Anyone here use OpenOffice?

The Coffee Shop
1

Hi all -
Getting a new computer, which comes w/Windows XP but not with Office. I’m pondering getting OpenOffice instead of sending Bill Gates more of my money for Office 2007. I’m also worried how much demand office 2007 would put on my computer, which will be light and small and portable, but not all that powerful.

95% of my computing is word processing, internet, and email/calendar. I’m generally fine with word and outlook right now. Do the OpenOffice alternatives do the trick?
I don’t do anything too fancy with word and outlook. I do rely heavily on word’s ‘track changes’ and ‘add comments’ features. will these be there in OpenOffice?
Thanks in advance,
-Charles

2

I cant answer any of your questions. I have used openoffice and thought it did a very good job. But I have not used it since I started using Google docs. Works well and is light on the local machine.

3

It isn’t going to hurt anything to give it a try. I’m not sure about the track and add comments features but those are the type of thing I could see causing trouble going back and forth with someone using the real office. Heck Google docs isn’t even all that bad. But, it might be worth knowing that amazon is having a great deal on office 2007 right now for $79. That’s about as cheap as I’ve seen it.

http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Office-Home-Student-2007/dp/B000HCZ8EO/ref=bxgy_cc_sw_text_a

4

I have used OO. It woks fine and does most of the same functions as Word.

I think you want Edit>Changes>Record = track changes

5

Hi, I’m not a heavy Office user but use OO for all my needs and have no complaints. I’ve never looked back once I’ve switched.

6

I use OO at home - no problems. Older versions had some compatibility issues, but the newer ones have been fine. One thing it does that Office doesn’t (not sure if the feature is in 2007 or not) - Export as PDF. So it can create PDF files for you, with no external plugin needed.

7

I used OO all through college. No problems.

8

I’ve been looking through this stuff.
Seems like their version of Word is pretty good.

Is there something out there that will replace my Outlook addiction? Calendar/email?

9

One advantage to OpenOffice is that one can run it off a USB stick - and carry that around from machine to machine.

http://portableapps.com/apps/office/openoffice_portable

10

I’ve been looking through this stuff.
Seems like their version of Word is pretty good.

Is there something out there that will replace my Outlook addiction? Calendar/email?
thunderbird for email and sunbird for calendar. Sunbird supports multiple calendars as well as syncing with google calendar. Having used outlook synced to a corporate exchange server, I much prefer the way sunbird handles things.

11

Thunderbird, as much as I wish it didn’t, stinks.

12

One advantage to OpenOffice is that one can run it off a USB stick - and carry that around from machine to machine.

http://portableapps.com/apps/office/openoffice_portable

wow… that reminds me of the early Macs that didn’t have hard drives. you’d put microsoft word on one floppy, and the file you were working on on the other floppy.

good to know.