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By Alex Serpo, ZDNet.com.au on 05 August 2008 11:54 AM
Tags: openoffice, open source, sun microsystems, openoffice.org
1 OpenOffice Draw should not be compared to image manipulation programs like PhotoShop or Gimp, because these were designed for pixel manipulation, whereas OpenOffice Draw is a vector graphics application.
The best comparison is to compare OpenOffice Draw with Microsoft Visio, in which each have their strengths, but where I prefer OpenOffice Draw because it is productive and supports many file formats that I need.
What is the point of revieving OOo-2.4.0 in August when 2.4.1 was released in May?
...Once you create the graphs, they're basically images, with very little editable dynamic content...
I'm not sure that the author has "played" around enough with the graph functions to fairly review them. Graphs created with Calc are fully editable...like in Excel...although admittedly it is not always intuitive on what you have to click on to edit a particular feature. Also Excel itself is hardly the benchmark for graphing function, as I have found it to be just as difficult to work with as far as creating and editing graphs...particularly if you have a complex situation (multiple y-axes, etc.).
If you are going to highlight the memory usage of OpenOffice.org, then we need to know how much memory "winword.exe" is running on your system. Without that figure your assertion is totally invalid.
"It also has its own file format, ODF, which Microsoft has pledged to support."
The author really needs to get the facts straight. ODF is not OpenOffice's file format, it is in fact an ISO/IEC standard.
From the WIkipedia page: "The OpenDocument format (ODF) is a file format for electronic office documents such as spreadsheets, charts, presentations and word processing documents. While the specifications were originally developed by Sun, the standard was developed by the Open Office XML technical committee of the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) consortium and based on the XML format originally created and implemented by the OpenOffice.org office suite (see OpenOffice.org XML). As well as a free and open OASIS Standard, it is (in its version 1.0 manifestation) published as an ISO/IEC International Standard, ISO/IEC 26300:2006 Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) v1.0.[2] The OpenDocument standard meets the common definitions of an open standard, meaning the specification is freely available and implementable."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenDocument
The good: Better compatibility with opening and saving Microsoft Office documents than Microsoft Office itself! I have transferred documents between Office 97/2000/XP/2003 and had more issues than when opening and saving them through OOo.
The bad: Another poster is right, why review 2.4.0 when 2.4.1 has been available for months virh various bugfixes? http://development.openoffice.org/releases/2.4.1.html
Hi Everyone,
Thanks for the feedback. I want to address some of it.
Firstly, I am not comparing Draw to GIMP or Photoshop, clearly they have more functionality. My intention was to point out that if you already either of these programs (as I do) the functionality of Draw won't be an issue. (See later comment about the "open source set-up jigsaw.")
In regard to graphs, I was making reference to Calc's seeming inability to create trend lines from data. If there is a way to make Calc do this, please let me know. While you can still use the "LINEST" function, this process is hardly straightforward, and doesn't allow you to display equations on your graph.
The memory usage of winword.exe on my system is about 25MB.
You're right, ODF is an ISO standard, and was the first standard. But so is OOXML.
I am aware 2.4.1 is available, but I wrote most of the review while still using 2.4.0. I would be interested to know if the update invalidates any of my comments.
Cheers
Alex Serpo
The good: See above
The bad: See above
You can create tend lines by Insert-Statistics and choosing, say, a type of regression curve. You can then have the formula show by selecting the regression curve on the graph and double-clicking the regression line. This brings up a dialog box. Select the Equation tab and then check...show equation. This places the equation on the graph. Hopefully, that's what you wanted to know. Cheers!
One thing not mentioned that bears heavily on the quality of Open Office is that it is one integrated program, rather than multiple independent programs. MS Office, by contrast, is a set of independently developed programs grouped together under a brand name.
This is why Open Office has a bigger memory footprint when you're only running one application. If you're running, say, Writer and Calc at the same time, the memory footprint is lesser, because much of the code is loaded only once, but used by both programs.
This is also why I consider Draw one of the real strengths of Open Office, rather than a weakness. It's not meant to compete directly with Adobe Illustrator, for example. It's meant to add good solid vector-based drawing functionality to all the other Open Office applications. The MS Office approach is to create the illustration in Visio or another application, then import the graphic into Word. In Open Office, you simply create the drawing in Writer using Draw.
I've gotten more and more fond of Open Office as I've used it. I find it especially useful for technical documentation, where I can easily create an outline, add screenshots, draw arrows and rectangles directly on the screenshots, and export it all to PDF. Sure, I could do every bit of that using multiple other applications, but not as quickly and easily.
Open Office is under-rated. If you know anyone stuck using MS Works, help them install Open Office. You'll have done your good deed for the day.
The good: You can find better individual applications, but you can't find a better overall application. Did I mention it's free.
The bad: Having to explain why you didn't just use MS Office. Fortunately, you can save your documents in MS Office format, and no one needs to know....
The graph tool is surprisingly capable, but it's not even remotely intuitive.
As mentioned below, it does do trend lines and things, but it's certainly not obvious.
OOXML is NOT an ISO standard yet, at least not until all of the appeals against it have been dealt with (FOUR countries appealed the decision to grant it ISO status).
"OpenOffice.org is considerably more memory hungry than Microsoft Office"
I'm not the first one to notice your assertion is incorrect.
Use Sysinternals Process Explorer to see the "Private Bytes" column, which shows how much unshared memory the application is using... It's still not perfect, but not as inaccurate as your numbers.
The numbers shown in Windows Task Manager do _not_ tell you how much memory a program is using.
The "Mem Usage" is indeed the "Working Set" for the application : the least amount of data that must be kept in RAM to allow the program to run at a given time. A 100MB application could have a 1MB working set if it does nothing : however, it will still hold 100MB in memory (RAM or pagefile).
Microsoft Office applications are "optimized" to show a minimal working set : they are written so that the OS thinks most data can be moved to the pagefile. Minimize your Word 2003 window and the working set will drop to 2MB. The total memory consumption (private bytes and shared bytes) will however NOT change.
By the way : OOXML actually refers to *nothing* clear.
There is some "OOXML"-called specification that is currently in the process of becoming an ISO standard.
There is also some "OOXML" file format that's implemented in MS Office 2007.
The two are different and COMPLETELY incompatible. Supposedly, Microsoft will make MS Office "ISO OOXML"-compatible for Office 14... which could be due in 3 years.
My question is, did they ever fix tile/poster printing? This feature, perfected by MacDraw in ~1985, has never worked in OO, and still did not the last time I checked (Ver. 2.3).
The good: Cheap, reasonably intuitive, versatile.
The bad: Defaults are often extremely difficult if not impossible to change. Just try disabling the automatic enumeration feature or changing the default font.
I think the reviewer missed one of OpenOffice's most compelling features: it's emphasis on Styles. These go beyond anything offered by MS-Office, to include page, frame and graphics styles.
Similarly, the reviewer did not appreciate the value of Draw. (Comparing Draw to GIMP or Photoshop is silly, BTW. Illustrator or CorelDraw would be more appropriate). With graphics-styles and features like 3D objects, connectors, Draw is excellent for technical illustrations, flow-charts, diagrams etc. It's probably not great for graphic-artists, but for everyday document illustrations, it's top-class.
Finally, Math is a very pleasant environment for composing equations. It's not as flexible as Latex but it's mnemonics are easier to learn and read. I'd take this over the equiation-editor in MSO any day (I speak as a physicist).
Calc (like all spreadsheets including Excel) is crap.
A new feature in development is HybridPDF generation. This produces PDFs which incorporate the ODF source document, so the PDF can be reloaded in OOo with no loss of fidelity. Users without OOo installed can still view the file in a PDF-reader.
The good: document formatting with Styles is brilliant. Draw is brilliant. PDF export is great. Base is an excellent front-end to MySQL or Postgresql.
The bad: Effects in Impress are not fast/smooth enough. no "back" navigation button in writer. reports in Base suck (even with the Report Builder extension).
The notion that charting is a strong point of Excel is an idea I've never heard before! Quattro Pro was better... and that was 10 years ago. If you really want to chart, you get something other than Excel for the job.
Custom colors not possible?
Create an object, right-click the object, select Area... from the right-click menu.
In the Area dialog box, click the Colors tab and have at it.
I do not have any idea if Open Office uses more system memory than MS Office or not but even if it does SO WHAT! How much does Open Office cost to download? $0.00 now how much does MS Office cost? I think it starts at around $300.00 and up. Now how much does the DDR2 memory cost for my PC? The last time I checked a 2 1GB sticks was less than $50.00 at Newegg.com. Now even if my system needed more memory to run after installing Open Office the additional memory would be far less than going out and feeding the MS cash cow yet again.
Hi all,
As a Latin American user, I have to say that I've never paid for Microsoft Office. In most of the developing world, people use cracked versions, like me.
Since price is not an issue, I find Writer very user friendly and less cumbersome than Word, although the functions track changes and add comments in Writer are much less useful. Word, on the other hand, has grammar corrector and gives you confidence that the format will not change in other's people computers, which you can never be sure with Writer. That's why I have to convert to PDF, blocking other readers to make comments and changes.
I tried to migrate from Microsoft Office, but many features are lacking (specially in Calc) and I just couldn't. For the moment, OpenOffice is a good complement for Microsoft Office, but it cannot replace it.
Just a short note to let you know that Open Office also runs under Linux, a platform you somehow omitted under your Specification Heading.
"If you're in science or finance and need to demonstrate complex equations graphically, or want to create trend lines on your graphs, you may find OpenOffice.org frustrating"
Who in Science uses Excel for graphs?! That's what Python is for, and that's free, too
I have used Open Office since version 2.0 came out, and stopped paying for Office/WP upgrades. Another advantage not mentioned is I can use Open Office on my XP based machines, my Mac and my Linux based ultracompact...all for free. And when I work on a system that does not have Open Office...there is a portable version. For mac users I suggest NeoOffice, but it is the same program.
The good: Its free! It runs on every operating system you are likely to come across, and it works!!!
The bad: Okay, so Calc is a little slow and weak and Base can be a chore, but it still works.
This is good as you are using your too expensive sometimes problematic MS Office. Money wise go to openOffice and you have same as MS Office capabilities. You can convert your files to PDF directly with out an extra program or buying....
The good: PDF, work same as MS Office...
Be aware that OpenOffice.org 3.0 came out last month, and Calc's support for graphs has been greatly improved, to the point where that functionality actually rivals that available in Excel.
HINT: If you need a trendline, make sure you choose the "XY Scatter" graph type and not the "Line" type.
TRIVIA: OpenOffice.org is cross-platform compatible, free of charge, and open source. What's more, you can head to www.portableapps.com for a version that you can install on your flash drive and run on any Windows or Wine-enabled computer, without requiring installation.
Let's hear it for OpenOffice.org and the Open Source community!
The good: Graphing is at least as intuitive as it is in Excel. Plus, it doesn't default to that ink-wasting gray backgound we all know and despise.
The bad: The only feature still lacking is extensive gradient support. But let's face it: most of us only use that for fun and games anyway.
i want open the microsoft visio in openoffice.org 3.0 give me some help
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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