Word vs. NeoOffice vs. Pages

[MC]

Out of curiosity I downloaded NeoOffice just to kick the tires.

Strikes me as quite easy to get along with, and it integrates with Word
in a lss cumbersome way than Pages (i.e. you don't have to Export As,
you can simply set the default Save as .docx or .doc in the Prefs).

By the way I notice that there's a new version of NeoOffice about to be
released... no idea what's in it.

Given the level of dissatisfaction expressed rather often, here and
elsewhere, with Word 08, I'd be interested in your thoughts on these
alternatives.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

I notice that there's a new version of NeoOffice about to be
released... no idea what's in it.

Presumably it will incorporate the new features of Open Office.org (OOo)
3.0, though I haven't seen anything specific.

Given the level of dissatisfaction expressed rather often, here and
elsewhere, with Word 08, I'd be interested in your thoughts on these
alternatives.

Now that OOo runs natively in MacOSX, I'm not sure there's any great
reason to prefer NeoOffice over OOo. Neo used to be much faster than
OOo, but that was when OOo ran in X-window, not OS X.

Pages has some nice features, too, but it's not quite ready, IMO, for
use in environments which will be creating or editing files to be use by
others in Word. Haven't played with Pages '09, but I don't see anything
in the new version that's compelling (nice, yes, but not compelling).

OTOH, none of my clients have moved to Word08. They're still using
Word04, since they use add-ins to automate much of their workflow
(neither have they moved to XL08, though some have moved to Erage and
Ppt 08).

Bottom line: choose a package that does what you need/want it to - if
you need turnkey cross-platform compatibility, Word's your app. If you
don't do anything complicated, or if you're operating in a single-user
or small/independent office environment, any of the three above, or
several you didn't mention (Mariner, Nisus, and others) may work fine.

Just my US$0.02...

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Out of curiosity I downloaded NeoOffice just to kick the tires.

Strikes me as quite easy to get along with, and it integrates with Word
in a lss cumbersome way than Pages (i.e. you don't have to Export As,
you can simply set the default Save as .docx or .doc in the Prefs).

By the way I notice that there's a new version of NeoOffice about to be
released... no idea what's in it.

Given the level of dissatisfaction expressed rather often, here and
elsewhere, with Word 08, I'd be interested in your thoughts on these
alternatives.

Hi,

OpenOffice version 3 is the latest version. It's likely that the next
version of NeoOffice will be that plus VBA plus some templates.

If you don't need Visual Basic for Applications and don't use any
add-ins, then Word 2008 is your best bet by far. If you do need add-ins
and VBA then Word 2004 is the best bet.

Any other suite will not have the fonts that ship with Microsoft's
products. Only Word 2008 opens, works with, and saves all of the new
objects that are contained in the new XML file format. The drawing
engine was completely revamped for Office 2007/2008, and all other
programs have to translate and interpret what's going on and turn it
into something it knows, and can't turn it back into the new stuff when
done.

Publishing Layout view in Word 2008 and the accompanying templates are
compelling.

Major Word features that OpenOffice version 3 does NOT have:
Project Gallery
Project Center
Notebook Layout and the ability to record
Publishing Layout so you don't need a separate page layout program
Formatting Palette
Object Palette (OO has a very old-looking "ribbon" for this)
Citations Palette
Reference Tools
Compatibility Report
Project Palette
Visual Basic For Applications (VBA is only for Calc in OpenOffice)

There's probably more than 20 other features in Word alone that
OpenOffice does not support completely or at all.

Short story: Except for the simplest documents in non-Microsoft Windows
fonts that are also on the Mac, OpenOffice will not properly render Word
Documents, at least not good enough for business or school purposes
IMHO. If you were to try to collaborate on an XML format document
sharing between OpenOffice and Word, OpenOffice will change the document
significantly and you will find the task difficult, if not impossible.

OpenOffice is a fine product as far as it goes. If everyone you share
documents with is using OpenOffice in its default file format, then
sharing goes smoothly. If OpenOffice is all you have ever used, you
won't miss what you've never had. OpenOffice certainly is nowhere near
as full featured as Word - not even close. Anyone who says OpenOffice is
"the same as" Word is not telling the truth.

-Jim

 

[MC]

OpenOffice is a fine product as far as it goes. If everyone you share
documents with is using OpenOffice in its default file format, then
sharing goes smoothly. If OpenOffice is all you have ever used, you
won't miss what you've never had. OpenOffice certainly is nowhere near
as full featured as Word - not even close. Anyone who says OpenOffice is
"the same as" Word is not telling the truth.

I'd be interested (if you have time) to see a similar comparison with
Pages...

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi MC -

Just couldn't resist

<snip>

Given the level of dissatisfaction expressed rather often, here and
elsewhere, with Word 08, I'd be interested in your thoughts on these
alternatives.

<snip>

That's like hanging out in the Emergency Rooms of hospitals & concluding
that the entire population is injured or diseased. When you take into
consideration that many of the complaints you're seeing in different forums
pertain to the same issues & are from the same people; the number of
reported problems that are directly related to OS, printer & system
maintenance issues; not to mention good old "user error", etc. the actual
"level of dissatisfaction" may appear to be somewhat exaggerated.

Not to say 2008 didn't ship without its share of problems - some of which
are serious - but most have been resolved by the updates. I just returned
from Macworld & you'd be surprised how overwhelmingly positive reaction to
Office 2008 is if one broadens exposure to the full range of users.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

I'd be interested (if you have time) to see a similar comparison with
Pages...

Hi,

I don't have Pages.

-Jim

 

[Clive Huggan]

I'd be interested (if you have time) to see a similar comparison with
Pages...

Hello Matthew,

I don't use Word 2008, so can't make a direct comparison. Nor have I used
NeoOffice.

I use Pages sometimes for quick-but-nice-looking page layout work of items
up to 50 pages, but have only briefly looked at its word processing side. I
personally don't use the WP side because I'm usually working Word 2004's
advanced features fairly hard in long documents between PCs and Macs, but if
I were an average user in a home or small business context I think I'd find
it did all I needed.

Pages, despite not having such things as optional hyphens (which plays havoc
if you need to add text after you have laid things out -- a typical feature
that Apple leaves out in "for the rest of us" software) infuriates users far
less than Word, other than those who, like me, were Stockholmed by Word long
ago in the struggle to get it to accept who's boss.

Over all, Pages is very intuitive, has a short learning curve, and can
produce output that has an elegant appearance.

Cheers,

Clive
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