NeoOffice: Open Source Office Suite

Posted by Alex Galonsky on 03/7/07 in Applications, Office, Productivity

If you have used Linux for a reasonable amount of time, you have probably used OpenOffice.org, a free, open-source office suite, containing applications for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, formulas, drawing, and databases. OpenOffice.org is available for Mac under the X11 window system, but there is an easier way to install and use it: NeoOffice, OpenOffice for Mac.

I compared Microsoft Office, the most popular word processor on the market, to NeoOffice. On the functionality side, NeoOffice is almost as full-featured as Office. I mainly use NeoOffice’s word processor, Writer, and I haven’t found anything that I couldn’t do without Office. The presentation program does not have as many animations and transitions as PowerPoint or Keynote do, but it will make a fine, quick presentation. As for compatibility, all of NeoOffice’s apps are completely compatible with Office file types, in both opening and saving, so work with those other documents is seamless.

NeoOffice

However, speed is not one of NeoOffice’s pluses. NeoOffice takes about 30 seconds to start up on my machine, and just doesn’t seem as snappy as Microsoft Office. But NeoOffice’s greatest advantage is its price. It’s absolutely free while Office will cost you at least $150 for the Student and Teacher Edition.

If you’re the business type or just don’t have the time to deal with new apps, go out and buy a copy of Office. However if you just want a full-featured office suite for free, NeoOffice is for you.

Get NeoOffice.

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7 Comment(s)

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Michael said on

March 7th, 2007 at 1:35 pm

Glad someone wrote about Neo Office. I use it everyday at work. I agree with you about the time it takes to startup, but I’m sure that will be much better once the Aqua version is out of beta.

Alec Feld said on

March 7th, 2007 at 3:56 pm

I prefer Microsoft Office or even Pages at times. I never quite caught on to the whole OpenOffice/NeoOffice thing.

Yohannes Wijaya said on

March 7th, 2007 at 10:09 pm

For a full suite of office apps that costs nothing and do comparably as much as MS office, it’s a winner in my book and it meets/exceeds my needs. I have been using it since switching to mac a number of years ago. A highly recommended product.

Alex Galonsky said on

March 8th, 2007 at 2:02 am

I used Pages for a while before I switched to NeoOffice, and I found it to be kinda slow when typing, kinda lagging - slower than NeoOffice. Maybe thats just the case on my computer.

lol I love how only writers are commenting

Yohannes Wijaya said on

March 8th, 2007 at 4:17 am

correct me if i am wrong, but as far as i understand pages does not allow you to save in “universal” format unline neooffice.

Miles Evans said on

March 8th, 2007 at 5:15 am

I have bee using openoffice on *nix since way back…Solid app and a no-brainer free alternative from MS. Great writeup

Rodrigo de SÃ¡ said on

February 24th, 2008 at 8:07 pm

I use NeoOffice as a tool. I wrote books, reports, papers and I even use it to mend some old Word files that went corrupt.

It is slow to start, but for books writing it has no real rival: Master document works, you can have context sensitive headings and ligatures work.

I would like to have a bit more of Unicode control and to have better typographical tools and better spacing control: if this were the case, books could actually be formated and published with NeoOffice.

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