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Two alternatives to Microsoft Office, one even free | |
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| Time: 10:35 EST/15:35 GMT | News Source: E-Mail | Posted By: Todd Richardson | ||
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Microsoft is gearing up for yet another version of the software that laid the golden egg: Office, the productivity suite that commands a whopping 96 percent of the market. Microsoft Office 2003 is currently in beta testing and probably will be released later this year. But believe it or not, there remain alternatives to this ever-expanding, high-priced bloatware -- and some of them have components that are actually better than those found in Office. Here's a look at two alternatives. One of them won't cost you a dime. | ||
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| #1 By 1643 (65.40.197.179) at 5/26/2003 4:08:21 PM |
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I tried it...it was slow, unstable, didn't have the features I needed...but, I guess if you have very simple needs and don't require integration with MS's other products (Exchange, Sharepoint, etc.) than it should do the job...but so would MS Works :) This post was edited by humor on Monday, May 26, 2003 at 16:08. |
| #2 By 8273 (4.47.72.198) at 5/26/2003 4:16:40 PM |
| I tried Open Office, it crashed constantly, was slow, did not offer the features I need from MS Office, took up more disk space than MS Office, and it's UI was cumbersome. The one benefit was the math editor which I still have installed and use occasionally, but other than that, I will stick with MS Office. |
| #3 By 143 (199.35.33.123) at 5/26/2003 7:59:10 PM |
| OpenOffice.org v1.1 beta2 isn't that bad and Easy Office is nice to... hmmmm |
| #4 By 3653 (209.149.57.116) at 5/26/2003 8:43:10 PM |
| My MIS group spends all of 1 hour per week, working with my 200 users... on MS Office problems. When you take those savings into account... openoffice would cost my company 10s of thousands of dollars per year in increased support costs. |
| #5 By 135 (208.50.204.91) at 5/26/2003 9:48:04 PM |
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Flight - "For features, see the 80/20 rule... most people don't use the majority of OfficeXP's features and consider them bloat."
Now you've done it. You have to list all the features of Office that nobody ever uses. Ok, I'll make it easy on you. Just 10 features will be fine. JaggedFlame - Spell checkers are bloat according to Flight, since they didn't come with the original word processors like WordStar. |
| #6 By 135 (208.50.204.91) at 5/26/2003 9:48:08 PM |
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me bad... duplicate This post was edited by sodablue on Monday, May 26, 2003 at 21:48. |
| #7 By 61 (24.92.223.112) at 5/27/2003 12:05:37 AM |
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Flight, yes, Win9x is pretty bad, however, nobody has any problems running MS Office on it, why should OpenOffice be any different?
I am sure there are thousands of people who do need FastFind... what's your point? FUD = Fear Uncertainty and Doubt, which has nothing to do with actions Microsoft takes against it's competitors.... generally, all competing companies spread FUD about their competition in order to make themselves look like a better choice. |
| #8 By 135 (208.50.204.91) at 5/27/2003 8:57:35 AM |
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Flight - "As for name 10 features people don't use... that ridiculous, as different people use different things. "
Nice for you to admit you were wrong. Saves a lot of time, me having to explain various features and why people find them useful. |
| #9 By 1643 (65.40.197.179) at 5/27/2003 1:16:51 PM |
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Well played soda...
Flight, Think! Think for yourself; don't let Slashdot, inquirer, or the reg do your thinking for you! Do you notice how all the FUD that is spread about MS in those forums just [poof] go away [/poof] once you actually delve under the surface? Humor |
| #10 By 135 (208.50.204.91) at 5/27/2003 6:16:53 PM |
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dwakeman - It's not entirely clear what you are talking about. But margins and reveal codes are quite clearly displayed in Word.
It sounds like you are just unfamiliar with Word. I'm not a huge fan of Word, particularly because it's taken me six years to just gain rudimentary mastery of it. I do find it impossibly hard to work with, and it doesn't always do what I think it should do. Like having to keep switching views to work with section breaks well, etc. I was never a fan of WordPerfect either. I prefered AmiPro in it's day. |
| #11 By 37 (66.82.20.150) at 5/28/2003 12:46:58 PM |
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Hi David,
I notice noone has mentioned their experience with Wordperfect in these comments. First of all, not many people actually use or have used WordPerfect, so their experience wouldn't be mentioned. I use Office XP with FrontPage, Office System 2003 Beta 2 and WordPerfect Office 10. I'm glad to see an article that acknowledges some of Wordperfect's superior features. I think you will find that MOST articles will address superior features that one Office app might offer that the other does not. I've been using Wordperfect since version 5.1, and I have been enjoying many features in Wordperfect since version 7 that Word has yet to add. I have been using WordPerfect since version 6 and Microsoft Word since version 97 and I have been enjoying many features in Microsoft Word that are either not present in WordPerfect as well as features that WordPerfect introduced after Microsoft Word has. Here's a few features that I find are superior to Word that have prevented me from switching: - Guidelines for margins and columns. I have worked in Word before and it is frustrating not being able to see on the page what my current margins are or where my columnization starts and ends. This feature may make Wordperfect resemble a desktop publishing program, but why should I have to purchase and use Microsoft's separate publishing program and loose the superset of wordprocessing features just to get these kind of publishing features? David, this feature has been present in Microsoft Word for YEARS. If you go to Tools>Options>View Tab and check "Text Boundaries, object anchors and drawing", you can have Microsoft Word resemble a DTP program (like Publisher) showing you dotted lines representing the columns, margins, guidelines etc. In addition, even if you disable the ruler, these margins can be changed by using the docked Reveal Codes Task Pane (which can be docked on top/left/bottom or right sides. - Writing tools: newer versions of Wordperfect add a dictionary and the writing tools window can remain open and anchored to the bottom of the screen. Microsoft Office Word 2003 added a dictionary/writing tools to it's task pane which can be docked, remain open and anchored to the top/left/right and bottom if you choose. - Graphics: more control in positioning graphics without a myriad of confusing 'Advanced Layout' options, and more image tools. Continued.... This post was edited by Brian_MS_MVP on Wednesday, May 28, 2003 at 12:50. |
| #12 By 37 (66.82.20.150) at 5/28/2003 12:47:41 PM |
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Continued from above.....
In my experience, the Escher Art Tools have been more robust and user friendly than those in WordPerfect 10. Not to mention the positioning ease in Word, and the numerous image tools. - Menu layout: I agree with the article that the menus are more intuitive. In the format menu, there is a distinction between Line, Paragraph, and Page options. Again, a matter of taste, but the menus are very familiar for the 96% market that MS Office dominates. Not to mention that the menus are fully customizeable to your preferences. The Line/Paragraph options are also under Format, with Page options under the File menu (consistent with the entire Office Suite as well as the outcasts, such as Visio, PhotoDraw, Vizact, MapPoint, FrontPage, Project and Publisher. - Reveal codes: I can keep track of where I make formatting changes and where I add special characters (like hard spaces or soft hyphens). Microsoft Word 97 and newer has had this feature. Word 2002 and 2003 have added this feature to the Task Pane, making it dockable/anchored and open at anytime where ever you want it (top/left/right/bottom or even floating). - File formats: Wordperfect has used the same file format since version 6, it opens Office documents, and you don't need to spend $299 for Adobe Acrobat to publish PDF's. Worperfect allowed publishing to HTML one version before Word, publishing to XML one version before Word and publishing Presentations (Wordperfect's equivalent of Powerpoint) to executable files before Word. Microsoft Word can print to *.pdf as well, with free 3rd party utilities. Microsoft Word has had the same file formats for Word 97, 2000, 2002 and 2003. Most importantly, since 96% of the market uses Microsoft Word, the file formats shared among all these users are universal. Microsoft Word also can open WordPerfect 5.1 files and newer as well as save as WordPerfect files. What about the popular SmartTags in Word? WordPerfect hasn't added them, and this is a great XML feature. What about the Squiggly line for live spellcheck? Introduced in Word, and followed by WordPerfect. What about Visual Basic support? I could go on and on. This may all sound like nitpicking, but I demand advanced formatting options, without being forced to format in a certain way, and precise control over document layout. It's not nitpicking. It just sounds as if you are uninformed about the capabilities of Word and the features that Word has that WordPerfect doesn't. |
| #13 By 37 (24.196.70.204) at 5/28/2003 9:32:27 PM |
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Just my 2¢ David.
There WILL be a Trial CD that you can get when Office 2003 is released. Probably cost you $10 or less. If you like it, you will be able to activate the Trial to the full version. No need to order another CD. |
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