There are many options out there when it comes to office productivity applications. You can go with the most well known application – Microsoft Office – and pay a few hundred dollars for the right to own your copy, or you can use a web based application such as Google Docs to manage and share your documents and spreadsheets. And in between those two options are a variety of other productivity tools one can use to help them perform their daily operations.
One such application is OpenOffice. It is a free office suite which claims to be “compatible with all other major office suites.” What this means is that one can open and save documents from other office suites including Microsoft Office, Star Office and others.
But is OpenOffice really a worthwhile competitor (and replacement) to such suites as Microsoft Office? In this article we explore the differences between the two to see if it truly is a legitimate office suite.
Before I begin let me say that I switched over to Linux a few years ago, therefore I HAD to use OpenOffice as Microsoft Office is not compatible with Linux. Granted there are other Linux based office suites, but OpenOffice was the default when I switched so I’ve stuck to it.
Back then, OpenOffice had a few holes. It wasn’t as polished as Microsoft Office. While it did have most of the features of the more popular suite, there were a few things I missed when I switched.
But that was a few years ago. Fast forward to 2007 and things are vastly different.
For one, OpenOffice seems to be much more tightly integrated between modules than previous versions. It is much easier to copy graphs and charts (for example) from Calc (the OpenOffice version of a spreadsheet) to Writer (the OpenOffice version of Word). Plus the latest versions of OO come with a database program similar to Microsoft Access.
OO also even has a presentation program similar to Powerpoint, although it seems to lack a few of the features that Powerpoint has. Further it seems to have slightly more problems opening PPT files than, say Writer does with DOC files or Calc does with XLS files.
OO does have versions for platforms other than Linux. There is a version for Windows as well as one for Mac. Plus, OO was one of the first to support an open document format (a format which more and more applications are building support for so that competing applications can open, modify and share documents).
So let’s take a brief look at the different parts of OO to see if its right for you.
Writer
Writer is a word processor. Similar to Microsoft Word and others, it has an intuitive layout and easy to use features. There are a few features I prefer with Writer, such as the ability to quickly remove formatting from a word, paragraph or entire document with only a couple mouse clicks. And there are features which I feel could be improved upon, such as the mail merge wizard which to me is a little less refined than the MS Word version.
Another thing I prefer is its ability to export to PDF right from within the application, while I find its ability to add and modify hyperlinks within the document lacking.
Overall, though, I find that there are very few (if any features) that you would miss and, in fact, you will probably find a few features which you would have liked in other popular applications that only exist in Writer.
Calc
Much like Microsoft’s Excel, this is a full featured spreadsheet program It offers data manipulation, graphing, macros and a host of other features.
At first this module also seems lightweight when compared to Microsoft Excel but don’t be fooled because it isn’t.
Now, I have to say that I feel I am very close to an Excel expert. I can manipulate data, program macros and output results like no other. I remember having an excel sheet that could access and import data from an MS SQL database and then manipulate it so that I could accurately show where people’s time was being spent and even illustrate it in a pie chart. It was a huge sheet, but it saved me lots of headaches.
And while I don’t thing Calc could handle such a large sheet it is still impressive nonetheless. Much like Writer you will find some features lacking (but not many) and more often than not you will find handy time savers that make you say “I wish that other spreadsheet program had this!”
For example, one thing that always bugged me about Excel was how hard it could be to remove an image or hyperlink – especially when you copied a web page into the sheet.
Not so with Calc – I can isolate the images and remove them wholesale with only a few mouse clicks. Similarly, I can quickly unformat hyperlinks with a few keystrokes. While Calc isn’t as robust as Excel, I find it quite adequate for my day-to-day operations.
I think Calc’s best feature is it’s graphing. I find the 3D graphs better than anything else, Excel included.
Presentation
I’m not a big fan of Powerpoint or other such applications. While I do understand their worth, I find that most people tend to use them more for flash than function.
But perhaps that’s where Presentation is both more functional and at the same time less robust.
This is because I don’t think Presentation has all the features of Powerpoint, but at the same time one could probably put together a decent presentation in ˝ the time it could take with Powerpoint.
As with other modules of OO, Presentation can open PPT and PPS files, however I have found that on files that have a lot of animation, Presentation seems to get bogged down and the slideshow starts to run slowly. With little animation it is just as quick as the others however.
I think of all the modules I’d have to say this one is the least polished of the group. But when it’s up against industry leader Powerpoint, one could see why. After all Powerpoint is #1 for a reason.
Conclusion
Having been “raised” on MS Office I was a little concerned with switching my document management applications. Especially to a free software. After all, how robust and full featured can a free office suite be?
Let me tell you that after using this for a few years now I’m very impressed. As the application evolves over time the developers seem to get it more right. They don’t add new features with every new release, as their competitors seem to do, but they do seem to make all modules more functional.
However, if you are a “power user” of Microsoft Office I’d suggest sticking with it. While I find OO quite good for day-to-day stuff there are some areas (such as large spreadsheet support) which could be improved.
But if you are like 75% of the population who use word processing to write simple letters and/or presentations, and use a spreadsheet to do simple to moderate calculations (and even desire the ability to use Macros) then I’d suggest giving OO a spin. You may be surprised at how functional this free software actually is.
So in summary, if you are a heavy user of the features found in MS office then stay with it. However if you are a light to moderate user who needs a robust application for your document processing needs, OpenOffice.org is a very good candidate for you.
