OpenOffice.org 3: Free and Easy
Now 15 years old, the open source productivity suite is still gaining fans and improving compatibility with its chief rival, Microsoft Office. Readers weigh in on version 3 of the suite.
Although Microsoft Office can cost as much as $680, it remains, by far, the gold standard for productivity software.
A far cheaper alternative -- in fact about $680 less expensive -- is gearing up to challenge the Redmond monopoly. OpenOffice.org 3 (OO.o3) came out late last year, and many longtime fans, along with brand-new users, downloaded the tool the moment it came out.
The interest in this open source suite is clearly high. After I asked for comments in my Redmond Report e-mail newsletter, 18 readers quickly wrote in and shared their OpenOffice.org experiences.
Installation
Software, at least with conventional packages, starts with installation, and here the news is good. "Installation was very easy, just double-click and answer a few questions; you have the option to register or not," says Craig Burgess, a systems and network administrator in Maryland. Burgess uses OO.o3 on Windows Vista. "If you have a previous version, it will uninstall it and save your settings, install the new version and use the saved settings with it or opt for a clean install."
Other IT pros share this pleasant install experience: "On a standalone PC, it's easy," says Clarke Rice, an ICT and computing instructor in Northern Ireland. "Download, run the .EXE file and keep hitting 'next.' On my desktop PC and a couple of laptops, there are no worries about product activation telling me I'm using [it] in too many places even if I'm not using them at the same time. Installation is much quicker than [with] Office."
Not all, however, are so enthralled. "Installing OpenOffice.org has always been an all-or-nothing deal," says Dennis R. Barr, manager, information technology for Larkin Group Inc. in Kansas City, Mo. "Even when updating because of a patch, or upgrading from one point version to the next, it's always been a full install. Delta patches just don't seem to fit into the development model for OO.o. [Version 3] was no different. The option to preserve personal info works well, and installed extensions are generally available after the upgrade, although that's not always the case. I'm looking at the Program Files folder on a Vista notebook at the moment; there are folders for OpenOffice.org 2.3, OpenOffice.org 2.4, and OpenOffice.org 3. Only the latest one has any content, but it's an indicator that more thorough housekeeping would be helpful in keeping the folder tree neat and tidy."
User Interface
Users have mixed feelings about the OO.o3 interface. "If you want bells and whistles, you might feel let down," Rice says. "If you want functional and steady, no problem. Writer and Calc are on a par with their Microsoft [counterparts]. Impress isn't as polished as PowerPoint, though, but is moving in the right direction. Base is the only component likely to give you major usability issues."
Commonality, though, is one plus. "The user interface should feel right at home for Microsoft Office users, at least those using Office 2003 or earlier," Barr says. "It hasn't been completely redesigned like Microsoft did with the Office 2007 interface, and this may actually work to OO.o3's advantage, particularly if people don't want to learn the new Ribbon UI that Office 2007 has."
Usability
After 15 years of development, OO.o3 is feature-rich, functional and quite usable, readers say. "I've never found any problems with the usability of OO.o, even going back to the earliest versions," Barr reports. "It's always been a serviceable substitute for Microsoft Office, and its feature set gets better with each release. Usability hasn't suffered as features have been added -- if anything, it's gotten better."
Rice moved to OO.o3 out of frustration: "For professional reasons, I found myself using Word [97] again, and it's one of very few programs I have become utterly angry with. When you find yourself ready to throw the PC out the window, it's time to use a different application. The problem was it routinely reformatted lengthy documents. I changed font size to 10 -- or to Arial -- for one paragraph and the preceding 20 pages followed suit. You might be thinking, 'There's a way to stop that.' I don't care how to stop it. As a user, I never asked for it."
So Rice moved back to OO.o. "The big plus: It did what I wanted without trying to help me. No (insert expletive of your choice) paperclip. No reformatting a dozen paragraphs because I reformat two words. Bliss."
Some use both Office and OO.o3.
"In a side-by-side comparison, the two applications that I think are really noteworthy are Writer and Calc," explains James Anderson, a network administrator in Ohio. "I prefer Writer over Word, purely for the way formatting is accessed in Writer. To me, the way that styles in Writer are applied makes so much more sense and is much more intuitive than in Word. However, with Excel versus Calc, I've never really switched over. Excel just feels better to me."
