Apache Open Office

[Luddly Neddite]

Apache OpenOffice - The Free and Open Productivity Suite

Just bought a new computer and don't want to buy a word processor program. Anyone know about this one?

I've been using Libra, also free, but not crazy about it. I write a lot and need a good program but didn't like the last variation of

Anyone?

Or, your fave word processor program?

 

[Moonglow]

It didn't come with Word?

 

[Luddly Neddite]

It didn't come with Word?

It comes with a free trial and you can buy the bigger program. I don't have it yet so if its sufficient, I'll just go with that.

Blew me away that it was $200 more on Amazon than from Best Buy's website. I buy a lot on Amazon but didn't buy that from them. I wrote to the seller, asked if they'd meet BB's price, including the free shipping but haven't heard from them.

Might be another case of the small sell not being able to meet the low price of the big box store. I'd like to support the small seller but not $200 worth.

 

[Moonglow]

I am still on my old HP(Vista Deluxe) that came loaded with Word and that damn Office program that no one can read a pdf when I send info through it...So I have used Word the most. The first word processor program I ever used was Wang in the Army Reserve...

 

[Pop23]

Apache OpenOffice - The Free and Open Productivity Suite

Just bought a new computer and don't want to buy a word processor program. Anyone know about this one?

I've been using Libra, also free, but not crazy about it. I write a lot and need a good program but didn't like the last variation of

Anyone?

Or, your fave word processor program?

It takes some getting used to, but it does work well. I use it, just not as fancy as word, but does the job.

If you need graphic programs, you might try these, all are free

Inkscape

Gimp

Photoscape

Read up on them, all do different things, before downloading.

I create animated gifs for several non-profits, and for laughs, so free is good!

 

[Moonglow]

Is it like Word pad?

 

[Pop23]

Is it like Word pad?

No, it's like word, excel etc.

You can save in word format for emailing to others. Remembering to do that is important

 

[Luddly Neddite]

Apache OpenOffice - The Free and Open Productivity Suite

Just bought a new computer and don't want to buy a word processor program. Anyone know about this one?

I've been using Libra, also free, but not crazy about it. I write a lot and need a good program but didn't like the last variation of

Anyone?

Or, your fave word processor program?

It takes some getting used to, but it does work well. I use it, just not as fancy as word, but does the job.

If you need graphic programs, you might try these, all are free

Inkscape

Gimp

Photoscape

Read up on them, all do different things, before downloading.

I create animated gifs for several non-profits, and for laughs, so free is good!

Thanks.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Been using Open Office and Libre for years.
Both very good choices, and will suffice as a substitute for Office for virtually anyone.
Only drawback is college students basically cannot use it, colleges are heavily Microsoft-sponsored and as a condition of receiving multitude of free software they make it very difficult to use anything else.
Both can open any office document, but Office will not open documents made in either without choosing the "Save as" feature to save as office 2000 document.
I applaud anyone who wises up and refuses to pay $100's for office when there are very good choices that cost nothing.

 

[Mr. H.]

I got a new laptop and xfer'd bunches of microsoft files. I've installed open office but haven't given it a go yet. Well, it did open a Word document that was attached to an email. A friend works for M'soft and used to be able to get me $50 (new) copies of Office 2010 but that bus done left the station.

 

[Bleipriester]

Libre and Open Office are largely the same but the team has fallen out.
OpenOffice since ver 4 starts fast now, you can use it.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Libre and Open Office are largely the same but the team fell has fallen out.
OpenOffice since ver 4 starts fast now, you can use it.

I agree, previous OpenOffice as well as Libre took f-o-r-e-v-e-r to open. Nothing like waiting 10 seconds for the splash screen and then another 5 seconds or so to open the document.
The newer versions of Oo is better.
One thing I will say, both are better when wanting to do simple database tasks vs. excel. Excel wants to do things for you, especially with numbers. As well as the 65,000 row limitation, which today is a bit silly. I realize excel is not really a database tool, but sometimes when all you want to do is something simple a spreadsheet program is quick and easy.

 

[Ringel05]

Libre and Open Office are largely the same but the team fell has fallen out.
OpenOffice since ver 4 starts fast now, you can use it.

I agree, previous OpenOffice as well as Libre took f-o-r-e-v-e-r to open. Nothing like waiting 10 seconds for the splash screen and then another 5 seconds or so to open the document.
The newer versions of Oo is better.
One thing I will say, both are better when wanting to do simple database tasks vs. excel. Excel wants to do things for you, especially with numbers. As well as the 65,000 row limitation, which today is a bit silly. I realize excel is not really a database tool, but sometimes when all you want to do is something simple a spreadsheet program is quick and easy.

Both are good but while OO sat on the shelf for awhile, before Apache finally got around to working on it, LibreOffice jumped ahead in compatibility with MS Office and is currently the leader in this area.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Libre and Open Office are largely the same but the team fell has fallen out.
OpenOffice since ver 4 starts fast now, you can use it.

I switched myself.

 

[longknife]

I have OpenOffice 4.1.1 and am more than pleased with it.

I've had no problem converting MSWord Home to OO files.

As an author, I have so many OO files I cannot even begin to count them.

Also, as I cut a paste a log - as most users can tell you - it has a great feature of copying in unformatted text so OO can easily deal with it.

 

[Bleipriester]

Libre and Open Office are largely the same but the team fell has fallen out.
OpenOffice since ver 4 starts fast now, you can use it.

I switched myself.