Re: Word vs. NeoOffice vs. Pages

MC wrote:
Out of curiosity I downloaded NeoOffice just to kick the tires.

Strikes me as quite easy to get along with, and it integrates with Word in a lss cumbersome way than Pages (i.e. you don't have to Export As, you can simply set the default Save as .docx or .doc in the Prefs).

By the way I notice that there's a new version of NeoOffice about to be released... no idea what's in it.

Given the level of dissatisfaction expressed rather often, here and elsewhere, with Word 08, I'd be interested in your thoughts on these alternatives.


Hi,

OpenOffice version 3 is the latest version. It's likely that the next version of NeoOffice will be that plus VBA plus some templates.

If you don't need Visual Basic for Applications and don't use any add-ins, then Word 2008 is your best bet by far. If you do need add-ins and VBA then Word 2004 is the best bet.

Any other suite will not have the fonts that ship with Microsoft's products. Only Word 2008 opens, works with, and saves all of the new objects that are contained in the new XML file format. The drawing engine was completely revamped for Office 2007/2008, and all other programs have to translate and interpret what's going on and turn it into something it knows, and can't turn it back into the new stuff when done.

Publishing Layout view in Word 2008 and the accompanying templates are compelling.

Major Word features that OpenOffice version 3 does NOT have:
Project Gallery
Project Center
Notebook Layout and the ability to record
Publishing Layout so you don't need a separate page layout program
Formatting Palette
Object Palette (OO has a very old-looking "ribbon" for this)
Citations Palette
Reference Tools
Compatibility Report
Project Palette
Visual Basic For Applications (VBA is only for Calc in OpenOffice)

There's probably more than 20 other features in Word alone that OpenOffice does not support completely or at all.

Short story: Except for the simplest documents in non-Microsoft Windows fonts that are also on the Mac, OpenOffice will not properly render Word Documents, at least not good enough for business or school purposes IMHO. If you were to try to collaborate on an XML format document sharing between OpenOffice and Word, OpenOffice will change the document significantly and you will find the task difficult, if not impossible.

OpenOffice is a fine product as far as it goes. If everyone you share documents with is using OpenOffice in its default file format, then sharing goes smoothly. If OpenOffice is all you have ever used, you won't miss what you've never had. OpenOffice certainly is nowhere near as full featured as Word - not even close. Anyone who says OpenOffice is "the same as" Word is not telling the truth.

-Jim

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
.

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