02 RC1 on Feb 17, 2006

Like bobad, I wish it had Pubisher compatibilty but, nevertheless, as an open source alternative to the expensive MSOffice, OpenOffice can be highly recommended for most home users; it will meet their word processing and spreadsheet requirements.

bobad reviewed v2.02 RC1 on Feb 16, 2006

Excellent! A little slow launching, but running the pre-loader in the tray helps a lot. I only wish it had Power Point and Publisher compatibility.

egg83 reviewed v2.02 RC1 on Feb 16, 2006

As an alternative to MS office, this is the best I have used. Has vast pool of developers to work on this project, works with the majority of MS files that I have thrown at it, am looking forward to final release.

CyberHobo reviewed v2.02 RC1 on Feb 16, 2006

Bloated and slow. When I launch OpenOffice.org, I usually go make a cup of coffee and when I return it's on the desktop with the second cursor blink!

wmdavis reviewed v2.02 RC1 on Feb 16, 2006

I have. I use it. Its is nice software and perhaps I should give it a higher rating, but like the Microsoft product it has way too many options that only a handful of people will ever use. These packages need to allow more and easier customization to slim down the apps for average use.

crashoverride reviewed v2.02 RC1 on Feb 16, 2006

If I didn't already have office I would be using this.

sn0wflake reviewed v2.02 RC1 on Feb 16, 2006

Secure and free Microsoft Office alternative. I'll wait for the final release though before downloading and installing this big sucker :)

bigsportsman reviewed v2.0.1 Final on Dec 29, 2005

I've been testing office software for about 5 years and have been party to nearly every beta test from both MS, Sun, OpenOffice and Corel. The detracters from all of these products all seem to forget that these are not highend specific applications. All of the above mention companies put out extremely good products and they mostly do what they are supposed to do; simple to moderate normal office tasks.

These suites are not meant to nor designed to replace specifically designed database software, for example. OpenOffice 2.0 is no exception to this rule. However, OpenOffice has two very distinct advantages over the rest of the Office Suites, it's open source & it's FREE! So when people complain about missing features keep in mind that with the open source code they could program for OpenOffice to help correct the issue and it's FREE!

Apples to apples OpenOffice 2.0 stacks up very very well to MS Office, Star, and WordPerfect Office. There are some issues with power and speed of the application but the speed is usually a function of the PC (I say this in the most general terms ie Mac, PC's, laptops, servers etc.), memory and the usual suspects of program size. However, the usablitity of the free product is outstanding.

I've been trying this product out since early Nov. I've converted nearly 250 MS Office and Corel documents of varing levels of complexity (I didn't test Star since this is its cousin)and only 1 MS Office document (Word)lost about 2 paragraphs of font (easily corrected with about 2 minutes of time) and no loss with Corel.

One other feature I liked with OpenOffice is the fact that the they are using open standards for file saving and creation. With features that allow you to save and send in PDF format this is much better to increase your ability to view your documents in the future. Further, the ability to open nearly any document regardless of its origin program and save it in those is a very big plus.

There are, of course, no perfect programs but this is almost an exception to that rule. OO 2.0 is quite remarkable it will, in my opinion, be the standard that all office suites will be measured against. Now mind you I'm sure I've not found all of the bugs due to my short usage time. The interface and icons have been greatly improved and the languages are second to none (speak 6 of them fluently), the accents are easy to use and find and spell check works with (spanish, french, german, russian, italian and english). All in all this is a great product with a perfect price.....FREE.

imanino reviewed v2.0.1 Final on Dec 25, 2005

For some reason, this install only works thoroughly, if you have not previously installed the 2.0 version. Moreover, as for the changelog issue, I went to the site and to be honest... I saw little outside of some language changes and little bug a boos. That is, not enough to create a new international install. Think we need to take it easy on the upgrades and if you've been following the development cycles (like I have at openoffice.org), the area of updates and compatibility between the Windows Installer system and the internal versioning system with the developers has been a longstanding problem with this package. My rating is therefore based on the 2.0 suite as a whole, which is excellent. I cannot do a comparability study just yet since 2.0.1. won't cleanly install over 2.0. It is clearly an improvement over the 1.x series, but that really is a different level of analysis. Just be prepared to understand you're dealing with a project that hasn't quite worked out (IMHO) the difference between alpha, beta, and release adequately.

outofcoffee reviewed v2.0.1 Final on Dec 21, 2005

Where's the changelog?

Namero reviewed v2.0.1 Final on Dec 21, 2005

great software :)

if they get "powerpoint" working its the ultimative M$ Office killer :D

hurzx reviewed v2.0.1 Final on Dec 20, 2005

I also have a version problem. In all "about" boxes the latest one ( from betanews) is numbered 2.0... And it seems very slow and heavier than before. Is it a regression ?

rhy7s reviewed v2.0.1 Final on Dec 20, 2005

Is this really 2.0.1? In the about box & all the readme files still say 2.0.

Mystiqq reviewed v2.0.1 Final on Dec 20, 2005

Unbelievable.

ServerMechanic reviewed v2.0.1 Final on Dec 20, 2005

This is like a nice bowl of vegetable soup with some bread and butter.

Mmmm.....

twanj reviewed v2.0.1 Final on Dec 20, 2005

Is this really 2.0.1? In the about box & all the readme files still say 2.0.

niti reviewed v2.0.1 Final on Dec 20, 2005

Perfect...

spiffyjeff reviewed v2.0.1 RC5 on Dec 18, 2005

LMAO at those that complain about it's compatability with MS formats - they are not paying for licensing fees, and you are not paying for this program. It works pretty well - why not just use OpenOffice/OpenDoc formats and complain to MS about their support for them? At least OpenOffice has an effort to support major formats :-p

EarlyMorningHours reviewed v2.0.1 RC5 on Dec 16, 2005

Still too sluggish for my tastes, would like to see them put out .msp files for easy network wide updating, and this will never happen but I'd love to see an Exchange client that worked.

Still OWA is always an option and as long as this is free and continues to be developed, you'd be nuts to pay Microsoft's highway robbery licensing fees.

anomoly reviewed v2.0.1 RC5 on Dec 16, 2005

anyone who says paying for ms's version of office is better than this free version needs to get their facts straight (& maybe their head checked too). MS is the one who needs to fix their soft not sun

cricri_pingouin reviewed v2.0.1 RC5 on Dec 16, 2005

Let's be honest: it's good, but nowhere as good as MS Office.
I was writing a document at uni using Office and used OO at home to modify it: the formatting appeared completely screwed in OO, but hopefully it remained intact when saved and opened in MS Office again.
I inserted new references as endnotes, and the formatting of all references was different in OO. Then save, open in MS Office, and although previous references format was intact, the new ones were formatted differently!
Unfortunately, there are numerous other small glitches like that (can't click in front of a line to select it, grammar/spell checker is not as good, etc), and yes, it is also definitely slower.

So to conclude: good, probably, the best, certainly not. I'll give it a 3 since I think that it's been over-rated up to now.

darkpepe reviewed v2.0.1 RC5 on Dec 16, 2005

Still at some development stage, e.g. try to do some copy and paste from any internet site with many images! Geeez, the formatting is crap! I give it a 3 just because it's free.

utomo reviewed v2.0.1 RC5 on Dec 16, 2005

Yes the Slow and the memory usage still not satisfied some people. But they already improve from OOo 1.0.
You will not see more improvements left for this 2.01 version. but keep report the bugs at the website, hopefully by more reports they will fix it soon. maybe on version 2.1 ?

twanj reviewed v2.0.1 RC5 on Dec 15, 2005

slow but awesome. Open Document is great for everyone!

FlipmodeBG reviewed v2.0.1 RC5 on Dec 15, 2005

Too slow.. but it's still my favorite office suite.

Dwiebelhaus reviewed v2.0.1 RC5 on Dec 15, 2005

Dre is Off and big time , this program out performs MS Office by a long Shot , granted the older versions where slow but they have made noticeable improvements in the 2.+ versions.

Dreimanis reviewed v2.0.1 RC5 on Dec 15, 2005

how much rc's left?
about the program itself : slow

Joco reviewed v2.0.1 RC5 on Dec 15, 2005

I wish all the best to Open Office and hope that more companies and public institutions will use this suite. My company uses MS Office. I admit I have average Office knowledge. I am utterly annoyed by the auto-everything crap which is on by default in Winword (auto bullet, auto style, auto indent, etc.) they reformat the text even if I don't want to. Open Office is all I need (and may be even less). I wish my company will dump all the MS Office Suite. Donate part of the money saved to excellent freewares and open source projects.

Dwiebelhaus reviewed v2.0.1 RC4 on Dec 15, 2005

I Love this Program , MS Office can bite a bullet.
I Install this on every F&RI when they do not provide office software.

mjm01010101 reviewed v2.0.1 RC4 on Dec 12, 2005

Bullets work fine and always have. Perhaps the reviewer below needs a pixel precise solution?

nanabem reviewed v2.0.1 RC3 on Dec 9, 2005

When it come down to bang for buck, sorry but OpenOffice blows MSOffice out of the water, it's FREE... Given that 98% off all MSOffice 2003 user will never use more than 15% of it's features, OpenOffice will be the perfect suite for any user out there that wants to perform everyday tasks. Works fine, and is very stable, no more spending hundreds of euros to write a letter, make a presentation, or keep track of your finances.

DudeBoyz reviewed v2.0.1 RC3 on Dec 8, 2005

More memory intensive than it could / should be, and the lack of parallel development on the MAC OS X side is a bummer, but this particular build is pretty stable and functional, and the entire suite is an incredible bargain, being that it is free.

I hope they keep up the good work and nail down those remaining bugs, as well as tighten down the code a little. Still, very good work all things considered. I'm glad this suite is out there.

hariskar reviewed v2.0.1 RC3 on Dec 8, 2005

kelek you gave "2" because of the... bullets???
I don't get this.
5 from me.

kelek reviewed v2.0.1 RC2 on Dec 7, 2005

The biggest reason for why this review is so low compared to the others: bullets. In Windows 2000, they do not even display as a full circle, but some lopsided beast. How hard is it to have a near-perfect circle for a bullet? The buttons up top that activate bullet mode are circular. Why can't the bullets in the document be circular? Even Wordpad has circular bullets.

Secondly, when you tab to indent, rather than choosing a different bullet icon for each indentation level, they remain the same. Sure you can fiddle with the formats to get something even close to something reasonable, but this should be available 'out of the box'.

anthfiat reviewed v2.0.1 RC2 on Dec 4, 2005

Just keeps getting better and better. Finally the ability to set default font size! No complaints from me.

buzzyboop reviewed v2.0.1 RC2 on Dec 4, 2005

Hooray! this latest update fixed a problem I had opening some MS Word files. Although not perfect (alignment of some images is off), it does open it now, instead of crashing the software. Thank you!

crashoverride reviewed v2.0.1 RC2 on Dec 3, 2005

All I'v got to say is that this software is great. It does everything that I did in MS Office. Those features are actually more easily accessible in OpenOffice than they were in MS Office. It's also free. Those 2 reasons give me every reason I need not to buy MS Office.

utomo reviewed v2.0.1 RC2 on Dec 2, 2005

There still some issue left. look at
http://wiki.services.ope...ice.org/wiki/QA_Metrics

for you who still did not satisfied about OOo, have you submit the suggestions using the OOo bugzilla ?
if not yet, please submit it. so the developer can know and consider it.

Keep reporting the bugs and suggestions at http://qa.openoffice.org...ing/pre_submission.html
so OOo can become better by time.
Thanks

fixes which went into rc2 since rc1:

58609 Report isn't filled with data
58370 m139 failes to open database file with views created before m139
58503 Solaris packaging: WITHOUTDOT?
57889 cfgex complains on xcu files containing syntactically correct XML comments
58577 Fix missing community localisations
54734 license and horizontal rule in it
58540 rename install sets to have version 2.01
58448 Deadlock after second copy to clipboard in an unmodified document
58366 rounding issues with text positions in PDF export

mikeeberhart reviewed v2.0.1 RC2 on Dec 2, 2005

I absolutely love OO 2.
I use Writer (instead of Word 2003) daily, since I find myself more productive in it. It is simpler, and I like the "predictive typeahead" technology (i.e., autocomplete of words). I also find Styles easier to work with, and unlike Word, it seems to less often magically reformat my bullet-items and such especially in tables. I also like the spreadsheet tool, but have not migrated all my Excel stuff to it yet (plan to soon).

Someone asked about a CHANGELOG for this RC earlier.
I found this: http://development.openo...org/releases/2.0.1.html

It says RC1 at top, but perhaps it covers the entire 2.01 release.

jungle! reviewed v2.0.1 RC1 on Nov 30, 2005

I give it a three. Until it finds a better, more user friendly way of applying headers and styles to many different pages, I cannot consider it user friendly.

And I dont consider it exactly user friendly either for using non-standard icons and not showing tooltips. Not to mention its annoying non standard dialogs with redundant pages. OpenOffice is good, but not good enough to preclude me buying MS Office, which is still king, for good reason!

utomo reviewed v2.0.1 RC1 on Nov 28, 2005

It become better by time. but there some issue still need to be done by developers:
1. Speed, still Not as fast as what user wants. this I think is not yet fullfil the Q concept promise.
2. Need to support the Macro.
3. There still some compatibility issue, some like formatting, and others.
4. It need more better documentations, so other developers can help OOo. instead of confuse reading the code as before.

There are some issue left: http://development.openo.../OOo_2_0_timetable.html

If you found bugs, or want to submit suggestions, please report it at: http://qa.openoffice.org...ing/pre_submission.html

Thanks

cricri_pingouin reviewed v2.0.139 Beta on Nov 16, 2005

Works fine. Compatibility seems ok so far. I even installed it on a P2-233MHz laptop and it does the job (albeit slower than on my "normal" system). I only give it a 4 though because it will never replace MS Office completely for me (even when they support the full range of features, I'll still be missing VBA).

ZenWarrior reviewed v2.0.139 Beta on Nov 16, 2005

I'm re-evaluating OO and lowering my rating to 4 after discovering Calc crashes almost every time I try to use it, effectively making the spreadsheet worthless.

Note: I did not have any such problems in previous versions. (And unfortunately, I'm back to using Excel for the first time in almost two years. Bummer.)

pdadad reviewed v2.0.139 Beta on Nov 15, 2005

Version 2.0 works very well on my system - 800 mhz V3 with 384 mb ram. The quickstarter has helped significantly with the time it takes to open a document. When Writer is open I have 102 mb free when closed I have 128 mb free.

It freezes at times because it does max out my cpu, for example when closing the application, but it works just fine while editing a document. Also a nice plus is being able to export to a pdf file format. Also, by choice, I have 49 processes and 11 applications running in the background at the same time. I'm sure the freezing issue would go away if I closed some apps but I'm happy with it as is. :)

anomoly reviewed v2.0.139 Beta on Nov 15, 2005

Poorly written? It does everything ms's does & just as good for free in a much smaller packadge AND has a usb (512) version. Office? NOT. Slow- your pc is slow. Don't remember ms office being capable on a linux distro for free either. If you've got the $ save it & use this instead. B Gates has ripped off the world enough as it is.

coover reviewed v2.0.139 Beta on Nov 15, 2005

Open Office is a good Office Suite and it is free. That is it's good points.

But Open Office is poorly written and will slow up your computer. If you are not running a very fast CPU and have lots and lots of memory (a lot more than 512 MB), don't try to run this Office Suite and do anything else. Multi-tasking is not realistically possible when running OO.

I can understand anybody prefering OO to MS Office, which is very expensive. But if you actually have a choice between the two, if money is not a barrier, MS Office has to be your choice.

But if MS Office is not affordable, Open Office is an Office Suite that can do the job ... slowly.

Kramy reviewed v2.0.139 Beta on Nov 15, 2005

So...wait, it's a CVS release someone posted of the possible next version?

skonrad reviewed v2.0.139 Beta on Nov 15, 2005

I don't get it... hasn't OpenOffice 2.0 gone final a couple of weeks ago?

AlanS2001 reviewed v2.0.139 Beta on Nov 15, 2005

Note to betanews people: According to the release notes this is build 2.0 m139, not build 1.9.m139.

kevinsanz reviewed v2.0 Final on Nov 4, 2005

this is a great way not to pay for MS Office but need a frontpage kinda thing. It works exactly the same with more formats supported.

googun reviewed v2.0 Final on Oct 21, 2005

burfadel - when remarking on the American spellings that creep into the UK English dictionary, while I agree with you entirely, I hate to say it but your spelling of GAOL is slightly off the point.
In the UK the word is usually JAIL. GAOL is a variant spelling. If you check the current edition of the Oxford Dictionary of English, page 926, you will see the full definition backing up my assertion.
For readers not armed with the book, JAIL comes from JAIOLE (Old French), and from g**OLE (from the Anglo-Norman French word GAOLE). This latter word survives as the word GAOL, but JAIOLE developed into the word JAIL, which is the accepted spelling in British English.
In my view, JAIL should be in the main British English dictionary, while GAOL should be added to the custom dictionary by the user.
As for OO, it is working very well on my PCs. This package gets better over time, and causes me no real problems. However, I wish someone would sort out the UI. OO is sometimes not as easy to use as it could be.

nitinnakra reviewed v2.0 Final on Oct 21, 2005

I have just installed the windows version, and i must say, it rocks. If only it could do something with its icons, it is sometimes hard to differentiate between what is what.

burfadel reviewed v2.0 Final on Oct 20, 2005

Openoffice is constantly improving, however it still seem to lack some speed loading. It is also harder to use for some functions, although generally this is not too much of an issue. I would like to see an interface styled a bit more modern, I do like the Office 2003 blue tones etc.

The dictionaries need to be improved. Microsoft had that problem with earlier versions of Office. The refinements need to come in the form of embedded language dictionaries. ie, for the English version of Openoffice all the English dictionaries being downloaded (they're generally just a subset of the main English dictionary).

The reason for this is that the US dialect of English is different to the rest of the world, they don't know how to spell words such a colour, organise, realise, gaol, etc correctly!. It does look unprofessional to be corrected with incorrect spelling!

Don Juan reviewed v2.0 Final on Oct 20, 2005

Aside from the database component this app is nearly perfect. I'm kind of stunned that they made this a final release when there are still several bugs in the database portion of the suite that cause crashes, thus making some portions of it absolutely useless. If the rest of the suite weren't so great, I probably would have given this a three or a two.

spiffyjeff reviewed v2.0 Final on Oct 20, 2005

It took some getting used to, but I'm loving it more and more :-)

Also getting a few other people converted to OOo :-)

BioGirl reviewed v2.0 Final on Oct 20, 2005

Wahoo! :) I was very happy with the beta version and have been recommending it to everyone. Now that the final version has been released this is even better. I am really pleased with the features and how it is set up. This is simply wonderful...

coover reviewed v2.0 Final on Oct 20, 2005

Note to ttrimble ...

Regarding your report that Word crashed yesterday, it was probably a hardware error rather than a software error. Microsoft software is much better than it has been in the past (or are you still using Word 98?). However, MS Office is still very expensive, while Open Office, admittedly almost as good as MS Office, is absolutely free. For most home users, Open Office is the application to use. Why pay all that money?

AntiochMedia reviewed v2.0 Final on Oct 20, 2005

Fantastic application suite. I've configured open office to default to MS Office compatible file extensions (.doc, .xls, etc.).

The native PDF exporting feature is flawless and an essential part of my use of OpenOffice. I previously switched from OOo v1.0 to MS Office 2003, but switched back after terminating my need for Exchange/Outlook and finding OOo v2.0 to be stable and full featured.

I missed the speed, which (if this makes sense), is much more 'even' with OpenOffice. With Office 2003, I found that the applications would be fast in some areas, but slow on image-related features, embedding, etc.

I like how OpenOffice's spreadsheet application has a DELETE ALL dialog that allows you to select text, formatting, borders, etc. -- I had to make a macro for Excel for this.

I like how embedding an image in OO's word processing application and resizing it is much more controllable than MS Office.

--

And here's the thing -- I really like Microsoft Office 2003. I think it's bulky and has more features than I need. Open Office also has more features than I need, but isn't cluttered by them.

Removing my 'warezed' copy of Office Corporate for an OpenSource solution that works better for --me-- has increased my own productivity, and I feel much more comfortable with the application suite.

Also ... am I the only one who feels that my computer starts to run slower when MS Office is installed (installed, not actually open)?

--

Fantastic stuff -- now we need an Export to Flash... option in the PowerPoint equivalent... a Visio-like component ... and perhaps an E-mail client or some sort of Thunderbird integration...

sn0wflake reviewed v2.0 Final on Oct 20, 2005

It's gratis.

zridling reviewed v2.0 Final on Oct 20, 2005

What's not to like? If you're not using Microsoft Office, then this is your next best option.

ModderXManiac reviewed v2.0 Final on Oct 20, 2005

FINAL WOOHOO!!!

ttrimble reviewed v2.0 Final on Oct 20, 2005

Woot! This just keeps getting better and better! The only reason I currently use Word is because my publisher requires it. BTW: Word crashed on me yesterday, just sitting there by itself. I went for coffee, came back, and it had crashed. I've yet to see any problems like this with OO. Some of my User Guide projects have massive amounts of screen shots. Word can't handle it. OO works fine.

Congrats to OpenOffice.

Tim
www.timothytrimble.info
The ART of Software Development

DWolf reviewed v2.0 Final on Oct 20, 2005

Excellent Program!!! Free, Open Source, Excellent Compatibility, Don't use a lot of MB in hard drive, PDF export, WOW Cool!

ZenWarrior reviewed v2.0 Final on Oct 20, 2005

**Julesword**, your copy/paste problem is easily remedied by using "Paste Special" and selecting unformatted text. In fact, unless my recollection is wrong, Word works essentially the same way.

OO works perfectly for me. I haven't had to open Word in almost two years now. And to it I say, good riddance! To OO's final release: "Hooray!!!"

My congratulations to OpenOffice.org. Thanks!

fibreiv reviewed v2.0 Final on Oct 20, 2005

"OpenOffice.org for Windows 2.0 Final"

Sounds like I will be downloading a website for a really old version of windows. hehe

arossetti reviewed v2.0 Final on Oct 20, 2005

One word: Awesome!

ginkgo_w reviewed v2.0 Final on Oct 20, 2005

Very Good Soft. I can do everything that I need.
Very Important it is open source soft.and can
convert to pdf finely.
Goooooood!

yokozuna reviewed v2.0 Final on Oct 20, 2005

I am not a native speaker so I am not sure if I should say "finally" or "at last" ;-)

Anyway the thing is my thumbs up!

Julesword reviewed v2.0 RC3 on Oct 16, 2005

This isn't slow or bloated at all for me- if you use the quickstarter it opens fast and in usage I have never found myself waiting for it. And my computer (1.6ghz) is much slower than a $300 Dell.

I've switched to using only OOo (the 2.0 devline). I've had perfect compatibility with importing and exporting the Word and Excel documents I needed.
Writer and calc meet all of my needs for those programs. Hopefully in a few months and if I find some more tutorials eventually I will be able to use Base (so far I haven't been able to figure it out).

One other area that is not perfect is copying a page from IE to the clipboard and then pasting into writer, they come out looking nothing like the page and having weird fields that make them hard to edit (maybe saving as html and deleting the non-needed stuff would work better).

If you are a normal Word or Excel user, it's time to switch, before they bust you for pirating Office. Hopefully by version 3 Access users will be able to switch too.

nawialkair reviewed v2.0 RC3 on Oct 16, 2005

I have used OOo 1.1.5 and it was no match for MS office. Version 2.0 is really a great alternative. I only used writer and calc and I feel that they are more than enough for the average user like myslef. There is no need for paying huge amount of money from my limited incom for buying MS Word and Excel.

pseudo reviewed v2.0 RC3 on Oct 16, 2005

Pros: Open Source, Only alternative to Microsoft Office Suite.

Cons: Slow, Bloat, Less features but takes more resources.

ye110mann reviewed v2.0 RC3 on Oct 16, 2005

I really wanted to like OO.o. Feature-wise it's nice. But it's bloated and slow. Yes, more bloated and slower and more resource hungry than Microsoft Office. Unless the performance improves, I would not recommend this as a replacement for MS Office.

Maverick_16 reviewed v2.0 RC3 on Oct 15, 2005

An excellent office suite. The fact that the org delayed the final release on the Birthday and gave a RC3 to fix last minute bugs deserves a +1 to the rating.

Now bobad et al... please guys, i mean i know you're trying to and you are good in participating here, but pleeeeeease ENOUGH comparing any beta to a commericial rival. This is an Open Source, it does what it says it can do, and does it well, it's practically free and has a large dev and user community... FULL STOP.

You can't and should not rate any prog (beta or not) based on "if there is a comparable VERY EXPENSIVE commercial and bloated app" out there that has additional million feature that 99% of the users don't use.

What's on offer here is your freedom to use a real package, pay a lot less and not being limited to one operating system. Let alone the fact that you don't have to upgrade your pc to use it.

bobad reviewed v2.0 RC3 on Oct 15, 2005

Excellent program. Quite stable, feature packed, glitch-free enough to use as your primary office suite. But how does one rate this program? If I rate it on its own, it gets a 5. If I rate it against the best office suite out there... MS Office of course... it barely rates a 4. Make no mistake, OOo is no MS Office! I could name many little differences and inconveniences that hurt OOo vis-a-vis MS Office, but I will name just 1 big one: The MS Office Document Extensions. Scan a document into MS Office, and it handles it like a dream. The OCR is nothing less than a dream come true. Now I know that OOo is Open Source amd free, but they are missing out on an opportunity to drive a stake into MS' heart. Please OOo, add document handling!

fourte3n reviewed v2.0 RC3 on Oct 14, 2005

love it. it keeps getting better and better and i really do look forward to the final release. does everything i like ( and no outlook bloat :P - Get thunderbird for that!)

anomoly reviewed v2.0 RC3 on Oct 14, 2005

this is free & does everything one could want. Outlook is superfluous. this is an office suite not an email client. try tbird. it is also free. Problem with 'dumping' ms office is that some softwares will not install or run without it

mjm01010101 reviewed v2.0 RC2 on Oct 10, 2005

Yes it's great.
Yes it's quality.
No it doesn't have an Outlook. We need an outlook/exchange replacement before we can switch the rest of the office suite. Outlook ties it all together.

DLipsitz reviewed v2.0 RC2 on Oct 9, 2005

Amazing. OpenOffice has more functionality, compatibility, and features than even the most high end version of Microsoft Office. On top of that, it's free! On top of that, I don't have all the security issues that surround Word and Excel, nor do I have to repeatedly convert documents everytime Microsoft releases an update that makes them less compatible with other content applications every day.

So, let's see:

More features.
Works with just about every OS and hardware platform on the market.
Imports and exports from and to nearly everything (up to MS Office 2000 for that product line).
No security issues.
FREE

Yeah, this one's a no brainer. It may not do everything some of those who like to complain want it to do, but it does more than MS Office's high end $699.00 Pro version, without the sticker shock. How about everyone dump MS Office and get OpenOffice? You can even donate to them, if you want (I strongly encourage it, they are more than worth it). Even if you donate just 10% of what MS Office would have cost you (versions range between $149.00 to $1,099.00 US), you have saved a bundle and are supporting a very deserving bunch of hard working professionals who are just as fed up with high priced low quality products out of Seattle.

Just download it and see for yourself. If you do not have broadband, I recommend you order the CD-ROM (probably quicker, lol), it's way cheap enough. You can always go out and spend a couple of weeks pay if you want to later.

Metshrine reviewed v2.0 RC2 on Oct 9, 2005

PJE, thats the most retarded comment I've ever heard. Microsoft is moving to new OPEN XML format which will enable far better interoperability between different environments and solutions. If you've been paying attention you would have known this and not the "new (default) file formats very soon to prevent people accessing their files as easily.". Microsoft would be putting their product into the grave if they did what you said (especially with the recent move by state of mass).
http://www.microsoft.com...opers/fileoverview.mspx

Anyways, as I said below, openoffice is a great product, and it has some very nice functionality, but anyone who gives it a 5 just for being free obviously doesnt know what a review is. A review is supposed to describe its functionality, not its cost, and as such should be based on its functionality or any lack therein. Dont rate a software based on its price, rate it on its functionality. Openoffice, as i said, is a great solution, but it lacks the polish I am used to in windows applications. The smooth flowing menus and interface is missing. The interface has come a long way since 1.0, but I think by 3.0 we will see this fully mature and blossom. Speed is another issue that many have mentioned, and I notice as well. Not that its a major issue, but it is there. This software is very nice for the person who needs a cheaper alternative to MS Office, but ms office does have a lot of additional functionality that this software does lack.

Overall a great solution, and as I said, by 3.0 we should expect to see it blossom into full maturity. Great job OoO

Also, please dont use the "No security issues" fight because we saw the same thing with firefox and now we see how many holes are actually in that program. The more it is used, the more holes are found

PJE reviewed v2.0 RC2 on Oct 9, 2005

For the money (i.e. Free), a very good package. I'm not comparing it to MS Office (which I've use for years and use at work), but for most people I think it does everything they would want to do with an office suite.

geekboy2000 - I have a colleague with Office 2003 who can't even open a doucment I created in Office 2000... I think Microsoft will be moveing to new (default) file formats very soon to prevent people accessing their files as easily.

cool_guy reviewed v2.0 RC2 on Oct 9, 2005

4 stars for features/functionality. 1 star off due to speed. Otherwise fully functional.

eviljolly reviewed v2.0 RC2 on Oct 9, 2005

If this program was as expensive as office I'd probably only give it a 2 or a 3 since it still doesn't work flawlessly, but openoffice is not only a great alternative to Microsoft's Office, there's a linux version available as well. I'm very pleased with it's performance and would much rather use it than pay M$ or run a pirated version of their software. There's still some bugs to work out, and not all features of Microsoft Office are supported yet, but this software has come a long way, and I'm sure it will eventually be just as good.

geekboy2000 reviewed v2.0 RC2 on Oct 8, 2005

The very first MS Word doc I opened with it doesn't display properly. The author of the document composed it with Office 2003, and it appears has used some tables or text blocks (I'm certainly no Word guru). The bottom line though, is that it's a very professional looking document when read in Word. In OO, it's totally unreadable. Other documents look find, but if OO was all I had, I'd be out of luck.

yokozuna reviewed v2.0 RC2 on Oct 8, 2005

Is anyone who knows what is this http://ftp.linux.cz/pub/...ndows_install_en-US.exe ? Is it the final version? If so, everything shows that the final version (OpenOffice 2.0 Build 1) is out! The file appeared there 2 hours ago.

AustinK reviewed v2.0 RC2 on Oct 7, 2005

Over and over again I am amazed at how well this program works. Not once have I experienced any crashes and there is only a few bugs that I have noticed (none of which were a big deal.) and one thing that amazes me is that the company actually responded to my emails. I personally think this is better then MS Office, but, you'll have to see for yourself. If you do try this, I recommend spending about 5 minutes in the options to make it fit for you. I would never go back to WordPerfect or MS Office again. simply put, this app kicks butt!

buzzyboop reviewed v2.0 RC2 on Oct 7, 2005

Not quite ready to give up MS Office just yet. I have a couple MSWord documents that I cannot open (yet) in Open Office. Open Office crashes when I tried to open them. The beta feature does send the crash info to the site, though.

It has worked great in the large majority of uses, though.

jonspencerbx reviewed v2.0 RC2 on Oct 7, 2005

Yes, it is a great product for the cost. But...
it still has a long way to gor before it can equal MS Office. Especially in terms of speed. It just doesn't "feel" as fast as MS office. Not only in terms of startup speed, but everything in the program just kind of lags (menus, dialogs, etc.). And since I could buy MS office 2003 thru my university for only 15 euros ($18), the choice was easy.

photonboy reviewed v2.0 RC2 on Oct 7, 2005

"Hey Yokozuna, it is NOT a newer version. Try installing it with the latest beta and you will see."

This is an amazing program, especially if you compare it to how much Microsoft Office costs!!

I tried converting Wordperfect, Word and Writer files (I made a test file and included tables, pictures, highlighting etc.) back and forth and I was amazed at how well Writer performed.

I would love to see an option to make it look more like Microsoft Word, however that is really picky.

I have one beef. I can't find a version number anywhere. I hope in the future they include one so people know when to update. I hope that updating will not involve downloading the entire program again.

(Anyone who gives a low score for a reason that is not directly related to the quality of the product should be banned in my opinion.)

panic82 reviewed v2.0 RC2 on Oct 7, 2005

Great application. Nearly as good as MS Office - yet it's free!

Huppel, wow you're some piece of work. Why don't you actually read the reviews. The only complaint about MS Office I noticed in the reviews (at least the first page of reviews) is the cost. Don't you have anything better to do than give a good piece of software a bad review because you don't like the people reviewing it. People these days...

DamienMcKenna reviewed v2.0 RC2 on Oct 7, 2005

Awesome software, but what's new/fixed/updated in rc2, I can't see any mention of it on their website?

BJSchmid reviewed v2.0 RC2 on Oct 7, 2005

I love it. I would recommend this to almost everyone as it is a nice product. Very familiar interface, comes with all the cool tools I need. I am not a huge outlook fan, so won't miss that too much!!

huppel reviewed v2.0 RC2 on Oct 7, 2005

A lawzy 1 vote !
Why ? Because of all the stupids who can't stop bashing at MS-Office while comparing the two applications.

NikMan reviewed v2.0 RC2 on Oct 7, 2005

I have installed it on my computer and tested it a little. It is a bit slower than MS but it's not enojying.

I recommend it to all companies that pays for MS suite, becouse it's easy to acustom it. It is very similiar to MS suite (maybe too much:)).

It's awesome product and it is very compatible with MS office.

I hope Mozilla will release it's Outlook alternative, named Lighting soon?

arossetti reviewed v2.0 RC2 on Oct 7, 2005

Simply superb. 99.9999% MSFT Office compatibility, and OpenDocument format to boot.

ModderXManiac reviewed v2.0 RC2 on Oct 7, 2005

WUNDERBAR!!!

(Its german ^_^)

Tenoq reviewed v2.0 RC1 on Oct 4, 2005

brunok:

You might find MS Office loads quicker than OpenOffice because it loads most of the program at startup (check your msconfig for the two or three MS Office-related startups).

Very polished program these days. I'm still impressed.

B3AN reviewed v2.0 RC1 on Sep 30, 2005

Perfect for most users, why pay $500 for Microsoft Office which you will probably use once a week.

I personaly have dicthed ms office.

DiGiTaLFX reviewed v2.0 RC1 on Sep 30, 2005

Its not better than office but I don't need it to be. Most features in office are really aimed at professional use and I'm a home user. So its fine! Nice to see its finally version 2.0 and not 1.9.

BetaJunky reviewed v2.0 RC1 on Sep 30, 2005

I could not be a biger fan. I have owned Office for some time but OO is in my opinion superior. I am confused by people who claim it can not do as much. Perhaps they have not learned how to use it yet. You will love it. Quit reading about it and just get it already.

brunok reviewed v2.0 RC1 on Sep 29, 2005

It's a great option for home users, but Microsoft Office is still unbeatable, specially for companies. It still lacks a bit of compability with Microsoft Word's *.doc documents, but still these are just minor problems. And it's a bit heavy even on my AthlonXP +2400 768MB RAM and it lacks some features, while Microsoft Office runs way smoother and has tons of useful stuff (well, some are useless to most people). But since it's open-source and free for the home user, it's a great program!

sn1p34 reviewed v2.0 RC1 on Sep 29, 2005

I do admit this is a amazing free program but I would not go as far as saying it is way better then Microsoft office, and no it does not have more features then Microsoft Office, but I'm sure you never used it and your just trying to bash Microsoft. But for a large businesses I would defiantly recommend Microsoft Office since it has some usefully features that this product does not have yet, and most employees will be much more familiar with the features included in Office then in OpenOffice, non the less this product is great for home users that don't need everything Office has to offer, So I still give it a 5/5 for being open source, and free.

tipsyboy reviewed v2.0 RC1 on Sep 29, 2005

Great new look - really nice - Options are far more clear and open - sophisticated if you want it to be - easy if you wanna have it at a snap.

This is just a first impression. And I'm really astonished. The whole thing has become far more beautiful and nice to look at and has a much easier feel to it. I've used it from it's start and I am truly impressed.

I wonder what the final release will be like.

Absolutely fabulous - !

10 stars - !

tmaioli reviewed v2.0 RC1 on Sep 29, 2005

What more can I say... this program is GREAT! I want to throw in my 5 stars.... more if I could have. Try it, and not just for 5 minutes either, and you will be amazed.

Don Juan reviewed v2.0 RC1 on Sep 29, 2005

For one reason or another I haven't rated this program yet. I've been using this since 1.0 and I love it. The 1.x versions weren't so hot, but 2.0 is simply amazing.

Metshrine reviewed v2.0 RC1 on Sep 29, 2005

4 is the most I can rate this program. It is a great free alternative to MS Office, but it lacks the polish that I am used to in windows software. It lacks the more mature gui that I am used to. The program does what it says, and it does it well. To people who think that just because this is free you cant complain about it, your wrong. A review is just that. You are supposed to post your opinions of the software and price shouldnt be the sole basis for rating a piece of software a 5. Office 2003 has alot of stuff it does that oOo cant, and vice versa. Both are good, but I think, at the end of the day, office 2003 (for me) comes out on top. BUT, This is well on its way to overcoming MS's stranglehold on the productivity suite market. I suspect by 3.0 we will see this software blossom into its full maturity. Good job oOo

Oh, and to the top reviewer, office starts up quicker even after deleting the ONE MS OFFICE (CTFMON.EXE) startup program

iknowyouknow reviewed v2.0 RC1 on Sep 29, 2005

Well, in a word its the mutts nuts, the Wizards Cuff , the dangly dangler:) fantastic program , no wonder M$ is pooing its pants when they charge silly money compared to this baby that fREE!!!!

jshrk reviewed v2.0 RC1 on Sep 29, 2005

Its amazing and better than MSOffice! Bash MS cause its fun, yay! BTW 'huppel' this isnt 'The little kids who think they own the world forum' either, your also a hypocrite for flamming useless kiddy Caps.

ModderXManiac reviewed v2.0 RC1 on Sep 29, 2005

huppel

Your an idiot, this really IS better than MS Office.

You cant even really argue it since this is !!!FREE!!!

You didnt leave your opinion u were just being a jerk.(I bet he worx for M-Soft)

Anywho..Its free, works on multiple-platforms, very stable, and very capable.

panic82 reviewed v2.0 RC1 on Sep 29, 2005

This is a great freeware/opensource alternative to Microsoft Office. I use it at home all the time.

To eyv, true about the UI stuff. But Microsoft is likely to put that app through various types of user testing. I'm sure their new UI will be as efficient as ever, if not better.

HurricaneGame reviewed v2.0 Beta (Snapshot Build 1.9.m130) on Sep 25, 2005

Awsome..way better than MS word.

yokozuna reviewed v2.0 Beta (Snapshot Build 1.9.m130) on Sep 24, 2005

ModderXManiac, you wrote "Its free, works on multiple-platforms, very stable, very capable". I fully agree and what I would add is "and supports almost all the languages".
I use four languages, practically every day. The languages are German, Polish, Japanese and last but not least English (I also read scientific texts in some others). My institute had to make some PCs multiboot because Office 2003 had problems with reading (I do not mention editing!) all the above languages, esp. if it was saved by a different Ms Office version (editions or language versions, my institute used O.2003, but the documents were created with O97, O2000, OXP or O2003).
Nothing like that happens with OOo, and everything works with flying colours (not only in my case!), so my institute is changing the office suite. I already use it at home and I must say that OOo suits me fine. What is funny, the price was not any issue.
I feel that I ought to donate the OOo team. The team saved a lot of my time, and put simply - made my life a bit easier.

allsiante reviewed v2.0 Beta (Snapshot Build 1.9.m130) on Sep 16, 2005

"A good alternative to MS Office if you're poor."

Get a life.

OO.org is great, and it's just getting better and better. I use it on linux and on windows (no matter that I also have OfficeXP). It's not always about the money.

eyv reviewed v2.0 Beta (Snapshot Build 1.9.m130) on Sep 15, 2005

Just because the next version of Microsoft Office has a new UI, doesn't mean it's better. Prettier != more usable.

ModderXManiac reviewed v2.0 Beta (Snapshot Build 1.9.m130) on Sep 15, 2005

Its free, works on multiple-platforms, very stable, very capable.

MSO has nothing on this. Especially since Office 12 has a bloated eye-candy crap interface.

And for GeorgeSantayana, your an idiot, who cares how "cool" MSO 12 looks, the amount of memory the "fancy" interface uses is NOT cool. Its bloated eye-candy crap. This isnt. Microsoft no longer designs programs with performance in mind, they just add crap loads of eye candy making it look incredibly advanced to n00bs such as yourself so you end up investing in it. I'd say your pretty stupid spending $300-500 for the new MSO, when this will be free, and just as capable.

OpenOffice.org is a worthy cause, I use it on Linux, and I love it!

sn0wflake reviewed v2.0 Beta (Snapshot Build 1.9.m130) on Sep 15, 2005

It's free. Nothing more to say.

guitardave78 reviewed v2.0 Beta (Snapshot Build 1.9.m130) on Sep 15, 2005

Still a 5 from me. Superb software.
One thing, the comment about if your poor it is a good alternative. You snide git.
You run a college, hit by current lsc funding problems, but need office on 2000 pcs. mmmm free or £300 or somthing pounds a license or the 10k or somthing for the site license.

If you are a student, got some cheap hunk of junk pc, need a word processor, £190 for office or free.

Think about things before you make stupid comments.

arossetti reviewed v2.0 Beta (Snapshot Build 1.9.m130) on Sep 15, 2005

Build 130 not out yet. Build 128 is the latest, but it is quite awesome...

bts reviewed v2.0 Beta 2 on Sep 2, 2005

Great product with great support. If you ever have a question about the product be sure to visit these forums: http://www.oooforum.org

Slug_Coordinator reviewed v2.0 Beta 2 on Aug 31, 2005

DigiBrian,
You oviously do not know a whole lot on this.
First Sun Microsystems Owns this!! They make money!

2. You do not understand how open source works obviously.

3. Free vs. Paid does this mean that you do not believe that quality work is quality work reguardless. Does the idea of people helping to make something out of their desire to help make it any less then some one being paid to do something as a job? Absolutely NOT!

Open Office is something you should get and try. If it works for you then you save if not your only out a little time.

Many people I personally know have used it and even uses it to write books. Robin "Roblimo" Miller Editor for Slashdot, NewsForge, Linux.com, Wil Wheaton from Star Trek Next Generation. Are two such people whom have used it on a professional level. So perhaps you should try it.

It rocks and only gets better.

BP.

DigiBrian reviewed v2.0 Beta 2 on Aug 30, 2005

How can you compare this to Office? you got hundreds of dollars vs. zero dollars in price, I never understood people who compared paid programs with free programs.

Also you write that we should get version 2 fast, hey if they are not getting any money in then how can they work any faster than Microsoft who gets millions of dollars in on their Office projects.

God Speeds, but he never get fined.

guitardave78 reviewed v2.0 Beta 2 on Aug 30, 2005

This is good!!
I really didn't like OO 1.1 but this is just fantastic.
Only really used writer, but it has replaced word in just a few hours of use.

Everything i need is there, support for word, styles, mail merge, pdf support... Hell you can write macros in about 4 different languages.

Great packager for Free!!!!
I can see why some companies were considering packaging this with their pcs over m$ office.

Ain Soph Aur reviewed v2.0 Beta 2 on Aug 30, 2005

the best free(!) software solution

utomo reviewed v2.0 Beta 2 on Aug 30, 2005

OOo still need to reduce the Java dependency.

Ooo still need to reduce the bugs, so we need your help by reporting the bugs at
http://qa.openoffice.org...ing/pre_submission.html

If everybody keep reporting the bugs it will help make the products better.

mcm reviewed v2.0 Beta 2 on Aug 29, 2005

Well, I'm glad they're taking their time to release this product. For the past 6 months not many new features have been added but a load of bug fixes and more importantly performace improvements have been made. Keep up the good work.

zridling reviewed v2.0 Beta 2 on Aug 29, 2005

Is OOo ever going to release 2.0 or is this a WordPerfect situation where they sit on a version for years and years? Pull the trigger folks, or Microsoft Office 12 is going to be in our hands before OOo 2.0 will be.

Jeavis reviewed v2.0 Beta 2 on Aug 29, 2005

Incredible for a free package (for a pay one too)

reets reviewed v2.0 Beta 2 on Aug 29, 2005

Perfect replacement for MS Office. Loads faster than Office and uses less memory while running. Interface is also much easier to use than MS Office.

anomoly reviewed v2.0 Beta 2 on Aug 29, 2005

There's no such thing as a 'final' version of ANY software unless developers stop all work on it.F MS

arossetti reviewed v2.0 Beta 2 on Aug 29, 2005

Excellent software, and worthy Office Replacement. Sure, it takes a few seconds more to load, but are those few seconds worth $329 to upgrade to Office 2003 or $499 for a full new license? OO is far and away the best Office alternative, and you can't beat the price.

Tenoq reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m122) on Aug 8, 2005

Still impressing me.

scriptee - MS Office loads faster because not only does it have access to native code, but it also runs a loader on the startup of your PC. This improves it's boot time for any app. Same problem exists with IE vs Firefox - IE is basically loaded already once you've booted to your XP desktop. Firefox needs to start from scratch.

theneus reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m122) on Aug 3, 2005

Estou adorando essa nova versão, mas rapida, leve, diversas ferramentas... Estão de parabens.

lastjuan reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m122) on Aug 3, 2005

An unofficial source vinculated to the development of 2.0, say that it will take about two months more, with the Beta available at the end of August, start of September. But i didn't bet a dollar on it.

zridling reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m122) on Aug 3, 2005

What Tokar said. OpenOffice has to be the slowest ever to finalize a version. Oy.

scriptee reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m122) on Aug 2, 2005

Very nice free software! The only reason I still use Ms Office is because OpenOffice is soooo sloooow. Even with the quick launcher thingy it doesnt load up any faster O.o if it loaded anywhere as fast as Office it would get 5 stars without a second thought.

ArabianNight reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m122) on Aug 2, 2005

heading in the right direction...

Tokar reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m122) on Aug 2, 2005

Would someone like to tell me when they expect to make this version 2.0 FINAL???

ZenWarrior reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m118) on Jul 18, 2005

I very much prefer Open Office to MS Word. However, OO.org really needs to address their installation/upgrade process. I have had a trouble-free installation of a new version only once out of many, many times. Open Office is the only software I use that presents such a problem. Fix that and a score of 5 is forthcoming.

ArKay74 reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m118) on Jul 18, 2005

I don't think the performance has nowt to do with this being a free program. StarOffice is based on this code base and is commercial. Software which works on multiple platforms usually has to compromise. Anyway, I am not complaining since my machine is equipped well :)

DigiBrian reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m113) on Jul 2, 2005

roj *judge eye* did you pay for your Office package?

I guess what I am saying is that people can't expect the same performance in a FREE program as in a $400 program, at least not most of the time.

This is just a great free alternative to the light and poor user.

mfarmilo reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m113) on Jul 1, 2005

As for this not being a beta - it is according the openoffice.org website. Latest build in the beta on there is 1.9.m113.

Aires reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m113) on Jul 1, 2005

Snapshot Build? Wtf?? This is not a Beta. Hmph.

What are you guys below moaning about incompatibility? It's a bloomin' Snapshot Build!

Kartun_355 reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m109) on Jun 18, 2005

This bundle is pretty good, but it lacks MS office documents compability. I mean that I need to have Word 97 to open some dox that OO Writer couldn't open at all or could open partially ...

anomoly reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m109) on Jun 16, 2005

Rated the same in features & performance, except some software requires ms office, as it is more prevalent worldwide

scriptee reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m104) on May 20, 2005

I have OpenOffice as well as Ms Office 2003 installed at the moment, and to be honest I normally end up using OpenOffice instead :-) If only it would load faster without that task tray thingy.

the_lord_almighty reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m100) on May 9, 2005

Love this office suite.
However the recent builds are giving me nothing but crashing and problems on my Pentium-M laptop. I'm trying to write term papers and keep losing data, because there are major bugs with headers and footers. This didn't happen in previous builds, so hopefully this is addressed quickly.
Otherwise, great free suite.

niti reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m100) on May 4, 2005

with only word: PERFECT

bobad reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m100) on May 3, 2005

Good, and getting better and better. MS Office 2003 is better, but certainly not $300 better! Try this office suite. After a slight learning curve to adjust to the differences vis-a-vis Office 2003, you will like it. It's finally turning into a 1st class office suite.

jamiebarry reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m100) on May 3, 2005

It's simply great, it has came a long way. and def will ditch MS office once this is released as a full version.

It crashed on me once and I lost 3 pages of work, but it's still a beta, so I can't complain.

DJInsomniac reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m100) on May 3, 2005

I've been using this for quite some time, and I really am impressed. One tiny downfall I find though, is that it has to be called "OpenOffice.org". Maybe if it was titled plainly "Open Office" and didn't include "OpenOffice.org 1.9.79" etc. in the Programs Menu, it would be better.

Just calling it "OpenOffice.org" looks tacky.

mjm01010101 reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m100) on May 3, 2005

Beta for the ages.

Release it guys! It's ready!

arossetti reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m100) on May 3, 2005

For my usage, the last two versions have been as close to ready for prime time as they can be. The bugs I discovered in earlier builds have been fixed, and compatibilty with other document formats (i.e. MS Office) is quite impressive, even for relatively complex spreadsheets. I've been slowly moving my company toward this product, and I think I'll accelerate that process once 2.0 goes gold.

yokozuna reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m95) on Apr 23, 2005

What a nice surprise! I tried to use OO two years ago, but it was unusable - sloooow startup, limited usability, some stability issues. All those things are already gone. Well done! I guess Microsoft Office 2003 is the last edition I bought. I am going to replace it by OO 2.0 (and further versions).

ccg reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m95) on Apr 22, 2005

A little buggy as would be expected from a beta but otherwise a superb product. I look forward to the final release.

danilloOc reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m95) on Apr 22, 2005

I'm using OO.org for more than a year now and i really like it but i'm having font's problems on the interface when running Windowblinds or some Visual Styles, i hope they fix it ;)

zridling reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m95) on Apr 21, 2005

Although I wish OpenOffice Writer had a task pane like Word 2003, Jem Matzan rightly says: "While the task pane does not offer any unique functionality, it does make it more convenient to reach certain tools and commands." If you haven't tried Base, the new MS Access-like database component, try it. My only other gripe is the same one I have about Firefox — slow startup speed (compared to MS Office), but at least it's faster than it was in 1.x. After 2.0 is delivered, users will have a permanent and responsive office suite to work with from now on.

eddie reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m95) on Apr 21, 2005

niti: Look just above the screenshot. There is a link for the Linux version.

niti reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m95) on Apr 21, 2005

Where is OO-m95 for Linux version? I looked into OO's web site but I could not find it.

ZJAM reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m93) on Apr 14, 2005

Security Patch for OpenOffice.org 1.1.4 is available
http://download.openoffi...1.4/security_patch.html
a updated version of OpenOffice 2.0 beta should be out soon either today or tomorrow that will include the patch this build will be OpenOffice.org 2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m95) so keep an eye out for this.

netean reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m93) on Apr 14, 2005

it's ok, come a long way from the awful version 1.1, but still failing in simple fundamental ways: try writing a document in more than one language - try spell checking a document in more than one language! Template support is way better than before but still not great (what's the default template called... blank, a4, normal, default?)

if you can't get a copy of MS Office (which will drive you insane at times, but for the most part is pretty good) its' worth a try, it might be ok for your needs

simonjames reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m93) on Apr 13, 2005

I love this program and use it as my primary word processing software. It is free and version 2.0 is much better then version 1.1. The only problems I have with it is that writting a caption under a table or picture is only accesible in a hard to reach feature (its somewhere deep in the writer options, autocaption), and my other problem is that when I made a table in writer, I wanted to merge 2 cells and I got a prompt telling me it was too complicated (It did not look complicated at all).

There was the time I changed language for the dictionary midway through a document and everything I wrote after that never got saved (even though I am a psycho for ctrl+s)

Besides that, I highly recommend Openoffice 2.0.

zridling reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m93) on Apr 13, 2005

OpenOffice users need to grow up and get over their incessant verbal trashing of Microsoft Office. Microsoft Office 2003 is solid in its own right, as will be OpenOffice 2.x, which in beta can already stand on its own without the need for every other poster to trash the alternative. Consider the 2.0 version of OpenOffice as its coming-out party. You won't go wrong with either suite, but you will love OpenOffice 2.0 — if you can tolerate its deathly slow startup speed, which earns it a 4 instead of a five from me. That said, it's obvious that there are only two players in the Office Suite game, so say goodbye to WordPerfect Office forever!

utomo reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m91) on Apr 8, 2005

The Bad news is: it depend on Java more compared to version 1.
http://software.newsforg....pl?sid=05/03/22/204244

http://www.xminc.com/mt/archives/000275.html

I hope they reduce it. and people will happy with it.

anomoly reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m91) on Apr 8, 2005

Open Office blows away M$ office. It does everything MS does AND can open any ms type file, plus the entire package is much smaller, requires no keys or patches & must I remind you is totally free. M$ office CANNOT open any OO file & unfortunately, some software requires M$ office to function at all-(***holes). In reviews they are absolutely equal except for a very small difference relating to powerpont capabilities, which in my opinion is nothing. As far as loading slower you don't know what you are talking about

allsiante reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m91) on Apr 8, 2005

"Ya, I admit OpenOffice is good for people who don't like spending money, But I like the look, and feal of office 2003 pro, and I have noticed a few more features on Office."

You're quite on the wrong track with this. The situation is quite the opposite with us OSS guys: we don't like to TRASH OUT BIG MONEY ON SOFTWARE WHICH HAS QUITE A GOOD FREE ALTERNATIVE, that's what you should think about, my friend.

Why should I drop loads of cash into MS's purses while I can do my stuff easily with free software and spend the money on more usefull and/or joyfull stuff ?

That's all.

c4p0ne reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m91) on Apr 8, 2005

Honestly, I wish OpenOffice would CRUSH sales of MS Office. Really I do, I mean i'd like nothing better. But man MS Office (for a bloated overfeatured product) loads REAAAALY fast compared to OpenOffice. If they can make OpenOffice load even 2 or 3 seconds slower then the M$ equivalent, we'll happily pee on M$.

M$ is too strong. When a corporate entity has the power to push the United States goverment around like a jock pushing a little nerd against the lockers and walking away.. THATS TROUBLE! Go OpenOffice!

popdog reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m91) on Apr 7, 2005

While I don't think OO is superior to Office 2003, you can't fault it considering its free. Version 2 is a gib step forward in terms of the look and feel too :)

spiffyjeff reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m91) on Apr 7, 2005

What do you mean, good for people who don't like spending money? do you mean that MS is good money waster for those that do like to spend money? hee hee.

I love to spend money, but I have my priorities, and Open Office works wonderfly for me. Just gotta learn new ways of doing old tricks. It's worth the time spent to learn, rather than the money spent on MS, plus you get free upgrades :-)

sn1p34 reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m87) on Mar 31, 2005

Ya, I admit OpenOffice is good for people who don't like spending money, But I like the look, and feal of office 2003 pro, and I have noticed a few more features on Office.

LatestGadgets reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m87) on Mar 30, 2005

Being an intensive business / finance user, I find the application suite far superior to MS Office. I hope that one day they will introduce an Outlook PIM suite as well.

pjlasl reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m87) on Mar 30, 2005

Getting better. Waiting for Open Office 2

Slug_Coordinator reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m79) on Feb 20, 2005

Major Problem. Running Windows XP Home Edition SP2
1 gig ram, Latest Java, all Windows Updates.

When trying to copy and paste images from the web the document crashes. Using IE or FireFox right click image click copy try to paste in document nothing happens.

Then go to edit and paste special it forces bmp only! Then paste image it crashes every time this is the 1.9.77 and the newiest 1.9.79 same thing!

Images will paste fine in anyother windows programs not Open Office? Will some one else try this and see what happens?

When doing reports this is something that should be working without crashing the app!

Take one of the Windows gif icons on this site for instance right click it can choose copy then try to past it in a Open Office Document you have to special paste it will crash.

Also does this on 3 other PC's I have. The other 2 running Windows XP PRO SP2. One a Laptop with 512 megs ram. The other pc 1 gig ram.

devilrider reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m79) on Feb 18, 2005

Open Office roxx.

Its 75 MB to download, it is free and it has all you need.

AND a feature for all M$ Office fan: it can even repair Documents that cannot be opend by M$ Office anymore. WOW.

tigger4046 reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m79) on Feb 18, 2005

I agree with everyone else here, OpenOffice is getting better. But I would still prefer if it would load faster like it's proto-type StarOffice does. Until it does not take so long with activating menus, sub-menus and the loading process I will have to stay with my old copy of Ms 2000

jungle! reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m77) on Feb 17, 2005

zridling: you call OpenOffice bloated? I dont get that... It is much more reasonable then MS Office and especially WordPerfect. I can't see why people would knock this program, it is as close to perfect as possible IMHO.

WickedLester reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m77) on Feb 16, 2005

OpenOffice only improves with each release. I am looking forward to the final release of OpenOffice 2.

mfarmilo reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m77) on Feb 16, 2005

I like it, but I still have a big problem. If I want to send a document to anybody, 99.9 percent of the time they will only accept a .doc file. And OpenOffice *still* won't save a .doc file that will look the same on the other users computer as it did on mine. Until they get this right (and I mean spot on) OpenOffice is actually worse than useless for me in those situations.

ArKay74 reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m77) on Feb 16, 2005

First time I'm trying a 2.0 beta. It's finally starting to look a real Windows application (using native controls and stuff). Startup time got better and we get a desktop database. The setup has been worked on as well, no more 500 installation files :) Really looking forward to 2.0 final!

morganevans reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m77) on Feb 16, 2005

zridling: Always one for positive and constructive comments with your always justifiable ratings :)

I guess the days of decent reviews are long dead. Anyway, seeing as you've rating OpenOffice with a 1 star I think I'll balance out the world with a four star rating for no other reason than I've been using OpenOffice for ages and am willing to put up with a 20 second startup time and a slightly awkward interface for what is still an excellent full featured (not bloated) and stable peice of software. I'd give it 5 stars if it weren't for the interface issues.

Keep up the good work guys!

zridling reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m77) on Feb 16, 2005

Why should anyone who uses OpenOffice care what Microsoft Office is doing or how good it is? If you're using OpenOffice, you were never going to use Microsoft Office anyway. OpenOffice just needs to concentrate on improving — this version suffers from so much bloat that it crawls on most systems. Right now I'm looking forward to the new StarOffice 8 release which leaps ahead of this version of OpenOffice in several significant areas.

aerthling reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m77) on Feb 16, 2005

Changelog? Why is there never a changlog? *kick*

GeorgeSantayana reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m74) on Jan 30, 2005

The OpenOffice.org/Sun developers have turned out a superb piece of software.

When 2.0 comes out, I believe in March, I will have no reason to use MS Office or, indeed, Windows anymore. In fact, it might be even a slight to OpenOffice.org to compare it to MS Office, for it is vastly superior when it comes to handling long documents. There's no mysteriously disappearing figures, instability, etc. like with Word. And possibly the biggest difference: no damn Clippy with the default install.

Is it perfect? No. There are still some bugs to be worked out. However, when it does crash, it's good about recovering your information. Plus, I use VBA a lot, so I have to rewrite a lot of old macros to get them to work with OOo. It'd be nice if there was a good way to convert. This is probably only a nuisance to a minority of Office users though.

cool_guy reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m74) on Jan 30, 2005

Alright I understand I have been a bit harsh on this product and I am giving it a full five star credit with this new release, it deserves it. It's got too many good features that just can't be ignored.

P.S Is it just me or has something been done to the speed? Seems like this latest release starts up a lot faster then all other previous releases! And I mean A LOT!!

avino reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m74) on Jan 30, 2005

A simply GREAT project.

c4p0ne reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m74) on Jan 30, 2005

Man lemme tell you, OpenOffice (at least this late beta version) has been -SURPRISINGLY- a big dissapointment in terms of speed, interoperability with the OS, etc.. It doesn't integrate well with Internet Explorer and crashes once and a while (not too often but often enough to raise eyebrows). Actually the integration with IE is awful to say the least. The speed was the second shocking dissapointment and perhaps the more personaly "hurtful" one.

MS Office Word for instance, loads literally in 1 second. Bam. It's ready. OpenOffice Write takes about 30 seconds to load properly. Even though it's lighter, it FEELS way MORE bloated then MS Office (I know it's like the friggin twilight zone). Anyway If they fix the speed at the very LEAST, I'll give it another shot. This especially hurts me because I'll be the last one to endorse any crap MS makes.

Banquo reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m74) on Jan 29, 2005

People, Microsoft Office is an expensive (and bloated) program while this is 100% free and does the job just as well. Anyone who says this deserves a zero because it's not from Microsoft is an idiot.

bsr500 reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m74) on Jan 29, 2005

Great for being freeware, if you are looking for something to replace office then this is most likely not what your looking for. But if you are just looking for a free (notsogood) alternative then this is pretty good.

lumaan reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m74) on Jan 29, 2005

To rozaray25

Not all like to use money on Mircosoft office when there is a good one for free....

I for once like this one and I dont need to use money (or use a crack version)

rozaray25 reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m74) on Jan 29, 2005

I don't like it. Just Microsoft Office and it is much better and you have more programs than this. This should be rated a Zero!

techie_G33k reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m74) on Jan 29, 2005

Been using OpenOffice.org since before 1.0 came out of beta testing and haven't had a complaint since.

Stable and runs smooth. Great freeware options to M$ bloated M$ Office suite.

Keep the good work coming!

Stingray57 reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m71s1) on Jan 20, 2005

This package is awesome!

1. Micorsoft preloads all the DLLs for MS Office. It's their product; they want it to be faster than the competition.

2. Office is bloated to death with features people will never use and it's expensive.

3. OpenOffice is free and the only reason it hasn't taken off like a lunar orbitor is because of MS Outlook (MS's killer app).

I am not a fan of Outlook first-off, but what I saying is that what Outlook does for organization (calendars, contacts, tasks email); it ties it all in.

Most companies buy MSOffice just for MSOutlook.

Do what smart people do- dump the bloat; get OpenOffice and Thunderbird. Save some cash.

fbopal reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m71s1) on Jan 20, 2005

To Cool_Guy,

It is normal that you do not see any slow down in startup time on your window machine with MS office installed, if you take a look at your startup you will notice that MS-office is loaded. But it is loaded in the background while the rest of windows is being brought up (if you are using XP). But nevertheless, it has pre-loaded a lot of DLLs which from then on stay and use memory on your computer.

This background loading seems great in concept, but what it means is that even though I have my desktop in about 20 seconds after boot up, I cannot do anything until about another 2 minutes while it keeps loading windows services and the likes. For example I do not have access to the internet after at least 2 minutes.

But back to OpenOffice, I have been using the beta to write documentation for the last 2 months, my document is about 70 pages now and I have had only 1 problem with it.

Actually it was a problem with the index table, but when I removed it, everything worked fine again.

For those of you MS-Office fans, yes I did try the document with MS-Office and it too choked on the index table. It started working fine only when I removed it. I guess I'll add the index table only at the end of writing the document...

cool_guy reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m71s1) on Jan 20, 2005

ConceptJunkie:

I disagree with that 50% and I agree 50% Even when the OOo autostart launcher is on, it still takes quite some time to launch this thing. I haven't measured it but I am not gonna bother installing it again just to measure it.

Regarding MS Office, after MS Office is installed, there is absolutely no system slow down on start up. Perhaps, MS Office is using already loaded libreries which are essenctial to Windows (which are loaded on Startup) and it's taking adventage of all these and it starts up quickly. Other programs such as IE may also take adventage of these libs that are being loaded on Windows bootup. Anyhow, the goal is accomplished, MS Office is fast, OOo is slow regardless what is done and how it is done. There is no excuse and something must be done. Users don't want to hear justifications and excuses. I see your point but just because it is free and because of the points you mentioned it doesn't mean it needs to be rated five starts and don't forget this is my opinion only.

morganevans reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m71s1) on Jan 20, 2005

Pipewrench: What an excellent review and such incisive comments. Perhaps we ought to put you down for the 'person with the most ancient and un-original criticisms' award. Get a life.

As usual, I have no complaints about OpenOffice. I have been using it for well over a year and actually prefer it over the bloated and over glossy Microsoft approach. Microsoft Office is good but OpenOffice is just as good - fact.

alister reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m71s1) on Jan 19, 2005

We are slowing inching toward version 2.0. Office suite is very comparible of MS Office and can easily replace MS Office in the home and small businesses. I have taken MS Office off of my home computer and switched over to OpenOffice and I have no problems opening/editing any documents that I created with MS Office.

Pipewrench reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m71s1) on Jan 19, 2005

Wonder if they could take a longer time to release 2.0?

What a waste. It might actually be as good as Office 97 when they release it. That's great. Nothing like 8 year old technology being released as brand new :)

Yipppie...

bobad reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m71s1) on Jan 19, 2005

ConceptJunkie, OOo also partially loads by default, but you can turn the module off if you choose. However, it's _REALLY_ slow to start without it. They need to stop adding features and tighten up the code, and concentrate on speeding this dog up for a few releases.

ConceptJunkie reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m71s1) on Jan 19, 2005

cool_guy:

You do realize that MS Office and many other apps accomplish their fast loading times by having most of the application loaded at boot-time.

I for one do not need every app on my system grabbing several or even tens of megabytes of RAM just so it can pop up quickly when I click on the icon, but that is exactly the trend these days, and since Office essentially becomes part of the OS, it does this in spades.

OpenOffice loads just fine as a relatively large app. Not only that, but it actually works pretty well too. I haven't used it a lot yet, but the fact that I don't have to install Word makes it all worthwhile.

THZGryphon reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m71s1) on Jan 19, 2005

Shouldn't that read "OpenOffice.org 2.0 for Windows" lol

As always, onther great release.

mahesh_n_77 reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m71s1) on Jan 19, 2005

hello everyone - just my penny for your thoughts - on a 2 Ghz P4 with *only* 256 megs of RAM and an ASRock Mo'board, and general off-the-shelf hardware(including display & sound onboard), OOo loads in 5 secs flat! Of course, on a relatively 'clean' install of XP with only Office XP, some sound/video editing and some CD/DVD writing S/W on it.

cool_guy, it would help if you gave some basic details of your system config - maybe it gives some idea of why it takes so long to load ????

thehunger reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m69) on Jan 12, 2005

Jungle, OO.o -does- support macros (Tools / Macros). It can record macros and you can write them. The language is Python, I think.

But.. I totally agree with all the comments on load times. It has improved but is still bad.

jungle! reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m69) on Jan 11, 2005

Actually netean, OOo has the ability to state a wordcount if you go to:
File > Properties > Statistics Tab

and cool_guy, it does draw tables by going to:
Insert > Table

If this app suported a scripting macro language like vb script, it would be the defacto MS Office killer for sure!

cool_guy reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m69) on Jan 11, 2005

MS Word takes 1-2 seconds to start. OpenOffice.org Writer takes about 20 seconds to start. Even 602Office and other free and non free office suites take about 1-2 seconds in start up times. It's almost version 2 and still it takes a good amount of time to start. It's like loading an entire operating system or something. It's ridicolous.

I am giving this 3 because of, it's free, it's packed of features, EXCELLENT MS Word filters, more consistent user interface however I still couldn't find "Draw Table" function. I take two points, 1 for the speed, 1 for the missing draw table function. If the speed is improved and this other function is added, it will be an excellent office suite.

netean reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m69) on Jan 11, 2005

77Mb download, and I'll be it still DOES NOT have a the word count on selection feature in the writer component!!!

dtanderson reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m69) on Jan 11, 2005

I see no reason for people to buy MS Office (or MS Works) for home use when this will work for the majority of user's home use. I see why this could not replace MS Office is at a lot of businesses especially smaller ones with smaller budgets.

SFAMonkey reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m69) on Jan 11, 2005

Just took a look at this new version. It is awesome from the older versions. They icons are cleaner and it a lot faster. I think I'm going to make a conversion to this from word

WickedLester reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m69) on Jan 11, 2005

What do you mean "These new releases are all screwed up...dont type anything you care about with this....and DO NOT try to use spellcheck."???? It is a beta and not final release so of course there may be bugs in it, so it sould not be used in a production environment.

alister reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m69) on Jan 11, 2005

To the person that said that it would be nice if it had a component like Access in it.... That is one of the new features of version 2.0. You said that you did not try it then why did you bother rating it :) If you would have tried it or visited the website to see what was new you would see that it has a database app with it (ie: Access). All we need is for our governmental offices and educational institutions to look at this and consider making the switch and saving us tax payers some money instead of paying $$$ to MS for Office.

Alister

GeneralLeoFF reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m69) on Jan 11, 2005

Thats what makes it a beta ya know... :)

This version is here for testing and only a moron would use this for anything that matters at this point. If you find problems you should tell Sun rather then rating the beta 1 like this is a final product.

improvelence reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m65) on Dec 18, 2004

These new releases are all screwed up...dont type anything you care about with this....and DO NOT try to use spellcheck.

Rolphus reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m65) on Dec 18, 2004

(Neutral rating as I haven't tried this build)

One of the main new features of OpenOffice 2 is actually to provide an Access-like database system. As far as I understand it, it's almost ready for public showing - but because they've come from a standing start with it, it's not been made available yet.

mbrown103 reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m65) on Dec 17, 2004

It would be nice if there was some sort of Access implementation, especially for the Linux version. Otherwise, I use it on a regular basis to create files for MSWord XP and OpenOffice.org. Keep up the good work.

carmad reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m65) on Dec 17, 2004

This version does have a format paintbrush icon right in the toolbar that works just like you'd expect, and it does do word count of selected text (select text, tools menu, word count). Startup isn't real slow if you allow the quickstart to run in the tray.
There are some hassles involved in using the snapshot builds- for example, they just changed the format from .oot to .odt, and it cannot read the .oot format without mucking around.
But OOo is improving all the time, and it is a viable replacement for MS Office for many people. Writer is very functional, it has more than enough features for most people. Calc opens all of my Excel spreadsheets and they work, although people say advanced spreadsheets may not. Haven't looked at the Powerpoint replacement. An Outlook replacement is not included (there's always Thunderbird and Sunbird), and Base is not helpful for a novice Access user- it does not work the same at all.
If you are an typical user of Word and Excel, OOo
could easily let you stop being a pirate or let you get off the Microsoft bandwagon.

Zulithe reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m65) on Dec 17, 2004

It should be noted, if it isn't obvious already, that these 2.0 "snapshot builds" are equivalent to Alpha software, to be aware! This build is the first to include the new document and program icons for OOo. They are a big improvement, though I'm not sure I would consider them as good as what you would see in Office 2003. Speaking of Office 2003, I think you'll notice a lot of similarities between it and OOo 2.0 (interface-wise), which I like. I think the OOo team is doing an amazing job but one thing still bothers me, and it has only gotten WORSE since 1.1 and that is: STARTUP SPEED, it's much, much slower than Office 2003, which is disappointing. Also, this particular build will crash if you attempt to use the thesaurus, you might want to skip this one until OOo 2.0 goes into Open Beta (which is very soon)

ezh reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m65) on Dec 17, 2004

netean, have you tried the 2.0 snapshot? There is all in there...

netean reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m65) on Dec 17, 2004

it's good, and got a lot of things going for it (free... opensource etc)
but it's hampered by several big problems (IMO)
1 - the interface, not just the buttons but the overall usability.
2 - Size...way too big, especially if people don't want ALL the apps, but say, like me, only want to use writer.
3 - updates big problem, like a lot of Opensource apps, an update involves a complete re-download and re-install.
4 - No word count on selection (in writer)- a simple thing yet a big big omission
5 - Templates, just poorly realised, very hard to use and maintain, impossible to understand how they're supposed to work.

I'll say again OO is good, it's getting there, but it's not there yet. not by a long way!

rd@cotswold-it.co.uk reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m65) on Dec 17, 2004

The format painter is in the Stylist - press f11 or Format » Stylist and (in current version at least) make sure the bottom list box shows "All Styles".

MadRat reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m65) on Dec 16, 2004

I wish OO had the format paint brush. Otherwise its so much like MS Office that its not hard to use. Ability Office has the MS-like format paint tools, but I noticed their spreadsheet functions have ridiculous errors in math functions because they don't compensate for binary math exceptions. I'd rather use OO if not the real MS Office package over the Ability Office package.

OO = Open Office

funcheung reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m65) on Dec 16, 2004

Excellent, a fully-featured, cross-platform Office Suite.

Dump M$ Office NOW!

genblood reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m65) on Dec 16, 2004

I hate to say MS-Office XP or 2003 is WAY BETTER...
OpenOffice is coming along good but, it still has
a long way to go before it can take on MS-Office.

In my opinion this is good news, if OpenOffice gets
better. More likely MS-Office will too. An MS will
need to drop prices on it MS-Office line. So, it
wouldn't lose its customers to OpenOffice ...

WE ALL WIN IN MY BOOK ... :)

roj reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m65) on Dec 16, 2004

I see two pieces of totally ridiculous rubbish in the reviews here that I feel compelled to comment on:

1) Better than anything MS could produce

OO is a very credible application but in no way shape or form is it in the same league as the richness and versatility MS Office has. Comments to that effect are as meaningless as the overblown hype surrounding Firefox from the anti-MS fringe.

2) The application is bloated

Pray tell how can an app as streaminlined as OO be bloated? Take a look at Corel Office. THAT garbage is bloated and the Service Packs (I use the term extremely loosely) for it are best described as gargantuan.

The GUI for OO is subjective and I frankly find it quite serviceable. Flash and dash are for showboats - I prefer substance over form.

The application itself is maturing very well. However it won't be fully ready for prime time until full and no-brainer macro support is in place with a VB-like interface and a LOT of wizards. Why VB? Because it's easy and everyone is used to it.

Oh, and they really need to fix that retroactive abortion of a spell checker.

Four stars for a great work in progress.

fourte3n reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m65) on Dec 16, 2004

"I agree with most of the other comments, this is a great suite: very stable and has great interopability with the Microsoft Office world. Unfortunately, it has a poor spell checker and thesauras, and the GUI is shockingly bad.

This is a shame because many new users who are often brainwashed into only operating in the MS world find it (quite rightly) difficult to make the jumpp."

DITTO! :)

Espique reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m65) on Dec 16, 2004

For being a office "suite" of programs it is missing a very important feature: where is open office's outlook?

H_TeXMeX_H reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m62) on Dec 11, 2004

Far better than anything Microsoft can produce, but Presentation does have some problems that I would like to see fixed. Other than that, it is a free Office suite, you can even make PDFs !!! And the Word Processor has never crashed for me, while Microsoft Word crashes every 5 minutes without fail !!! So, at least give this program a try. True, it can sometimes be frustrating, but it has real potential =)

aerthling reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m62) on Dec 2, 2004

OOO is a fantastic suite. I've been using it for almost a year now and I'm really pleased with it, although it can be really frustrating sometimes.

One thing I would like to see is the option to change the GUI style. Writer still needs a bit of work, but I'd use it over MS Word any day.

The Math module is excellent. It makes life so much easier when doing uni assignments.

cristoforo reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m62) on Nov 30, 2004

I agree with most of the other comments, this is a great suite: very stable and has great interopability with the Microsoft Office world. Unfortunately, it has a poor spell checker and thesauras, and the GUI is shockingly bad.

This is a shame because many new users who are often brainwashed into only operating in the MS world find it (quite rightly) difficult to make the jumpp.

netean reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m62) on Nov 24, 2004

I want to live Openoffice, I really really do. But it's fundamentally flawed.
1 - It's big and bloaty.. the download is massive and there's no option to just download the components you need _ i.e. I only want the word processor. -
2 - Updates require you download the whole application again!!!!
3 - Interface is awful... just unappealing and dull.
4 - Template support is just way way too complicated and unintelligable
5 - language support is great initially (it supports so many) until you come to try and install two and use two different language dictionaries at once... then it's just doesn't work (in my experience)
5a - using accented characters (not supported by the operating system directly) means having to select a variety of options from the menu to insert a special character every time (no option to have it mapped to a keystroke!)
6 - Still no ability to word count on a selection or selections - something that should be simple enough to do surely and something any journalist, student needs!

Version 2 looks the same as v1 (so far), i.e. dull dull dull.

if you just want a decent word processor, try Abiword, or Kword (Linux) or just get a copy of Office XP (if you can afford it) it's (sadly) so much better than this.

fourte3n reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m62) on Nov 24, 2004

what happened to the better gui I heard rumores about? oh well.. its still a great suite.

utomo reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m62) on Nov 24, 2004

Please remember it is only for testing purpose only, and to give you idea what is OOo 2.0 will look like.

if you have suggestions or you found bugs.
please report it here
http://qa.openoffice.org...ing/project_issues.html
Follow the instructions.

Thanks for your cooperations.

zridling reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m62) on Nov 23, 2004

Not true, even in this latest beta, OpenOffice's Writer cannot create a stable file over 75Mb in size. I'm sad that they didn't fix the menu structure either, leaving users to scavenge several menus just to format a document. You might as well use a text editor. Still, if you like bad interface design, then OpenOffice is indeed your kind of office suite!

TomRC reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m62) on Nov 23, 2004

This was is and will be the Office Suite of choice. Especially the word processor in
contrast to MS Word rock stable in working with
large documents. Yes, you have to to change over
a little bit but its really worth it.
A nice feature in 2.0 will be the now fully
customizable PDF Export. Not any more just
those three quality settings like in 1.1.x.

But there are also some flaws:
- Poor spell checker compared to MS or StarOffice
- Impress isnt actually that good compared to
Powerpoint

But if you are a professionell or espacially a
private user its very silly to pay a lot of
money if you got a great and free product like
this.

dtanderson reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m60) on Nov 10, 2004

OpenOffice only keeps improving with each new release. I am looking forward to version 2 when it goes final. I think that they may start getting more converts especially since MS keeps raising the price of Office.

patmc7 reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m60) on Nov 10, 2004

I like OO but I had trouble running this on my PIII under W98SE. The install gave me an error message that one of the dll's wouldn't register, and when I clicked on an existing file it often wouldn't open. This version seems to be more demanding of the processor resources than the last.

alister reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m60) on Nov 10, 2004

OpenOffice is a wonderful replacement for the overprice MS Office. It has some nice features that Office does not even have, like the ability to save documents as pdf files and presentations has swf files. I see no reason to ever buy another copy of Office for home use. I think that government offices/schools should switch over to OpenOffice because it could save the tax payers millions instead of buying MS Office. This could also be great for small businesses on limited budgets.

tremens reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m60) on Nov 10, 2004

Sounds like we've got a bunch of Microsoft employees in here. Outlook is the best email client too, isn't it people.

OpenOffice.org is openly made by people for people. If you don't like something about it, change it. Get to it. I'll even give you a hint, your gonna need Cygwin to get started.

qaelith_2112 reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m60) on Nov 9, 2004

I profoundly disagree with the last reviewer. While MS Office is without a doubt ahead of OpenOffice with regard to features and usability (compare the development budgets and MS Office's head start), OpenOffice isn't nearly as bad as the guy makes it out to be. To read his review you would think the product is a real piece of crap. Not true. It is actually VERY usable, has probably 85-90% of the features of MS Office, ISN'T bloated (as if MS Office is less bloated!), and has been as stable for me as MS Office (which I consider myself a power user with regard to Excel and Access). MS Office is somewhat nicer, has more features, etc., but you pay serious $$$. If you don't need that other 10-15% features that aren't in OpenOffice and you don't mind that the user interface is slightly less pretty and a TINY bit less intuitive, you can't do much better than this free product. This should do well for nearly all home users and a great many business users. Perhaps only the heavy-duty power users will really mind the differences.

Loz reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m60) on Nov 9, 2004

No way, still light years distant from Microsoft Office. MS Office is clean, lightweight, complete, user friendly, intuitive, stable, customizable and a lot more.

The ONLY advantage of OpenOffice, for now, is that it's free. That's all, and no more.

OpenOffice is bloated, unstable, ABSOLUTELY COUNTER-INTUITIVE, not customizable, and so on.

The worst module is the word processor, absolutely not usable. The other modules are just decent.

WickedLester reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m60) on Nov 9, 2004

The reason it has gotten bigger is because they have added a database app (ie: MS Access). That was one of the things that OpenOffice was missing that MS Office had and they are now adding it to version 2.

bobad reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m60) on Nov 9, 2004

WTF??? From the last release to the current release, the download grew from ~46mb to ~72mb!I like OOo, but if it's going to have that much bloat, I may as well use MS Office, which I already have anyway.

BootBlock reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m60) on Nov 9, 2004

It's been a while since I tried OpenOffice, and so when I saw this I thought it would be about time to give it another go. Nice try; but sorry, no.

morganevans reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m60) on Nov 9, 2004

zridling - The one word that springs to mind when I read your review is 'garbage'

I've been using Open Office for years and work with it instead of OfficeXP at home and at work. Never had any problems with it, and if you can't wait a few seconds for it to load then I suggest you buy some more RAM.

OpenOffice works fine for me which and I find 2.x a lot more intuitive than 1.x. Top stuff and a worthly competitor to other Office suites.

fourte3n reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m60) on Nov 9, 2004

Best Office Suite for the "everyday" user. I never use MSO anymore, I prefer the money in my pockey. This software is FASTER, CLEANER and nowhere near as bloated as MSO.

Unless you need the bloat of MSO, OpenOffice is your one and only MUST HAVE.

Babayaga reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m60) on Nov 9, 2004

In my company on new machines is the choice. Good enough for typical user and it is free. MS Office suite is expensive like a new computer and bloated of functions never used. Viva OpenOffice!

zridling reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m60) on Nov 9, 2004

Fat, slow, illogical, and oh yeah, FREE! But free don't make it good. OpenOffice 2.0's menu structure still makes little sense, forcing users to go hunting among three different menus just to format a document, and yet another floating bar to select or adjust styles. I've used every version since the OpenOffice project started, and I still can't believe they're right back where they started, only the program is a LOT SLOWER now, even on my 3.4GHz, 4Gb RAM system. If you've been using any of the 1.x versions over the past two years you're in for long startup times with 2.0 Except for bugs, suggestions are routinely ignored because they have no one to work on them, and changing anything in this behemoth is nigh impossible. So if you like fat and slow, you should love OpenOffice, but if you never did, then you'll wonder what all the fuss is about. Oh yeah, did I mention IT'S FREE? Oy.

Oh, and spare me the evangelical beat-down from those who think all Open Source software is good. Not true; never has been. Some OS software is great; and clearly some is half-finished junk.

mjm01010101 reviewed v2.0 (Snapshot Build 1.9.m60) on Nov 9, 2004

We use in house as an alternative Processor to Word for one of our clients who uses purely Open office. No complaints to date, and we've been using it about 7 months now. The best part about open source is not the free part, but the not having to figure out licensing compliance, which is a job in itself with closed source stuff...

lornova reviewed v1.1.3 on Oct 5, 2004

It’s a nonsense to rate a program for its price: if something is not good, it remains not good also if you don’t have to pay for it.
I tried a lot of times to use OpenOffice, but I found it absolutely uncomfortable, especially for the crappy word processor. If you wont a far better free word processor, there’s AbiWord.
The others programs of the suite are decent, but too slow.

GeneralLeoFF reviewed v1.1.3 on Oct 5, 2004

Price has no play in the mater really. If the program can't do what a user needs then free or not it is an inferior product. For me however it does do what I need it to do so it is a superior product :)

donpacman reviewed v1.1.3 on Oct 5, 2004

OpenOffice.org v1.1.3 is very stable and free!

kmleow reviewed v1.1.3 on Oct 4, 2004

First of all, I would like to complement the developers. They put all their hard work and effort into making this software a great one and not forgetting it is open source. Some may argue that it is not as good as M$ Office. Why not compare the price first? For $0, this open office is one super good software to use. I recommend this to everyone.

Quixley reviewed v1.1.3 on Oct 4, 2004

Good offiesuite. Old interface yes but all icons can be replaced with your own if you prefer it.

ezh reviewed v1.1.3 RC on Sep 21, 2004

Version 2.0 will have different look and will be much better. Currently there is an alfa version available.

http://ftp.stardiv.de/pu...e.org/developer/680_m54/

Namero reviewed v1.1.3 RC on Sep 21, 2004

It works great but the Interface sux , it isnt intuitive and it looks same since more then 6 Years (nearly the Same like in Staroffice)

Please do some M$ Word Looking Interface .. please that would help :) (the Word Interface is a non spoken standard, and we didnt need much different Interfaces on the market )

EasyRaw team reviewed v1.1.3 RC on Sep 20, 2004

Hard to migrate from MS Office: does many things differently and in non-intuitive way. Writer (Word) often repaginate pages with errors (text goes out of the current page and does not appear on the next). Calc (Excel) cannot open 128-bit XLS files (complains about password protection for some stupid reason???).

In general - not bad but if I have a choise and money is not a question, I would choose MS Office. Hopefully at some point I will change my opinion...

jungle! reviewed v1.1.2 on Jun 23, 2004

Only problem keeping this from perfection is the fact that every new release, one has to download the whole program, rather than just run some sort of updater

Kartun_355 reviewed v1.1.2 on Jun 21, 2004

Almost perfect, but only one thing let me rate it at 4 points : localized versions releases are delayed by 2-4 months. It it the most important feature for non-speacking users.

So, if OO.org community will deside that non-e users are need localized version faster it will be great.

jrepin reviewed v1.1.2 RC3 on Jun 9, 2004

The best office suite. It does all I need and more and all for free. A must have!

donpacman reviewed v1.1.2 RC3 on Jun 9, 2004

OpenOffice.org is all good!

razorhasyou reviewed v1.1.2 RC3 on Jun 8, 2004

M$Office: Ownz your wallet and takes too much space.
OpenOffice: Priceless!

utomo reviewed v1.1.2RC2 on May 17, 2004

If you have problems with openoffice.org, please submit issue, so next openoffice.org version can become more better http://qa.openoffice.org...ing/project_issues.html Openoffice.org mailing list in here (if anybody need it) http://www.openoffice.org/mail_list.html
We cannot improve if we did not receive the documents which show the problems. so if you have problems submit it there, or we cannot fix it. Thanks

eL MaesTro reviewed v1.1.2RC2 on May 11, 2004

not quite perfect. Especially if you share a lot of files with other people with different Office Suites. For example I sent a curriculum vitae template to someone with MS Office 2k3 and he received a completly different thing (even though I tried different compability modes). Somehow it is at somepoints a little slow but not up to 5 minutes *_* again this a nice alternative , and a free one! If you want a little more I suggest you to try Sun StarOffice 7

WickedLester reviewed v1.1.2RC2 on May 11, 2004

Spyware free, this program has never had any spyware. The comment about taking 5 minutes for you to open a file, no problem here. Maybe it is an Intel thing because my AMD Athlon XP 2500+ opens all the files just as quick a MS Office. I can see this replacing MS Office on alot of government and educational institution computers.

sfhotter reviewed v1.1.2RC2 on May 11, 2004

Very nice. The only problem I have ever had working OOo was with a PowerPoint file and editing some tables within it. I use it daily and would recommend it to anyone.

softssa reviewed v1.1.2RC2 on May 11, 2004

OOo is great, though it lacks some things (compared to MS OFFICE) it has a lot of other qualities which I value. Perhaps when the project has reached 2.0 it will surpass the MS. By the way the release notes site is not very user friendly.

snafu4u reviewed v1.1.2 RC on Apr 9, 2004

To Strangerke: I'm not sure why you have problems with speed because I load OOO on my AMD2100 in 30 seconds without the quickstarter. And to everyone with compatability problems: Who cares? Stop using office. (and besides OOO is FREE.)

Strangerke reviewed v1.1.2 RC on Apr 9, 2004

Well, the only positive point I see in that office suite is that it opens the Microsft formats.

On the opposite hand, the number of negative points is HUGE !
First of all, it is SLOWWWWWWWW ! If you have 5 minutes to a open 200k word file, it may be great, but I haven't ! (tested on a P4-2Ghz with 1Gb RAM)
Second, it doesn't match perfectly the microsoft format, therefore it screwed up the files I tried to modify with it.
Finally, it screwed up my configuration when I uninstalled it.

Thinking of it (and of all the rest) giving a 2 may be a little be too generous.

Vagman reviewed v1.1.2 RC on Apr 9, 2004

Everyone those days feel like Sherlock Holms and keep searching for spyware… and the best Sherlock’s are looking at the open source programs too… OOO is one of the best now and will be the best in a while…so learn how to use it now

donpacman reviewed v1.1.2 RC on Apr 9, 2004

OpenOffice.org keeps getting better!

tam7 reviewed v1.1.2 RC on Apr 8, 2004

One of the main reasons I am using OpenOffice is that I can extract pictures embeded in a existing MS document. Copying it to the clipboard it brings out the original image, in full size and no alterations. None of the MS Word versions do that, the images they extract are small and grainy, pretty much useless. It's obvious that MS is doing it on purpose.

tualatin18 reviewed v1.1.2 RC on Apr 8, 2004

im not sure what u meant by *missing*, but underlining text and changing the margins are very much there. and i dunno y in the world u would think there would be spyware... since its an open source program. very good office program. does everything that I need from an office application

Freidrich of Austria reviewed v1.1.2 RC on Apr 8, 2004

Not too bad - the integration is well done. But too many key features are *missing*, like the ability to underline text or alter page margins.

I didn't detect any spyware, though.

paehld reviewed v1.1.2 RC on Apr 8, 2004

To the comment from chrisiwe: Also ich nutze überhaupt kein MS Office nur OO. Und Du schreibst 512MB und meinst eventuell noch einen 2GB Proz. Dann erzähle ich Dir mal folgendes: Meine kompletten Briefe schreibe ich mit OO auf meinen "Uralt" PC einen AMD 400 mit 256MB und Win 98. Also die Ladezeiten von einigen Sekunden mehr nehme ich schon in Kauf. Denn OO ist nicht preiswert sondern Kostenlos im Gegensatz zu MS Office was ne Menge Geld kostet und ich nicht bereit bin nur für einige Briefe dafür was auszugeben.

chrisiwe reviewed v1.1.1 on Apr 2, 2004

this is in german!
Also
OO ist zwar gut, sehr gut sogar, aber es mit mit M$ O XP oder 2003 zu vergleichen....
naja
alleine die Ladezeiten auf einem Ottonormal PC (DUAl PIII 1 GHz) sprewchen da bände!
M$ ca 2 Sek für Word, OO ca 10 - 15 sek....
bei dem Excel ist es noch schlimmer....
Der funktionsumfang s*** dem M$ gleich zu sein, muß ich mal testen
Word nutze ich als Notepad ersatz bzw als HTML editor, der Writer vom OO kommt an die geschwindigkeit nimmer ran, da müssen sich die Prgrammierer noch etwas einfallen lassen (ich nutze office XP OHNE den sschnellstarter, und OO mit schnellstarter) trotzdem ist M$ einiges schneller!
ansonsten nen gutes preiswertes produkt!
deshalb 5 Sterne.
wer ein preiswertes Office sucht ist bei OO gut bedient, wenn er
nen PC mit mind. 512 MB Ram hat.

utomo reviewed v1.1.1rc3 on Mar 23, 2004

Thanks Ryker, yes I try using win xp 2055 and rc1, and have no problems.

to hariskar: Please check your computer before you installing openoffice.org and after installing openoffic.org, and give prooof about your claim, many people already test it without problems like you. I believe your computer have spyware before openoffice.org installations.

To all:
Openoffice.org on the way to improve everything (OOo 2.0)
if you have problems with openoffice.org, please submit issue, os next openoffice.org can become more better
http://qa.openoffice.org...ing/project_issues.html

Openoffice.org mailing list in here (if anybody need it)
http://www.openoffice.org/mail_list.html

Thanks

pohlman reviewed v1.1.1rc3 on Mar 22, 2004

Beautiful. Not absolutely compatible with some things from work with macros and wild formatting (mostly Excel) but I never use MS Office to make a new document and have never had a problem with compatibility in the other direction at all. If it starts as an OOo file it will work everywhere. Most people probably wouldn't get rid of MS Office for it but I don't hesitate to tell people to save their money and use this instead if they don't already have Office. In fact, I know of a few people who had MS Office and switched anyway after I showed this to them. Oh, and if you have Cydoor, maybe you shouldn't have installed Kazaa? Never had spyware of any kind, never will.

apocalance reviewed v1.1.1rc3 on Mar 21, 2004

Downloaded, installed, and uninstalled this program today. It is as expected, fine. Using Spybot-S&D to clean up my system, then installing and uninstalling this program, still no spyware after this. Big surprise there. Anyway, the install was fine, I don't have a JRE on my system, so some functions are unavailable. Since I didn't do a lot of testing, don't really know what functionality is lost. In any event, it's free and it seems functional. Good suite I guess. Oh yeah, the sky is falling, the sky is falling.

hariskar reviewed v1.1.1rc3 on Mar 21, 2004

SPYWARE SPYWARE SPYWARE
After I UNINSTALLED it, Ad-aware found about 25 Cydoor files in my PC.
Avoid it.

ryker reviewed v1.1.1rc3 on Mar 20, 2004

utoma:
I just tried OpenOffice.org 1.1.1rc3 on my machine with sp2 on it. It seems to work fine after a thorough 10 minutes of testing. :) I have sp2 v2082 on my machine. sp2rc1 just came out, but I haven't installed it on a machine yet.
On another note, Openoffice looks much better than when I last tried it over a year ago. A great alternative to Office, even if it wasn't free.

donpacman reviewed v1.1.1rc3 on Mar 20, 2004

OpenOffice must be getting better because the IT guys are installing it on work machines now!

utomo reviewed v1.1.1rc on Mar 8, 2004

I need volunteer to test OpenOffice.org 1.1.1rc with Win XP SP2. is that a problems or not. theoritically it is OK now. if you have problems please email me at utomo99(at)openoffice.org Thanks

Note :
I read in http://www.neowin.net/co...18059&category=main
http://makeashorterlink.com/?G150221A7

http://msdn.microsoft.co...info/XPSP2/default.aspx
It say :
Windows XP SP2 could break existing apps.

Some software developers may find their applications no longer work on machines using Microsoft Service Pack 2 for Windows XP, which will be released later this year.

ruedi reviewed v1.1.1rc on Mar 2, 2004

OK, I'm back after installing the RC version. I can not reproduce the problems with format/page any more - I'm happy!
Loading time on Windows: impatients should put 'soffice.exe -quickstart' into the Startup folder (like MS Office2000 with its 'OSA9.EXE" -b -l').

war593122 reviewed v1.1.1rc on Mar 1, 2004

I like it. Still perfer Microsoft Office 2003 atm.

Loading time needs to be cut down a little.

I can still open FrontPage, Outlook, Word, and Powerpoint and all the same time faster than just Open Office.

Must be a virus scan problem or something.

Not sure.

Anyways I do like. Like that fact that you can open everything like word docutments and html, etc. all in the same window and app unlike microsoft office where you have to launch different appz.

Also, is there a way to disable the splash screen?

Thanks,
Will

Zulithe reviewed v1.1.1rc on Mar 1, 2004

I love OpenOffice.org, and while it is lacking in comparison to Microsoft Office, I still prefer it. Just a warning to all people on dialup, you might want to skip this RC build, unless considerable bugs are found in this release they will be releasing the final version of OOo 1.1.1 next week. Save yourself some download time :)

scodan reviewed v1.1.1b on Feb 26, 2004

OpenOffice.org 1.1.1b has not been released. Read the page whose link was provided below: "[Version 1.1.1b is] a test build for developers mainly. It is a pre-release. There are issues outstanding. The build needs testing. There are no guarantees." No guarantees indeed.

urbanriot reviewed v1.1.1b on Feb 17, 2004

Excellent program, and it's free. The ability to create PDF's is wonderful. Once this program can properly open Microsoft word and excel files (does not often properly interpret excel files that do more than simple spreadsheets), I would give this a 5-star.

utomo reviewed v1.1.1b on Feb 16, 2004

More info about 1.1.1b
http://download.openoffice.org/1.1.1b/index.html
Release notes here.
http://download.openoffi...lease_notes_1.1.1b.html

Actually I rate this and OOo 1.1.0 as 4 star, but I rate as 5 for OOo 1.1.0 without choosing it :(.

It is much better than OOo 1.1.0 final.

utomo reviewed v1.1 on Feb 16, 2004

Openoffice.org 1.1.1b which is much better than OOo 1.1.0 is already released.
So, lets test it, and comment.
get it from http://download.openoffice.org/1.1.1b/index.html

I know that it still contain some bugs (in cluding big ones), but it much better than OOo 1.1.0.

scodan reviewed v1.1 on Oct 8, 2003

I use OpenOffice.org 1.1 basically as full-featured viewers of Microsoft Office documents. I'd NEVER use them to edit any documents that matter--they're just not compatible enough, regardless of what anyone (Sun included) says. Several times, I've edited and saved Word docs in OO.o, only to find some minor--and some MAJOR--differences when compared to how the same doc was viewed in Word. On one doc, there was actually a difference in where the page break occurred. If the doc in question is a resume (it was), this sort of thing can make the difference between getting a job, and looking like a moron. None of this is particularly surprising, considering that OO.o warns you about data loss when saving and closing the doc. And since OO.o isn't ALL about Microsoft formats, I give it a solid 4 stars.

patmc7 reviewed v1.1 on Oct 2, 2003

I'm glad to see UK English included as it was in StarOffice 5.2.
It's closer to Canadian English than US, and I hate to submit works to Canadian publications using US spelling.

whatever_-_ reviewed v1.1 on Oct 2, 2003

fliegendreck: Take a hike, troll. I am an OpenSource developer FYI, *and* one of those doing the criticism you so irrationally rant over. People "complain" for a reason, and it's not because they are spoiled. They complain because they believe or flat-out *KNOW* the object of criticism could be better. Open Office is damn slow, and damn resource intensive. With that said, let me also take a moment to dispell some of the misinformation you are propogating here: 1) most of the development work being done on Open Office is done by PAID developers, as is the case for most of the larger Open Source projects.It is NOT done by "volunteers", "in their spare time". Let's be absolutely clear about that. 2) Any developer worth their salt WANTs users and fellow developers alike to criticize their work. Good developers know they're not perfect, and that's precisely why want criticism: "Tell me, objectively, what's wrong here. Critique my work because I'm too close to it to be objective." That's what I, as a developer, do, at least. People like you, my friend, don't do anyone or anything any favors with your imposition of conformity. If we all listened to you, nothing would change and we'd stagnate. You go now please, back into the hole you crawled out of. Oh btw: Latest version: better, but sill lots of room for improvement as always.

madlintelf reviewed v1.1 on Oct 2, 2003

I love it for the simple fact that it actually repairs bad office files (corrupt .doc .xls, and especially .ppt files).

Thats my 2 cents.

trapanator reviewed v1.1 on Oct 2, 2003

Fantastic!

bratboy reviewed v1.1 on Oct 2, 2003

fliegendreck,
Seems to me your post comes very close to personal attack on anyone who writes something other than glowing comments for this program. Get over it. The idea of ppl posting a review is to give their opinion on the apps not what you want to hear. Is it slow yes, are some not pleased with it and saying so yes, are they supposed to post their honest opinions also yes. Are they just supposed to shut up because you like it since its free and they see faults in it NO. That you like it is great and post your own opinion on the SOFTWARE not the ppl who's opinion differes from yours.

I tried this app in the past found it lacking and have absolutly no desire to use it now or in the future. Basically if you need cheap n free then go for it but if you can afford better it makes sense to ignore it.

fliegendreck reviewed v1.1 on Oct 2, 2003

Where is the world coming to???????? This is a FANTASTIC office suite - - AT NO CHARGE WHATSOEVER - - and what must I read? Yeah, but it's too slow . . . yeah, but compared with the most expensive office suite available it lacks a lot . . . ARE YOU ALL GETTING OUT OF A REALISTIC MEASUREMENT ? ? ? ? All of you spoilt people, who really do not have any fair judgement framework inside of you - sit down and code something like this yourself - - WITH all the s*** that YOU want, but nearly nobody ever really needs, besides some folks, who are working for money-makers. CAN YOU DO THAT? - Would you give your spare time, your knowledge, your talents for FREE ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? So shut up opening your mouth about things you do by no means understand from far.

JolinFire reviewed v1.1 on Oct 2, 2003

OpenOffice 1.1 final is not available in my mother-tongue, but I use everyday 1.1RC5 which is nearly the same as 1.1 final.

OpenOffice is not so big - 165 Mb fully installed -, and it is """ideal""" for an end-user. Do we need a puppy saying what's wrong ? Or a working spellchecker ?

I was a user of MS-Office since 4.2 up to Office-XP.

18 monthes ago, I downloaded OpenOffice 1.0, and it kicked my a** :)

I fell in love with it, and my computer too :)

So, as it is a free software (how much for latest MS-Office ?), it is the choice of a new generation :)

cool_guy reviewed v1.1 on Oct 1, 2003

These comments are based on the RC5 version.

Slow as usual. Ever since StarOffice 6.0/OpenOffice.org 1.0 came up, they took the integrated desktop out of the package in the hopes they will improve loading times but I don't see any improvment. I have a P4 2.0 with 256MB RDRAM, very quick system but OpenOffice loads very slowly. I didn't like the idea of taking the integrated desktop out. Especially when I don't see any difference in loading times. Personally, I believed it was a very good idea to have an integrated desktop. Also, I don't like the new interface. They try to make it look like MS Office with same style toolbuttons but the menu bar looks completely different. UNCONSISTENT. I like the way MS Office XP looks, the menus and the toobars are same style.

I gave this program three stars for a few reasons. Slow loading times, taking integrated desktop out since version 1.0 (without any noticeable improvment, at least on my system in loading times) and finally, unconsistent user interface, menus and toolbars are not the same style.

These are RC5 based comments, I don't know about the final version.

breew reviewed v1.1 on Oct 1, 2003

ok, for the to 10 to 15% of power users, this is a bit weak. But for most folk that dont make there living writing and many who do this program works great..

difolders reviewed v1.1 on Oct 1, 2003

It's the best office suite in the whole world!
I've replaced MS Office with OpenOffice and having fun. You'll be the next :)

lornova reviewed v1.1 on Oct 1, 2003

Yeah, it works... but from an office suite I want, in the year 2003, something more: a smoother interface, better performance, more powerful features and tools. There's still a lot of work to get something like MS Office...

pjb reviewed v1.1 on Oct 1, 2003

A wonderful programme. Easy to install, works brilliantly. Well worth the download. Highly Recommended.

JolinFire reviewed v1.1 RC5 on Sep 23, 2003

I don't have downloaded it, but I use OpenOffice since some pre-1.0 version.

Spellchecking is very good for me, and I hope this RC will be the latest one. :)

It is - for me - a MS-Office killer ! :)

softssa reviewed v1.1 RC5 on Sep 22, 2003

Why can't I find further information about this release. I've checked www.openffice.org, but I cant find anything on RC5. It's really weird, how difficult can it possibly be to write a few lines.
The spellcheck in OO is a disaster I mean it's better to disable it and check your spelling with www.dictionary.com Toolbar or why not a good old Webster's concise. Anything is better than this spellcheck. I think MS Office back in 97 had a better one (!).
Besides the lack of information from this so called opensource community, and the spellcheck. This piece of software could actually REPLACE Microsoft Office 2002 (there is a new version out, but it seems mostly like it's candyware i.e. not very functional).

lordcyber reviewed v1.1 RC5 on Sep 21, 2003

keeps getting better and better. the Linux version is just plain awesome too!!

bsf reviewed v1.1 RC5 on Sep 20, 2003

Version Reviewed: 1.1 RC3
Reviewed by: hbkh
Date: August 14th, 2003 1:03 PM

It's amazing how well if replicates MS Office documents! My only gripe is the amount of memory it uses, if they could bring this down considerably I would get rid of MS Office for good.

Rating: *****

I don't think so

No you probably won't find this program that much useful if you already have access to Office XP. But for everyone else who can't afford few hundreds dollars, this program is just awesome.

I agree.

shantanu reviewed v1.1 RC5 on Sep 20, 2003

I absoulutely second that. It is a great software, but the time... :(. Come on guys !!!

roj reviewed v1.1 RC4 on Sep 8, 2003

One can overdo a good thing. If you need five months of RC then you're not RC.

ezh reviewed v1.1 RC4 on Sep 8, 2003

Better testing and more RC = better reviews on the final.

bobad reviewed v1.1 RC4 on Sep 8, 2003

Nice program. But what's new or improved in this release?

oachkatzl reviewed v1.1 RC3 on Aug 14, 2003

it's simply a great office packet and - from my point of view - better than microsoft office by now.
the program keeps to evolve and is beeing worked on all day and night and will soon be even far better than office XP - by the way... it's also FREE!!!!

absolutley amazing!

geminiz reviewed v1.1 RC3 on Aug 14, 2003

No you probably won't find this program that much useful if you already have access to Office XP.
But for everyone else who can't afford few hundreds dollars, this program is just awesome.

bobad reviewed v1.1 RC3 on Aug 14, 2003

Very good and getting better. Slightly smaller memory footprint than previous build, loads faster. The only thing is miss is the character recognition, which MS Office excelled at.

hbkh reviewed v1.1 RC3 on Aug 14, 2003

It's amazing how well if replicates MS Office documents! My only gripe is the amount of memory it uses, if they could bring this down considerably I would get rid of MS Office for good.

whatever_-_ reviewed v1.1 RC3 on Aug 14, 2003

I meant to give a two star rating on that review.

kriston reviewed v1.1 RC2 on Jul 29, 2003

Pretty darn good this time around and, most importantly, it writes PDF files! An amazing product that will save you thousands of dollars. I can't wait for the release version!

mo_mo reviewed v1.1 RC2 on Jul 28, 2003

faster and better than microsoft office xp professional

whatever_-_ reviewed v1.1 RC2 on Jul 28, 2003

Faster than previous versions yes, but still not fast enough. Memory useage still ridiculous, and with the preloader it's insane. The Open Source software community generally can't seem to get it through their collective head that "good enough" is not enough. They need to start competing with the competition based on merit (meaning striving to make their software as fast, as resource-efficient and feature-rich), instead of standing pat on egoistic philosophy and dogma (i.e.: 'our software is just fine, we don know what you're talking about'; 'we're free and open source so we don't have to be as good in other ways', 'people like you will never be satisfied'). Stop making excuses and improve! Make no mistake, developers on major Open Source projects like Open Office are paid well for their efforts, so the idea that you're getting a labor of love created by people toiling for free doesn't wash. Open Office (and others) *is* getting better, but they still have a long way to go. Cut the excuses and justifications and compete based on merit, not philosophy.

jrepin reviewed v1.1 RC2 on Jul 28, 2003

Absolutely great office suite. I like the ability to save to PDF a lot. And it is great thaty you are able to use the same documents in Linux and in Windows. Another plus is that it is regularly available in my language. Keep doing the great job!

trapanator reviewed v1.1 RC2 on Jul 28, 2003

Faster than 1.0! Fantastic!

softssa reviewed v1.1 RC on Jul 22, 2003

This version is totally compatible with the MS Office XP .doc , .xls. .ppt files I've verified it numerous times (Until the 2003 version of course).
If you always wanted to change from the very expensive MS Office to OO,but couldn't due to lack of compatibilty.
Now you can without a second thought. I think that they've found the golden path between their way and the MS way.

mgesztesi reviewed v1.1 RC on Jul 18, 2003

Writer is better than Word and compatibility with DOC is very good, but Excel is still superior than Calc.

rajivvyas reviewed v1.1 RC on Jul 16, 2003

OO 1.1 is much better than 1.0. It is fast and is very flexible. Previously I used Corel or MS Works at home. But now 1.1 should be sufficient.

virtorio reviewed v1.1 RC on Jul 15, 2003

The interface is OK, the speed is getting better and the ability to save to PDF is an added bonus (if you can think of a good reason to save to PDF). However, I still find that basic functionality doesn't go quite as smoothly as Microsoft Office.

ezh reviewed v1.1 RC on Jul 15, 2003

Better, better and better!

When there was OOo 1.0 I used MS Office parallel, but no more.

There's always room for improovement, but now it's acceptible for everydays work.

errderr reviewed v1.1 RC on Jul 15, 2003

I've been using this suite (well, some form of it) since before Sun bought it. It keeps getting better. The PDF export is fantastic. However, the one thing I wish I could do with it that I can't seem to do is create a PDF of a PowerPoint presentation in a handouts view. I can change the view so that I'm seeing it that way on the screen with 4 slides per page, but when I export it, it always reverts back to 1 slide per page. Not very practical for handing out presentations that have ~100 slides.

patmc7 reviewed v1.1 Beta 2 on Jun 5, 2003

Those trying to install it on Windows 9x/Me need to download unicows.dll from Microsoft.

pstopford reviewed v1.1 Beta 2 on May 27, 2003

Superb. The PDF export means Acrobat / ghostScript can be forgotten in the pursuit of document nirvana.

The management of master/sub documents is magnificent (although it doesn't (yet?) support .doc master document saving, which would be more helpful).

The original beta of 1.1 used to send you to the start of a document after deleting an image from the document. This appears to be fixed in beta 2.

A solid package, I've very little to complain about :)