open office questions

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HI, I plan to by a macbook in the next few weeks, as I look online at the Apple store and try to decide what I need to add to it, I am wondering about the Open Office free download program.
I will need to send in papers to school using Word and I will need to present Powerpoint presentations.
Will I need to purchase the MS program from Apple or will the free version of Open office work for what I need ( and save me almost $135 bucks LOl)?

thanks
kim
 

chscag

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There are several alternative choices to MS Office for the Mac. As you mentioned above, there's Open Office 3.0. NeoOffice has also upgraded their version to 3.0 and may be a better free choice than OO. NeoOffice

You might also consider iWork09. Although it's not free, some folks use it and like it better than MS Office.

Personally, I like and use MS Office 2008 for the Mac. The Home and Student version can be purchased for around $100 discounted and includes Word, PP, Excel, and Entourage.

Regards.
 
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You might check to see if your school/university has a licensing program with Microsoft. Sometimes they give you a heavy discount.
 
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I have Open Office on my mbp and find it VERY useful. I haven't made any powerpoint presentations with it yet but it works fine for document and excel-type files. I have experienced frequent problems with the program freezing and then I have to force quit. But if I save my progress every couple of minutes or so, that seems to solve it. When I worked in an office last year with Excel 2003 I had the exact same problem on a DELL desktop and used the same solution, so it isn't unique to OO.
Almost all shortcuts and functions are the same as MSOffice too. Maybe you should try both programs mentioned and see which one works best for you.
 

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Maybe you should try both programs mentioned and see which one works best for you.
Agreed. Since OpenOffice is free, give it a try and if it doesn't work for you, purchase an alternative such as Office or iWork (you can get a demo of iWork as well from the Apple site here).
 
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I found that iwork just didn't work well for what I needed at school. There were somethings that pages and numbers just don't do that I need. I like pages for most things, but hate numbers.

Neooffice, the word processor and spreadsheet apps, have worked great and does everything I need. I find the interface a little clunky sometimes, but it works great.
 
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OpenOffice or NeoOffice all the way! Unless you just need a word processor, in which case I'd recommend Bean, since it seems to be a lot more native and starts up quicker. Also works great as a simple text-editor.
 
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Another vote for Office 2008. It does happen some lecturers will refuse to accept assignments unless lodged in MS Word, and to be on the safe side use Office.
 
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OO and NeoOffice both open and save in MS Word formats, so you can meet the requirements pretty easily with it. I use both, slightly prefer Neo. Can't beat the price!
 

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The only problem with OpenOffice/NeoOffice is the lack of full support for the Open XML format (at least when I last used it). You may encounter some documents that don't open up exactly as they are supposed to. Again, try it though to see if it meets your needs.
 
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if it's a budget problem, you can download it if you don't have an ethical problem with it (don't cut my head off)
but neooffice is awesome
(i'm forced to use it as an arabic student that wanted a mac anyway!!)

though i havent used the spreadsheets or the presentation, the word processor is good though the interface is really chunky!
 
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I like (and used) NeoOffice and OpenOffice, but ultimately I went and got MS Office 2008... and I like it much, much better. (Plus, if you're a student you get a better price, I think).
 

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if it's a budget problem, you can download it if you don't have an ethical problem with it (don't cut my head off)
Ethical? Yes along with the fact that downloading it is illegal.
 
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I am a professor at a university and I use Neo Office...just remember to save in the MS format if that is what is required of you.

I use the same file on my Mac in Neo Office and on my PC in Excel...so no problem there.

However, I must admit that I will probably succumb to using Office for Mac as it just makes it much faster since I know how to do all things I need to do in the program (I am still on the upslope of the Mac learning curve and don't want to increase the gradient by learning a new program).

Bottom line: OO or Neo Office will most likely suffice in a school environment. I even have students using OO.
 

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