Open Office?

Malte279 · **on:** February 12, 2011, 09:47:19 AM

Hi,
I'm wondering if anyone here has any experience with the use of open office products as a free alternative to the Office Programs (Word, Powerpoint, Excel etc.). Can anyone tell me about notable differences, advantages, or disadvantages?

DarkHououmon · **Reply #1 on:** February 12, 2011, 10:59:42 AM

I use it, but I don't know about advantages and disadvantages. I don't really compare OpenOffice with Microsoft Office that much.

ChaoticMistress · **Reply #2 on:** February 12, 2011, 01:35:35 PM

I have Open Office, and have found no problems from it. No viruses nothing! However it depends where you download it, because there have been times where the fake programs. Tried to trick people into downloading 'bad' things, thinking that you actually download the real thing.
If you go to FF.Net you can download the software with no worries.

2007excalibur2007 · **Reply #3 on:** February 12, 2011, 02:52:31 PM

^
He was asking about its advantages/disadvantages, not if it has any viruses or not.

Petrie. · **Reply #4 on:** February 12, 2011, 06:38:16 PM

I've tried using OpenOffice before. If you write basic word documents and powerpoints, there is no difference. Some excel spreadsheets don't work properly (if you don't use Excel, no worries here). I've found documents where I used specific formatting (e.g. with tables or tabs) that OpenOffice Writer would sometimes not be able to work with the formatting. Now do understand this was with old Word documents with the .doc format. I don't know if compatibility has improved with the newer .docx format. I have Office 2010 so no need to really go and find out.

Final thoughts: for the average user, OpenOffice will probably be just fine. For anyone who does more advanced stuff with the office trio from Microsoft, you'll probably want to get the real deal to maintain functions and have no compatibility issues.