OpenOffice: An Early Look at OpenOffice 3 RC1
OpenOffice, which, according to our latest poll, is one of the most popular word processors among our readers, just announced the first release candidate for OpenOffice 3. This is the first major release of OpenOffice since 2005. Most of the updates are a lot more subtle than Microsoft's switch to the Ribbon interface in Office 2007, but the team has added a lot of new functionality and user interface enhancements to the OpenOffice suite that make this a worthwhile release for those who already use OpenOffice.
In its early days, OpenOffice (and Sun's StarOffice before it) was basically a clone of Microsoft Office, but now that Office 2007 has introduced the Ribbon bar, the look and feel of OpenOffice has remained true to the original. In this new version, OpenOffice has modernized the user interface a bit, but overall, there are no major changes to the interface and users of version 2 should feel right at home in this new release.
New Features
Among the new features is a re-designed commenting function, which now displays comments from different editors with colored backgrounds. Also new in this version is the ability to view two pages of a document side-by-side, which, given the size of a lot of modern screens, is a welcome addition.
Other new features include a zoom function in the status bar for both the spreadsheet and word processing applications, the ability to create larger spreadsheets, and a presenter mode in Impress.
OpenOffice can open and write documents in the OpenDocument format. It can also read Microsoft Office 2007 files, but it does not have the ability to write them.
More Love for Mac Users
For Mac users, the new version also brings some welcome updates. Most importantly, the new version does not rely on X11 anymore, but finally uses the native graphics libraries of OSX and adheres to Apple's HCI guidelines.
It's Not Office 2007
We have been long-time users of Microsoft's Office 2007 on the PC now, and as much as we love open-source software and open standards, going back to OpenOffice feels a bit like a trip back in time. If you are still using a older version of Office, you will probably feel right back at home in OpenOffice 3, but we do not see a lot of Office 2007 users go back to OpenOffice.
The Ribbon bar in Office 2007 represents a major productivity enhancement and having to search your way through long drop-down menus again just feels slow and old-fashioned at this point.
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It would be nice to see some solid alternatives to Office, and I've used Open Office a few times. I mainly stopped because of compatibility issues with other users I needed to share documents with.
As for the "ribbon", it’s still something I'm getting use to, but graphically is definitely nicer. I've been seeing it in a few non-Microsoft products (mindmanager pro 7 mindmapping software) so I think we'll see it filter into other packages as well. I know Sun is not a big fan of Microsoft, but if the innovation works, why not design around that?
"The Ribbon bar in Office 2007 represents a major productivity enhancement ..."
Could that possibly be because it is too difficult to take control over formatting details so everyone just writes using one of the MS approved themes?
(But maybe it is just me being 50+ and finding it hard to read blue text on blue bottom, or, for that sake grey text on white bottom :-)
I wouldn't expect anyone who has shelled out big bucks for O2007 would be interested in OOo. However, I do know a lot of people who have chosen to use OOo 3 rather than purchase MS Office.
FWIW, our employees (with years of experience with Excel) that have tested it, don't like the ribbon. All say they prefer to stay with their current version O2000 or OXP.
The link to OpenOffice.org in the first paragraph is broken. Missing the "h" in "http."
Perhaps Frederic Lardinois likes the ribbon interface. This does not mean everyone does. Personally, I prefer menus. Microsoft's 2007 Office interface, the ribbon, is miserable - can not find the command to click on to do the desired action. There's many a reason why I continue to use Nisus 5 and ClarisWorks 4. Their interfaces were never quite to my liking but, they were closer than any other programs I've used.
With OpenOffice, one of the nicest things that could be done is to make it so that just the spreadsheet or word processor could be run independently from the all inclusive welcome dialog. The other programmes are OK but, I never use them and would prefer to go straight to the spreadsheet or word processor.
One of the best features of MS Office 2007 is the ability to create your own "quick ribbon". You can grab commands/actions from any ribbon element and drag it into your own ribbon.
So, if you only use, at the most, 25 different commands in Excel, for example, you'll never need to switch ribbons ever again. Im pretty sure all the 2007 Office applications support this. You can also run custom macros from the quick ribbon.
My quick ribbon contains a mixture of macros, text formatting tools, a few formulas, filter, sort, email, freeze panes, etc. No need to switch ribbons.
A huge timesaver.
and adheres to Apple's HCI guidelines.
It most certainly does not.
For those that happen to not like the Ribbon UI, there is a workaround to make it menus or a plugin to make that in a more automatic way. both are free. OpenOffice is ok. but yeah. using it is definitely a trip back in time. Office 2007 ultimate is insanely powerful (onenote, sharepoint,etc) and things like Live Office and SUN own plugin for ODF support they released to be used with Office 2007 among many other plugins make it unbeatable.
The sooner we get a stable version of Open Office v3 for Mac, the better. At my workplace (academia), both the Win and Mac versions of MS Office are used. On the Mac, people use the 2003, 2004 and 2008 versions; the versions are as mixed on the PCs. Communicating manuscripts with colleagues that have Win versions often means that the alphas and the betas are misinterpreted, and inserted figures show up as big red crosses. On both the Win and Mac platforms... In short, MS Office is not compatible across versions or platforms. In contrast, both Open Office and NeoOffice open troublesome Win files without problems.
I use OpenOffice every day at work. Eye candy is nice, but it just doesn't matter for work. I finally got tired of my large documents and bullets being corrupted for no reason by MSOffice. I have found that this problem has ceased with OpenOffice. I simply save as .doc after my work has been completed for those documents that I need to distribute. I don't need pretty ribbons. I need simple reliability and an end to documents that corrupt themselves.
Agree with Vaughn, not all of us like the ribbon interface you know, open office does not feel like a trip back to the past it just feels a little like Visio 2007 and many more modern windows applications where the developers do not see the need for, like or have any other reason to include.