ChristiansUnite Forums

Brothers and Sisters,

I've been using Open Office Suite since it was version .99, and this Fabulous office suite has gotten better and better.

Some folks used to call it the poor man's answer to Microsoft Office because it's FREE. In my opinion, Open Office has been better than Microsoft Office for some time, and Open Office is still FREE.

Open Office is a near drop-in replacement for Microsoft Office, but it's FREE. Open Office handles ALL or NEARLY ALL documents that Microsoft Office creates in a seamless manner. One can even work back and forth between the two if need be using the same documents. Open Office is what they call Open Source software which means that anyone can world on improving it, and thousands are doing just that - including many professionals. Open Office is NOT just a second-class stand-in or replacement. Open Office is SO GOOD that many customers and governments are replacing Microsoft Office with Open Office. Open Office has nearly all that Microsoft Office has to offer, but Open Office has many things that Microsoft Office DOES NOT. As an example, Open Office is developing an office document format that will probably become the industry standard. It's called "Oasis". All document types take up much less space, they're faster, and they work on multiple operating systems.

Microsoft obviously wants to stay the standard and hold everyone hostage with office products and operating system. Open Office is just the opposite and is designed to be efficient back and forth between various operating systems AND EVEN VARIOUS OFFICE SUITS. SO, Open Office is designed to FREE THE HOSTAGES, and it's doing just that. Open Office also work in concert with other portions of the suite to eliminate needless and duplicated work. If you can dream of it, Open Office probably already does it - including HTML, PDF, and many other formats. The big advantage is having one highly efficient suite of programs handle so many things in such a professional manner. The footprint of the programs is also smaller than Microsoft Office, so what's left to consider? There is one thing that I'm acutely aware of: Microsoft Office costs an arm and a leg, and it's designed to cause the users to replace it in 5 years. Open Office is FREE, and it's continually improved WITH NO NEED to replace it.

I hear a rumors, it said is very unstable, slow, and too buggy. Go search as Microsoft Office vs Open Office and look they results.

I could be wrong because I never try "Open Office". However I do enjoy my Microsoft Office 2007, but sometimes is slow and/or unstable.

I did some research on lastest of Open Office on webs, but I never try it.(http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff133/onionethan/onion_Emoticons/085_.gif)

Hello Pizza_Al,

I would expect to see slanted reviews from various entities with ties. All I can tell you is that I use Open Office every day, and there isn't anything buggy about it at all. It could still be a matter of honest opinion from various folks. I don't have any ties to either of them, and I would much rather use Open Office - and it's FREE.

There are obviously differences in look and feel, even though they both do the same things. It's sometimes a matter of what you get used to and what you like the feel of. There isn't much of a learning curve in changing between the two, and I have a better use for the $500. I also like the fact that it isn't nearly as subject to virus, trojan, and worms as Microsoft. Am I biased? - Probably - but I don't have anything to lose or gain by recommending FREE software.

I would recommend that anyone trying Open Office for the first time always try a FULL and Stable release. They have new stuff in the works all the time. If it's labelled Alpha or Beta, it should be assumed to have some bugs. The next higher level up is a Release Candidate, and those are supposed to be almost ready for a Full Release. I've even tried some Betas and Release Candidates in the past from Open Office that I thought were better than Microsoft Office. In fact, there was quite some time that I used both Microsoft Office and Open Office every day. I said that I might be biased because I also quit using Windows. I got tired of all the money and virus issues. I don't miss it at all and have no desire to go back. My current operating system is Linux Ubuntu, and I love it. It's FREE also. I don't use a virus checker now because I don't need it.

I use Open Office also and have never had a problem with it.

I have used both.  And on a budget Open Office is the way to go.  If you are not a power user of office products then Open Office is the way to go. 
But quite honestly if you are one who uses a lot of the advanced features of MS Office, or do a lot of office type processing then I would strongly recommend sticking with the MS Office.  I have seen compatibility issues with advanced features of OO and their conversion to MS O. 
But that is just my opinion. 

Hello Brother Daniel,

You might be able to find everything you want and need with add-ons, including some from Sun. I think that I got all of my add-ons from official Open Office sources that are completely trusted, and I use nothing but Firefox. I do Open Office database and spreadsheet through Firefox, and I also have a Firefox plug-in for Open Office that does just about everything I need. I've used everything together for years - earlier under Windows and now under Linux.

A lot of people don't know that Sun is a major contributor for Open Office. In fact, their Office Suites share many of the same components. I really don't know the difference between Sun's Office Suite and Open Office. Sun's has a very reasonable fee and is free for many users. That's the same company that does Java, and many of them are closely tied to Open Source Mozilla programs - including Firefox and Thunderbird. I'll probably use the wrong terms in the following sentence, but I'll try anyway. Gecko, Java, and Net Beans related programs also work together in the same family of programs - ALL FIRST CLASS. Together, they are probably using and improving what will be the new standard for Office documents of many types. In other words, Sun and Open Office will set the standard - not Microsoft. I think that the new standard is called Oasis, and it has many advantages over Microsoft formats.

You should be able to find many other official resources for your version of Open Office under the macro, plug-in, and scripts menus. There are many outstanding free add-ons that you should be able to install automatically from within Open Office, and some of them will come from Sun. I don't think that many people know about all of the outstanding functions that can be added to Open Office from official sources. I haven't even tried resources from other companies. I'll just say that I can do whatever I want to do and more without spending a cent.

I did buy a Sun Office Suite several years ago for under $40 just to try it. I really can't tell the difference between it and Open Office. They do use many of the same components.

Love In Christ,
Tom

Good Morning Brother Daniel and All!

I do know that many churches, Christian organizations, and charities are using Open Office. It only makes sense to save their offerings and contributions to use for their intended purpose instead of spending BIG BUCKS on office software. Further, the intent of companies like Microsoft is to have their customers buy upgrades to the software every 5 years.

There are also all kinds of user groups one can join to share templates, macros, scripts, and other specific helps. So, those who might not be so familiar with what Open Office can do can get all kinds of help. It might be related to financial bookkeeping or any number of other things that are required for these organizations to maintain. There was a time when database functions weren't very good in Open Office, but that's no longer the case now. Open Office now has very strong database functions in both the spreadsheet and database modules. It will also work with Access and SQL. From everything I see, all modules are first class. In fact, some of the modules perform functions that Microsoft won't.

Brother Daniel, you mentioned people joining together to make the programs better, and that's exactly what's happening. Open Office actively recruits people for working groups to improve just about all aspects of Open Office. I must add that many of the volunteers are professionals who could get paid for their work.

Love In Christ,
Tom

Ephesians 1:18-23 NASB I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

Hello Brother Daniel,

I don't know how new they are, but there are tons of add-ons, many called something other than extensions. The best way I know to access them  is within the menu system of Open Office itself. I think you will find a minimum of three different places in the menus to add officially approved add-ons - other than fonts and clip-art. There's over 100 meg. of just clip art designed to use in Open Office. You should find most of them under macros, templates, and extensions. Among the add-ons are very handy shells for various kinds of pre-built documents and projects that you can add your own information to and have very nice output. Among the add-ons is greatly expanded help and how-to information for all kinds of projects. I do remember that just the official stuff is over 100 meg., and all but just a few of them can be added automatically within the menus and checked by Open Office as they are added. When you are done, you will have gone several places, including Sun, and you will have quite a few add-ons labelled with Star Office - Sun's version which is completely compatible with Open Office. You'll have very nice examples to use in just about all categories and additional official functions that add new and very powerful capabilities. As just a single example, there's a great template package for web site design. The evidence of the add-ons will be seen in the menus and actually become part of the program.

Brother Daniel, if you need more information, just holler. I think that the menu areas you need to be looking in are "File" and "Tools". I don't remember having to leave the program to search for any of the official sites for add-ons. I can tell you for sure that the official add-ons are well worth the time of downloading and installing them. They will save you tons of time in all kinds of projects that Open Office is quite capable of doing. There are also unofficial add-ons, but I don't use those. There's a huge variety of tested and safe additions that are official. I would think these would be less likely to cause any problems for you.

Love In Christ,
Tom