05-07-2012, 07:40 PM

OpenOffice vs NeoOffice vs LibreOffice, which suite best suits Mac? what are the pros and cons of each? are they all still being actively developed?

05-07-2012, 07:41 PM

They are all essentially the same. Libre Office is the only one still actively being developed I believe. Well, I know it's still actively being developed, but not positive on the other 2

05-07-2012, 07:51 PM

Stretch is correct about LibreOffice still being actively developed. However, all three are ugly and un-Mac like in my opinion. Also bloat-ware. (Free does not necessarily mean good.)

I personally use MS Office 2011 but many of our members prefer and use the iWork applications which are available from the Mac App store for $19.99 each:

Pages, Keynote, Numbers.

05-07-2012, 07:53 PM

If you want the best do as staff says and go for Office 2011.

05-08-2012, 01:14 AM

thanks for the advice, can iWork applications open/edit/save MS Office documents?

05-08-2012, 01:43 AM

Originally Posted by cody22

thanks for the advice, can iWork applications open/edit/save MS Office documents?

Yes. You can save documents to both *.DOC and *.DOCX. Same with Excel and Powerpoint.

05-08-2012, 12:40 PM

I have not used any MS program since early 2008 (I had been a power user for Excel (Windows) at a Fortune 100 company for 8 years). For a long time I used NeoOffice because it was indeed more Mac-like than OpenOffice. But the free “demanded fee” caused me to back away. I kept it until early this year, but seldom used it the past two years. I have had OpenOffice on my computers during that entire time just to follow progress and giving feedback. About two years ago it was good enough that I finally began using it (when needed). Then with the split last year and the appearance of LibreOffice, I switched to that and use it now. I exchange files (word processing and spreadsheets) with several others, and LibreOffice works most of the time. Keep in mind for these exchange files we do not use complicated stuff (seldom footnotes, bibliography, etc.)

The major problems for LibreOffice on Mac: 1) tables do not make the round trip to MS Office very well, including how the margins are affected; 2) scrolling is still a problem on the Mac; 3) bidirectional work is not complete (I use Hebrew as well as Greek, Latin, German, and English).

For my exchange work, LibreOffice is the one I use most. But I also keep the IBM rendition called Symphony. (see Symphony Wiki for many helpful links.) It is actually the most stable of all the various forms (OpenOffice, LibreOffice, etc.). It only has the three main programs (write, calc, impress), so no database. Since I never use databases it isn’t a problem.

For serious writing I use Mellel, best for my work with Hebrew. I also have begun using Nisus Writer Pro (native .rtf) for exchanging some files.

I have both Pages and Keynote; Pages does some things I need for page layout that none of the above programs can handle. Also, keep in mind that opening and saving documents in native MS Office formats does not guarantee that all capabilities will go both ways. If that is important, then MS Office is required.

05-08-2012, 07:23 PM

For serious writing I use Mellel, best for my work with Hebrew. I also have begun using Nisus Writer Pro (native .rtf) for exchanging some files.

I just the other day recommended Mellel to a student who was searching for a word processor that could do Hebrew. Very hard to find a WP program that can handle right to left character placement.

How are things going at your seminary? Good to hear from you again.

05-08-2012, 07:44 PM

Let me try to explain the differences (I might be generalizing however)

1. NeoOffice - this project took the OpenOffice source code and made it a good OS X citizen. In other words, they made it fit in better with the OS. It used to be free but you're now required to make a donation. The last release was 8 months ago so I'm not sure how actively developed it is.
2. OpenOffice - this is the base of both LibreOffice and NeoOffice. There was a rift in the developer community a while back between a few of the volunteers and Oracle (who bought Sun who had started the project). There were grave concerns about the direction Oracle might take it so a few developers started the LibreOffice project. Those developers may have been partly right - Oracle lost interest but donated the code to the Apache project who has governed over it since. Currently, it is still being actively developed. In fact, they just release a new major version today (see here).
3. LibreOffice - aside from OpenOffice's history, there's not much else to know. As it currently is, there is a lot of active development behind this fork (thanks in large part to the active adoption of LibreOffice over OpenOffice by the Linux community).

05-08-2012, 08:41 PM

Originally Posted by chscag

I just the other day recommended Mellel to a student who was searching for a word processor that could do Hebrew. Very hard to find a WP program that can handle right to left character placement.

How are things going at your seminary? Good to hear from you again.

Howdy. Thanks. It’s been busy. In addition to presidency, I have been serving a congregation in the mountains of southern California, as well as teaching one class each quarter. The good news is that in 2½ years we have dramatically increased student numbers [we are a small denomination] so we are moving in the right direction. (When I took over there had not been a lot done to get students, Duh!). Anyway, we use live video conferencing where everyone sees everyone else.

Yes, Mellel is definitely the leader in Hebrew work on the Mac. If your friend gets stuck, it pays to learn styles and Autotitles. They are very different from other programs, but very powerful.