Microsoft Office vs. Open Office

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UncSki1218

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OK...i got my new mac. But, i didn't want to spend another 200 on office. I looked around online and found a great freeware suite called open office. It has programs almost identical to word, excel and powerpoint. Just one question for anyone who uses open office. If i make a spreadsheet or powerpoint in open office, could i edit it in microsoft office? ( i am not concerned about written files since i can just save them as .txt files.
 
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UncSki1218 said:
OK...i got my new mac. But, i didn't want to spend another 200 on office. I looked around online and found a great freeware suite called open office. It has programs almost identical to word, excel and powerpoint. Just one question for anyone who uses open office. If i make a spreadsheet or powerpoint in open office, could i edit it in microsoft office? ( i am not concerned about written files since i can just save them as .txt files.

OpenOffice can save .doc/.xls/.ppt formatted files that are used by Microsoft Office. There should be a popup menu in the "Save/Save As" dialog to choose a format.

Compatibility is not 100%, though. Sometimes presentation graphics won't line up, text sizes change, outlines get different bullet points or numbers, tables lose or gain cells. Most of the time things look fine; the fancier the document, the more likely things will look different. If you're sending stuff to yourself, you probably won't care, but if you're sending files to your boss/professor/client, you might get screwed.
 
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Littleweseth

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heheh - my (crappy) iMac seems to choke on NeoOffice/J - takes about a minute to start up, and when i tried to paste a large (think along the 1MB line) chunk of text into it, it turned into a pieca crap. At least Word X actually let me scroll still......
At least NeoOffice/J is faster than Office 2004. 2004 has issues with *blank* documents :D

(also allow me to say that OOo Math kicks the shicksers out of Equation Editor and even MathType (MathMagic is still teh sheet though) - though i strongly object to the use of comic sans on the buttons. Aerrgh! Problably redone in the 2.0beta branch?)

(i'm referring to my crappy G3 400MHz iMac. You have a 2.0GHz G4. The difference shouldn't be noticeable for you :D)
 
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Abiword is another good free office app.
 
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Ex_PC_Puke

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Another vote for the NeoOffice version of open office --- so far total compatibility with XP versions of Word - Excel - Powerpoint --- I'm even using NeoOFfice for a web based CS 120 class (Comp Science) and using Neo to create Word docs that I send to the instructor -- no problems !!

As a laughable (and sad) side note - I did pop $150 (student discount) for MS Office for the mac just to be sure I could do this class ---- when I save the files from MS Office in "compatible" format ---- I can't view / open then on our XP system ---- pathetic
 
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UncSki1218

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Ok some more questions. Which works more like a mac program...Neo Office/J or Open Office X11? Has anyone tried both...what are the differences? Does one have more features?
 
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NeoOffice/J works more like a Mac program. It stays open when closing the last window, uses system fonts and is generally better / easier to set up & use
Yes I have tried both on my Mac and have Open Office on the XP too. :)
Just made sure I had the same fonts installed on XP & Mac so I can swop spreadsheets etc around without a problem.
 
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Ex_PC_Puke

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NeoOffice is modeled around the mac interface ----- to be honest when I heard that I could get a free - open source application that was the equivilant of a $250 MS Office package ---- I was skeptical (esp. since I came from the PC world).

But its true - NeoOffice rocks and works great ---- I even went back to their site and made a $20 donation to the cause via my Paypal account. :p
 
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Besides neooffice, openoffice, and abiword, do you guys know any other free mac-native office apps? I'm using an older OS X...
 
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always can go for the student and teacher edition for Office2008. Bestbuy sometimes puts out rebates for it.
 

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Besides neooffice, openoffice, and abiword, do you guys know any other free mac-native office apps? I'm using an older OS X...

Bean is a decent little word processor, and it's free and OS X native.
 
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Bean looks awesome. Thanks.

I upgraded to 10.4.11 and have been able to use all the modern software I couldn't before, so I'm satisfied.

I love Mac.

Never thought I'd say that, no lie.
 
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Just downloaded NeoOffice myself. Anyone know if it works with the new .docx stuff from Office 2008?
 
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Open Office is a great suite. It allows you to save your documents with Microsoft Office extensions.

Version 3 is now available which is pretty neat.
 
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I like iWork myself. Have never had a problem.
 

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