Openoffice vs Microsoft office

cyberstar

I've tried using openoffice and it seems like a very good program for something that is free. I've always been using MS so will I be missing anything if I switch to openoffice?

Stormybay

I also have Open Office, but when I read my work e-mails on my home PC, I can't reply to them for some reason, but I could on my pld PC that had MS, so it's rather annoying for me in that respect. For anything not work related, it seems ok for me...
Stormy

rash.m2k

I've got open office (on linux - oh yeah!!!!). And it's very good. Not as easy to use a MS office. But you get used to the new layout.

Anyway you can save docs as MS format and generally have no problem viewing them or printing them.

Also you can EXPORT documents to PDF format and will exactly the same on every single PC and printing will be real easy.

ianeverton

I have been using open office for a couple of months on my laptop with no problems opening MS files from different office programs.

In the past i has issues with different versions of excel but openoffice opened them all without a problem.

Spew

Had no problems here, seems awesome for a free set of applications, donated $10 a while back.

windym_2

Does it have a Money type application? I am looking to upgrade my Worksuite 2002. Have a new PC and I have been using Money, but the one I use on 2002 only backs up to floppy (have no floppy on new PC) .

Paul1_2

windym wrote: »

Does it have a Money type application? I am looking to upgrade my Worksuite 2002. Have a new PC and I have been using Money, but the one I use on 2002 only backs up to floppy (have no floppy on new PC) .

I used to use that version and I thought you could change the back up settings to cover other sources?

Paul1

ScarletBea

Another supporter of OpenOffice here!
Installed it in my new computer and I really enjoy it, don't feel I've missed things.

(there are some shortcuts in Calc vs Excel that I find a bit annoying though, but nothing major)

student100

OOo is great. Only thing that's really missing vs. MS Office is Outlook. But you can use applications like Thunderbird and Google Calendar which I find better suited to my needs anyway.

BillScarab

OO is excellent, there can be problems with things like Macros between Excel and Calc but as I don't import a lot of MS Office files it's never been a big problem.

I would recommend Thunderbird over Outlook express as well.

Cricri

OO is very good, but it doesn't even come close to MS Office. Many people can get a cheap, or even free, MS Office licence via agreements between their work place and MS.
OO is compatible, but it's 99% compatible. If you use it to write a letter to a relative or write a spredsheet to track your monthly expenditures, it might do the trick, and chances are that those will be 100% compatible with MS Office.
However, I have some massive documents that use some not-so-common features, and those pose compatibility problems.
Again, for free, OO is very good. I like the fact that it's smaller, that it includes frosting like a nice equation edtor, and that it can be made portable. But there is no way I'll ever switch from MS Office in the near future (unless of course something drastic happens and bring it to at least equal grounds).