Software

RE: Microsoft Office vs. OpenOffice.org

shipley.c — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 12:59:00 GMT

OpenOffice is my company's official productivity suite. Its cross-platform in a way that MS Office is not. For example, Word for the Mac has many different features and ways of doing things than Word for the PC. But OpenOffice on the Mac is just like OpenOffice for the PC. So it breeds familiarity with the package that is transferable to other operating systems. And we don't worry much about file types, either. If we have to send a doc to a client, usually that's in PDF format. Or we save as an MS Office doc if they also need to edit.

RE: Microsoft Office vs. OpenOffice.org

macindy — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 19:51:00 GMT

Great comparison -- one of the few where someone has done their homework; and I thank you for that (this will help me answer a handful of questions for my newest 'students').

There are some new builds out there that might interest Mac users specifically -- NeoOffice is basically a java wrapper that gives OpenOffice a Mac GUI (otherwise, you'll have to use the X11 windowing environment until the OpenOffice project folks have time to complete the native-feel version for Macs -- estimated middle of 2008). [http://trinity.neooffice.org/ ]

A great partner to the office suites, GIMPShop is an image-editting application that chases the functionality of Photoshop, pairing the GIMP open source project with a user interface that is designed to make the learning curve less steep for people who have already taken the time to learn Photoshop (but can't budget for the cost). [http://www.GIMPShop.com/ ]

NVU (now 'Kompozer') is a fine replacement for Frontpage, especially if your group is upgrading to a newer version of Microsoft Office that no longer includes their HTML editor. [http://www.kompozer.net/ ]

The neatest thing for the people I support has been that these applications are available for all three platforms (Windows, MacOS, Linux). It makes moving from one workstation to another less of a shock as one project completes and another is launched. I try to keep up on these for my (mostly nonprofit) clients here: [http://macbigot.blogspot.com/search?q=demo-ware ]

RE: Microsoft Office vs. OpenOffice.org

LarryA — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 19:38:00 GMT

Company accountants, financial controllers or other statistical staff?

Calc Does a lot Some of the statistical wizards in Excel aren't on OOo most of the functions are though.

>The project management team?

This isn't a function of OOo, (and in office a part of Outlook, but needs Project Server)
There are other OSS Email/Project management apps outside of OOs including web based eGroupware KDE's project manager and I believe Evolution.

Desktop Publishing staff?

I've used the draw app to create various signs and flyers, and it does a great job, not on par with Illustrator but compared to Word it does much better. As for comparing Publisher, I'd go to something more serious like Pagemaker, Illustrator, Scribus or Inkscape if going beyond OOo or Word.
One peeve is OOo font handling in Linux, but I am sure it will improve.

Database users and (possibly) designers?

As a long time DB guy I've been warend away from Access as it (without an SQL server) can be very limiting in a network environment, and also has some security issues. I havent tried OOo Base.

One problem with many of these easy to use GUI DB apps is they can do quite a lot, up to a point - once that is reached you then have to totally re-tool for something more flexible, so I try to not paint myself into that corner.

Architects and Engineers?

In a pinch draw would suffice for simple stuff, but the pros would look for something beyond an office suite to do ther min work.

Network and Systems Engineers? (doing network schematics etc.)

OOo draw has some cool charting tools, with smart connectors and such, really like that above Word offers.

Sales staff or others with a responsibility for tracking events, products or financials?

I assume you are comparing spreadsheets, Calc is getting better they implemented thier version of a pivot table and such so a lot of the stuff of Excel can be done in Calc. Question is always raised on capacity (but I would not want sheets as big as some people want to use!) The one thing that keeps us here with Excel for Windows is some reports use Active-X controls (I chalk it up to developer's prefernece) and limits it to Windows Excel only. We pull out a Windows laptop for that one.

RE: Microsoft Office vs. OpenOffice.org

Sasha — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 16:47:00 GMT

Hi, Don,

I am referring to my use of Open Office in a for profit organization that interfaces heavily with nonprofits.

My role there is in marketing with the primary work being in writing and design work. I use Open Office Writer quite heavily for the writing and sharing of documents, but I don't do any real design work in OO, just very simple stuff like figuring out where headings and bullets go.

I use the Open Office Calc primarily in my web site maintanance work, for keeping web site stats. In addition it is very useful for opening documents that are sent to me by others which were created in Excel.

Open Office is installed on other computers. I am not sure who else is using it or what their experience is. I always send my docs in Word format, so that it isn't an issue. I know that our IT staff uses it every now and then to open documents.

My own personal (nonwork related) involvement with nonprofits is less complex, so the issue of file sharing doesn't much come up. File sharing was the issue that led me to start using Open Office.

Does that answer your question?

Best wishes,

RE: Microsoft Office vs. OpenOffice.org

donc — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 19:57:00 GMT

It would be interesting to associate this experience with your role Sasha - What do you do within your NPO?

Cheers, Don

RE: Microsoft Office vs. OpenOffice.org

Sasha — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 18:19:00 GMT

Hi, Don,

I use the spreadsheet portion, Open Office Calc, primarily for tracking web stats. It has been fine for communicating with others who use Excel within my office. I also have also been able to open Excel spreadsheets that have been posted by other organizations to share with us (which have somewhat spiffier formating). I miss the handiness of certain toolbar options that I am used to in other spreadsheets and I haven't yet found how to add them to the toolbar, HELP file being somewhat limited.

Also, in this thread, PowerPoint 2003 another TechSoup user had good luck using the slide show portion.

In terms of Desk Top publishing, which portion of OO would you use? Does OO have a Page layout portion?

Best wishes,

RE: Microsoft Office vs. OpenOffice.org

donc — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 06:44:00 GMT

In summary -

So far we really only have posts offering comparison and expounding the virtues of OO writer... Considering the average office nowadays has moved well past the point of Star-Writer being the only use we have for a computer (although I do still own a copy!!), what other comparisons can be drawn? - I think it's very important that we assess this from a users perspective rather than a perceived designers 'feature' perspective... i.e. How well does OO compare for:

Company accountants, financial controllers or other statistical staff?

The project management team?

Desktop Publishing staff?

Database users and (possibly) designers?

Architects and Engineers?

Network and Systems Engineers? (doing network schematics etc.)

Sales staff or others with a responsibility for tracking events, products or financials?

Senior Executive Management?

It would be great if we have people working in these positions who would like to comment...

Cheers, Don

RE: Microsoft Office vs. OpenOffice.org

toeknee — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 19:16:00 GMT

...it is true that other office suites do not open OpenOffice Documents, but as long as you can easily save a document to microsoft word format before emailing it out.

I agree, but it's much simpler after installing OpenOffice on a workstation, go into the settings and set word processing documents to save in Word format, spreadsheet in Excel, etc. You can always "Save-As" to OpenOffice format if you ever need it, but it's nice to have the default be the most compatible format, especially for less experienced users.

RE: Microsoft Office vs. OpenOffice.org

jra0500 — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 15:15:00 GMT

Between my office and home I have MS office 2003 and 2004 ( macintosh version ) as well as open office.

In the past ( pre 2.0 days ) I would have agreed with anyone who said that open office was nice for a free application, but not quite ready for daily enterprise use. However I actually like open office 2.0 BETTER than MS Office. I write a ton of large doduments most use tables for pretty formatting, and little things like their dynamic toolbar which changes the toolbar automatically based on if you are working inside a table, working in the main document, working with an image, etc...

I do some fairly complex spreadsheets, spreadsheet functionality is about par.

It has a presentation application that looks Okay, but I have a mac and presentations in Keynote beat all.

Open Office comes with a Database application like Access with ODBC connectivity. Havn't really used it much, but it appears quite functional.

As for attaching documents to emails, it is true that Other office suites to not open Open Documents, but as long as you can easily save a document to microsoft word format before emailing it out. Inbound documents will automatically be recognized by Open office and will open just fine.

Open source software is making huge leaps in functionality and are becoming very high quality polished applications. This is especially true of Open Office.

Jeffrey R. Anderson
Director of Healthcare IT
Community Health Center of Buffalo, inc.

RE: Microsoft Office vs. OpenOffice.org

donc — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 07:02:00 GMT

Is it possible to be slanderous to computer code? - :-)

RE: Microsoft Office vs. OpenOffice.org

solveighaugland — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 00:21:00 GMT

I must protest this slander of the OpenOffice.org mail merge. ;> It's not buggy. It's not wizard-licious but it's straightforward and the simplest way to do it is just to do it from scratch.

1 - Get your spreadsheet or other data
2 - Make a data source under File > New > Database. Select your data format, like Spreadsheet, in the first window, click Next, specify the location of the spreadsheet, click Next and save using an appropriate name.
More detail here.
http://searchopensource.techtarget.com/tip/1,289483,sid39_gci1162261,00.html
3 - Choose View > Data Sources and find your datasource
4 - Create a new empty Writer document and drag the fields you want exactly where you want them. Add other text, format it however you want it, etc.
5 - Choose to print, click Yes when asked if you want to print a form letter, and print to the desired output.

You can also use the advanced but complex Mail Merge Wizard
http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/2006/02/techtarget_arti.html

and the hidden but simpler mail merge wizard.
http://searchopensource.techtarget.com/tip/1,289483,sid39_gci1173108,00.html

Again, it's not a wizardy easy-peasy mail merge but it works very logically and the scratch approach is very simple.

I have various mail merge topics here.

http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/mail_merge/index.html

RE: Microsoft Office vs. OpenOffice.org

Jesse — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 19:20:00 GMT

One does not need to learn Linux before using OpenOffice on Windows.

RE: Microsoft Office vs. OpenOffice.org

sdhfexec — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 18:46:00 GMT

For a 4 computer nonprofit whose ED (me) is also the IT staff, it is less expensive to purchase MS Windows XP Pro and MS Office Pro licenses from TechSpoup Stock than to have to go through the learning curve associated with both learning linux and openoffice.org.

Tom Scott
San Diego Housing Federation

OO beats XP/MC if one merges text from NonUS local

koym — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 05:52:00 GMT

Am working with an 778 page manuscript when it's on XP that turns out to be about 910 pages on OO. Each works but OO has immensely more options for the guru as you can bring in text from 18 text formats versus 9 for XP. Perhaps this makes no difference to the average writer but if you merge text from old systems or persons from foreign countries far different that what US routines then OO is a great asset. :flash;

RE: Microsoft Office vs. OpenOffice.org

Scoop0901 — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 23:30:00 GMT

I've often been in situations similar to Don.

Over the past several years, many friends have wanted me to give them copies of various papers and spreadsheets I have. Fortunately, I have a variety of tools, including MS Office, WordPerfect, MS Works, and OpenOffice, so, for many things, I can convert the documents or spreadsheets I have to the format people need (or open what they send me -- only after appropriate scanning with an anti-virus tool).

There are some, including some small businesses, that purchased computers, seemingly off the shelf of a Big Box store, and use MS Works as the word processor, spreadsheet, and database tool-of-choice. Perhaps some of this is due to lack of knowledge, some due to ... who knows! No matter, using a tool designed to meet home-users' needs in a business environment may cut it for the short term, but don't try to communicate with the outside world. That's how I happened to stumble upon some of those folks: they would send me a "large database" -- an MS Works 4.5 database (think circa 1997 or so). Yes, v4.5 of Works, as many will tell you, was the best version released of the program, but it still isn't up-to-snuff for business.

I use MS Office, and have since it was introduced. I was one of the first people in my area of Illinois to be certified as a trainer for MS Word for Mac in 1990.

While I support -- and bug -- issues with OOo (OpenOffice.org -- the full and proper name of the software product), I do not use it for business purposes, as there are too many shortcomings for what we need on a daily basis, and too many inconsistent behaviors and display issues. The full compatibility isn't there. Yet. One day, perhaps. Just not yet.

I do send copies of OOo to friends, business associates, other non-profits, and those we work with. I have at least two OOo CDs in my Franklin Planner, along with two CDs for Ubuntu, any time I am out and about. When I talk with someone, the subject turns to computing, I pull out an appropriate CD and hand it to them.

Sometimes it is surprising to find many in the business community who do not have appropriate tools to communicate with others. Heck, it is horrible when I get an email from someone using a disposable email account for business -- and the business has been around for a long time (30 years or more!), is very profitable, but the owners just haven't built a site, nor do they have an email account.