Open Office 2 : Can it beat MS Office?
Most folks have at least heard of Open Office.org, which is an open source office suite designed to compete directly with Microsoft Office. Previous versions have been intriguing, but OO.o version 2 has now delivered some real competition which I think can compete with the likes of MS Office, and OpenOffice has a USB device portable version!! I hope to do about 3-4 posts about comparing OO.o with MS Office, and the integration possibilities with Notes.
The first disclaimer I’ll throw out there is this: many of my statements are based upon my observations whereas the vast majority of MS Office users only utilize about 80% of the total features. With that in mind, OO.o can directly compete with Microsoft. Here is what comes with the OO.o suite:
WRITER is the OO.o Word Processor which has every function that I have ever used in MS Word.
CALC is the spreadsheet which by all means seems to have everything most business, and personal, users use.
IMPRESS is the PowerPoint of the suite and has not yet let me down.
DRAW will produce everything from simple diagrams to dynamic 3D illustrations and special effects, which can be directly embedded into other documents/spreadsheets/presentations.
New to Version 2, BASE enables you to manipulate database data seamlessly within OpenOffice.org. Create and modify tables, forms, queries, and reports, either using your own database or Base’s own built-in HSQL database engine. This tool is like a common front end to any data source, including Access, that can be used within your docs/spreadsheets, and presentations, alot easier than you can in Office.
With Writer, Calc, and Impress, you can open and save documents in the MS Office formats, or use the more open XML-based standards of OpenOffice.org.
There is a good starting point article over at searchOpenSource.com which has alot of links to find out alot more if you are interested. I am going to find out more about the scripting options and try to put together a way to work this from LotusScript.
March 28th, 2006 at 6:29 am
Great to see a post on OpenOffice! I definitely agree and would say that most people actually use more like 20% of the features of Microsoft Office. (Or of any big program, for that matter.)
Another amazing feature of OpenOffice is the ability to print to PDF. Microsoft Office doesn’t have this.
March 28th, 2006 at 8:03 am
It is becoming more and more apparent that this application will meet well over 90% of MS Office users needs. The PDF printer is a cool feature that in Office required installing special drivers.