The suite approach: 6 office suites tested



The suite approach: 6 office suites tested Developers of alternative office software need to place more emphasis on ease of conversion if they ever wish to de-throne Microsoft.


Contents
Testing Compatability
 Evermore Integrated Office
 Lotus SmartSuite
 Microsoft Office
 StarOffice/OpenOffice
 WordPerfect Office
 Specifications
 Final words
 Editor's choice
 About RMIT
Word processors, spreadsheets, and associated office applications tend to be long-term solutions, whether they are used in the workplace or in the home. For those of you that are starting up a new office or feel that your current system isn't up to scratch, it is worth taking a moment to consider the options available to you. Microsoft's offering is very good of course, but you don't have to settle for it just because everyone else you know uses it.

Step one: determine your needs. Word-processor, spreadsheet, and presentation software are basics. How about graphics editors and relational databases? Do you need macro scripting? PDF publishing? Integrated e-mail? You certainly need to consider the ease with which existing information can be imported into the new software package.

While companies such as Corel are famed for their graphics packages, most office suites don't include tools for producing more than basic geometric figures or graphic imports. StarOffice and OpenOffice are better in this regard, although there are certainly better standalone products on the market.

The precise range of components available in a package will vary from one product edition to another.

Major packages may be sold as standard, professional, educational and even home editions. Generally it is features such as databases, XML publishing, and extended product support that will be excluded from less expensive product versions. When you go shopping, don't simply ask for Microsoft Office or Corel WordPerfect. Even the new product from China, Evermore Integrated Office, has half a dozen licensing and product combinations.

Compatibility
"I got the file you e-mailed, but I couldn't read it." This annoying problem is all too common. The solution doesn't require that everybody use the same software, but some standards wouldn't hurt. As much by default as for quality issues, Microsoft's massive market share has seen its file formats take on the role as the formatting standard. If you don't use Microsoft products, chances are you might need to convert to Microsoft formats before sending material to clients or publishers.

Interestingly, Microsoft document (DOC) files are now basically formatted as XML. Unfortunately, Microsoft chooses to use its own proprietary format for XML. Sun Microsystems, on the other hand, saves documents in a standardised XML format. Since nearly everyone can read and write to Microsoft's formats, standardisation seems to be almost a reality.

Personally, I use OpenOffice, and while I love the fact that it uses compressed document files, I would never dream of e-mailing such a document to anyone else. (Hence, I submitted this review as a MS DOC file).

Of course there is a catch to using your favourite word-processor with a standard file format. Whenever I save or close this file I will be asked if I really wish to keep the MS DOC formatting. Why? Because features specific to OpenOffice will be lost in translation. This is usually a minor concern, but it doesn't hurt to experiment a little and find out what you can and cannot get away with.

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