Sun StarOffice v6.0
StarOffice is a collection of four main applications: Write (word processor), Calc (spreadsheet), Impress (presentation) and Draw (graphics). StarOffice version 5.2 was free, but Sun has decided to charge for the latest edition, version 6.0. Admittedly the cost is modest, particularly when compared to MS Office. We should note that StarOffice is still free to educational institutions, although they must pay the cost of the media and shipping.
Installation is quite painless and very quick, with the default installation consuming 236.2MB and the minimum installation 142.5MB.
All the applications boast an XML file format, which should allow any editor that supports XML to read and edit StarOffice files.
In general the overall interface is quite simple to use and navigate; it really does not look all that different from Office at first glance. Write for example does not look terribly different to Word.
StarOffice Write
When we attempted to import MS Word 2000 files to StarOffice straight out of the box, the results were less than stellar. The most disturbing problems were the insertion of the incorrect photos in the document; StarOffice would play an electronic version of “52-pickup” with the images and shuffle them around. It also completely bollixed up the insertion of our charts, again replacing them with randomly selected photos. Thankfully with the installation of Product Update 2 from Sun, these two problems vanished.
Amongst the other niggles the one we found most annoying was that Star Office’s character and line spacing was not quite the same as MS Office; at times the imported text occupied more space—a single line in Word would become a line and a bit in Star Office, which would at times result in a drastic change in a document’s layout.
OK, importing may offer some hurdles, but what about creating a complex document from scratch? We are happy to say this was not a problem, and other than some minor relearning due to interface differences between Write and Word, it was very straightforward.
We were able to create our documents complete with table of contents, numerous styles, photo, table, and chart insertions, and headers and footers without any problems. It’s worth mentioning that unlike Word, the headers and footers can be edited directly like any other chunk of text (although Word’s double click selection is a very minor inconvenience).
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Creating tables is quite simple and Write provides tools to format cell widths, split and merge cells, and insert and delete rows or columns. Write can also perform a sum on a column of numbers.
Write can track changes in documents, but it uses the same representation as the previous version of Word, so the resulting text can look a tad messy.
In essence, Write is a powerful tool and will satisfy the needs of most, although weaning yourself off the Word way and onto the Write way of doing things can be a little tedious.
StarOffice Draw
Write has an embedded Drawing tool in a similar vein to Word. While it does not feature the ready made organisational charts, it includes more shape and curved line functions than Word, and other features such as call-out boxes and animated text, which is simply text that scrolls from right to left.
However, StarOffice also has a separate Draw package bundled that provides a far more expanded set of drawing features, including 3D solids whose 3D effects can be edited and manipulated. It’s a great addition and provides much more scope for drawings in the suite than Microsoft offers, although do not expect too much from the application, as its abilities are very modest when compared to dedicated graphics packages like Corel Draw.
StarOffice Calc
The interface of Calc is much the same as Write, and as a result does not immediately appear much different to Excel. Calc is less adept at importing Excel files than Write is at importing Word files. Any tables and their formulas and formatting transferred over surprisingly well, near enough identical to the original, but Calc tends to drop the ball when importing charts. That’s not to say the chart itself is wrong—the bar charts we imported were correct. Calc tends to pick large, easy to read, and user friendly fonts, apparently ignoring the Excel chart’s font sizes. This is fine for a simple chart with half a dozen or so in each series, however when you import a chart with say 20-odd items in the series (which in our opinion is not a terribly complex chart), Calc uses the same large fonts and thus renders the axis labels unreadable and totally useless. To make matters worse, fiddling with the font sizes is not as easy as it should be, because it also changes the scale of the chart as well.
In terms of general spreadsheet tasks, Calc is very good and with some exceptions is a great day-to-day replacement for Excel. Although while Calc appears to have all the features most of us need to use, its execution at times is anything but smooth and it tends to frustrate. For example we created a chart of the performance of 22 inkjet printers for the test exercise. To do this in Excel is a doddle: highlight the data and press F11. Bingo, a full page chart with sensible font size for the axis labels. We must admit even Office becomes bamboozled at times with more complex noncontiguous selections, but for the most part it gets it right. With Calc, selecting the data and then using the chart wizard to insert a chart results in a mis-sized chart that uses rather silly font sizes. It requires an inordinate amount of tweaking to get the chart anywhere near just right.
There are some notable omissions in Calc; for example, it lacks the collaborative features of Excel. While Calc can save files to the Web in HTML, the resultant file is not dynamic like Excel’s and is not interactive (Excel allows colleagues to edit the file online).
Formulas are simple in Calc as they are plain English statements, and the Data Acquisition tool will happily grab data from SQL databases and other spreadsheets. Another quite powerful tool is the Stylist formatting tool, that lets the user modify cells or entire worksheet styles in terms of the font, font style, size, and paragraph, although it could be a little more intuitive in its operation.
Calc supports what-if scenarios with the Scenario tool, allowing the user to explore the effects of different scenarios in multiple tables, much the same as Excel.
Calc is a great tool for basic spreadsheet applications, as long as your charts do not become too complex, however Excel is a more powerful, and in many ways more refined, product.
StarOffice Impress
Impress made quite a good attempt at importing our PowerPoint 2000 presentation. True, some of the transitions were not quite what we expected, but to be fair the presentation ran without a hitch.
The interface is clean and not difficult to navigate. There are five basic slide views, Drawing View (full-screen slide only), Outline View (much like PowerPoint outline), Slide View (multiple slide sorting view), Notes View, and Handout View. The left-hand toolbar has a similar array of drawing tools to Write as well as Arrange, Alignment, Effects, 3D Controller, and Insert tools. The latter simplifies the insertion of charts, formulae, OLE objects, plug-ins, applets, files, graphics, sound, and video.
Using the wizard to create a new presentation could not be simpler, and the range of templates is quite impressive, as are the 70-odd transition effects in the package.
Rearranging the order of your slides is as easy as dragging and dropping. Once a presentation is completed, it can be saved to your Web site in HTML format.
Overall, Impress is not as powerful as PowerPoint, but it’s still an impressive package that is easy to drive and can create spiffy presentations.
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| Product: | Sun StarOffice v6.0 |
| Price: | AU$$192.50 retail (educational users only pay for materials and postage), volume licensing available. |
| Vendor: | Sun Microsystems |
| Phone: | 1800 628 193 |
| Web: | www.sun.com.au |
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| Interoperability: |
½Experienced mostly minor problems importing Office 2000 files once Upgrade Patch 2 was installed. Available across a broad range of operating systems and hardware platforms. |
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| Futureproofing: |
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Solid array of features in this office suite and although not as powerful as MS Office; has scope for all but the high-end power users. |
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| ROI: |
½Very reasonably priced office suite, virtuÃ,Âally free for educational customers. |
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| Service: |
Web-based support and training, one free phone support incident for 60 days after purchase; per-incident fees subsequently. |
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| System requirements: | Pentium or SPARC processor, 64MB (Windows, Linux & Solaris/Intel platform) or 128MB (Solaris/SPARC platform), 250MB hard disk space, 800 x 600 x 256 colours or higher resolution. |
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| Operating systems supported: | Microsoft Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP. Solaris 7 (Solaris 8 is recommended). Linux Kernel V 2.2.13 or higher & glibc2 V2.1.3 or higher. |
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| Applications included: | Write, Calc, Draw & Impress. |
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