Draw
Draw is OpenOffice's image editing application. It is unimpressive when compared to popular applications like Photoshop and is unlikely to even give the open source alternative GIMP, a run for its money.
When you first open Draw, it looks like it was designed for creating presentations rather than image editing, right down to the side viewing panel that labels your page as "Slide 1". Using the program furthers this impression.
However, it should be mentioned that Microsoft Office doesn't offer a drawing package at all, unless you count Publisher in some editions, which is mainly used to create stationery such as cards.
Impress
At first it's difficult to justify calling the OpenOffice's PowerPoint alternative "Impress". On start-up it offers two rather limp templates. However, once you get past that, Impress is a reasonably robust presentation tool. You can download additional templates from the OpenOffice website, which is recommended if you're going to use Impress regularly.
We liked the "tabbed" design, which allows you to move between five different views of your presentation, "Normal", "Outline", "Notes", "Handouts" and "Slide Sorter".
Another nice feature of Impress is that many of the commonly used functions, such as inserting slides or importing images, can be done in a single click. Impress also has the ability to create 3D objects. It's difficult to understand why the OpenOffice developers included 3D objects but not the ability to create custom colours — but colourful spheres do make nice bullet points. Impress also offers a diverse range of animation options, as well as the ability to add sounds.
Math and Base
The inclusion of Math, an equation creating program, is curious considering the limited graphing ability of Calc. If you need to put mathematical equations into your documents, it might be worth downloading OpenOffice just for Math.
Math is based on the proprietary program, MathType, and is similar to the Office Maths ML, offered by Microsoft. As an application, Math is frustrating if you know maths but not code. For example, to create the common quadratic equation:
You have to type: "x={-b +- sqrt {b^2 - 4ac}} over 2a". The mixture of text and symbols is hardly intuitive, but once you get the hang of it, it can be useful. Just don't try to write the code for Schrodinger's equation.
Base is OpenOffice's database application. If you just need to create simple databases — there is an example of a club membership database on the OpenOffice.org website — you'll find Base a ready and willing application. Base is the Microsoft Access of OpenOffice.org. It should be mentioned here that many versions of Microsoft's Office don't include the Access database package.
Verdict
While OpenOffice.org has been consistently compared to Microsoft's Office, for a free software suite, it offers remarkable functionality. Considering Microsoft Office 2007 Ultimate retails at around AU$800 (versions with less features can be substantially cheaper, particularly the home and student versions), and competitors such as Corel's WordPerfect Office X4 sell for around AU$600, OpenOffice.org has the potential to save you or your business thousands.
In addition, most users will only use a fraction of the available features in proprietary programs such as Microsoft Office or Corel WordPerfect. The word processor is usually the most popular application in any office suite, and considering the diverse functions available in Writer, many users should find OpenOffice.org will fit their needs.
You should consider OpenOffice.org if you principally need a good word processor, and some basic office functionality on the side. There are many free or commercial applications that you can mix and match to make up for OpenOffice.org's weaknesses, it makes a nice piece of the open source set-up jigsaw. Combining OpenOffice.org with applications like Photoshop Elements, GIMP or Thunderbird should more than make up for its weaknesses.
If you are considering migrating from Microsoft Office — to OpenOffice.org or even the supported StarOffice — expect power users to initially be frustrated because of the lack of features and the less polished feel compared to Microsoft's offering. There's also the time it takes to get used to a different office suite.
However, despite its shortcomings, OpenOffice.org remains the most fully featured free office suite we have come across, and for this reason it well deserves our Editors' Choice.
1%
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Lets face it, for 99% of users out there, both Corporate and Home, StarOffice does the job admirably. Unless you're right into heavy technical stuff then it's great. Most secretaries, salesmen and people wanting to type up a sponge cake recipe never, ever use any of that stuff anyway. I snuck StarOffice onto my work PC years ago and no-ones ever noticed, and I get word/excel/powerpoint files all day long. Add it to Firefox and Thunderbird and I've got this Windows PC pretty much into shape !
The good: Does everything most people need.
The bad: Can't really think of any