What does MS Office actually do that openoffice does not?

[weasel fierce]

I've used MS office at work and in school for years, and I've used openoffice at home for years, and I must admit, from a plain user level, I don't see a ton of difference.

Openoffice does PDFs out of the box, and it seems to open all the word documents I've come across, regardless of which version they were written in.

So enlighten me. What features am I missing that open office cannot do ?


I don't care about MS Office compatibility.
I don't care about excel.


From a pure word processing perspective, what short comings does OO have ?
Are they worth the pricetag ?

[Goldfissh]

Personally, I don't see much difference either. Open Office is brilliant, and as you say - it can do pretty much everything which MS Office can do. It just seems to be stripped out a little bit, a few features missing here and there. Again, I find this a good thing as getting rid of unneeded MS crap is always good.

[Verbeck]

the 'Ribbon'
some people think that not having a 'ribbon' makes openoffice ugly, useless and old fashioned

not a function though...

[Oxwivi]

Well, Ribbon does make things easier for people. People understand images better than text so new users will get the hangs of it easier. However, many of my friends did not like Ribbon unlike me.

[samjh]

I've used MS office at work and in school for years, and I've used openoffice at home for years, and I must admit, from a plain user level, I don't see a ton of difference.

I don't care about MS Office compatibility.
I don't care about excel.

From a pure word processing perspective, what short comings does OO have ?
Are they worth the pricetag ?

In your case, MS Office won't be worth the pricetag.

For other users, such as myself, it is worth it.


Openoffice does PDFs out of the box, and it seems to open all the word documents I've come across, regardless of which version they were written in.Lots of issues for me on that front. Even relatively simple tables and bullets are out of place or out of alignment when I open .doc or .docx files in OpenOffice (including Go-OO and LibreOffice). Since I often deal with complex .doc files, I can't afford to have these kinds of discrepancies. Then there are incompatibilities with PowerPoint as well (wrong colours, object sizes, alignment, etc).

Just for myself, I find MS Office has a much more efficient user interface than OOo.

For work, Excel 2007 can handle spreadsheets with up to 1,000,000 rows, while OpenOffice has the same limit as pre-2007 Excel: 65,535 rows. While this capability isn't essential for my work (I use specialised software for that), but I know there are some places where people rely on Excel to crunch lots of data -- totally nuts, but they do.

But for everyday personal use, OpenOffice is more than adequate. If all you do is type up letters or ordinary reports, then I think MS Office is overkill.

[Oxwivi]

I don't think it's the issue of the price tag. It's his perspective of your average user he's talking about.

And with the exception of .doc and .docx, OOo works great. And you can use the open document formats in Microsoft Office as well, so I see no reason for documents format to be an issue in compatibility.

[m4tic]

people expect an OO.org Access, OO.org OneNote etc that MS Office has

[TheNessus]

people expect an OO.org Access, OO.org OneNote etc that MS Office has

^this

[racie]

I don't think it's the issue of the price tag. It's his perspective of your average user he's talking about.

And with the exception of .doc and .docx, OOo works great. And you can use the open document formats in Microsoft Office as well, so I see no reason for documents format to be an issue in compatibility.

But haven't you ever had to open .doc or .docx files that a person has sent you, only to find the format all messed up? This really irritates me, especially when the bottom rows of text are cut off. Sure, I could take the time to resize the font, etc., but it's a bit of a hassle.

[m4tic]

I can't imagine a serious business without MS Access

[Oxwivi]

But haven't you ever had to open .doc or .docx files that a person has sent you, only to find the format all messed up? This really irritates me, especially when the bottom rows of text are cut off. Sure, I could take the time to resize the font, etc., but it's a bit off a hassle.
Right you are, I wish the open document format had more penetration. But in terms of internal documents in a company, open document formats are the way to go. In that case, only the department (or individual) dealing with other companies may make use of Microsoft Office.

[Verbeck]

I can't imagine a serious business without MS Access
?????

[Oxwivi]

Do you know what MS Access is used for?

[Verbeck]

why would a serious business choose ms access?

[73ckn797]

But haven't you ever had to open .doc or .docx files that a person has sent you, only to find the format all messed up? This really irritates me, especially when the bottom rows of text are cut off. Sure, I could take the time to resize the font, etc., but it's a bit of a hassle.

This has been my experience. I would like to be able to bring in a doc file and not have to reformat the layout. It seems that I can save in doc format and open in MS Word with no problems, at least with the type of documents that I deal with.

[Grenage]

I can't imagine a serious business without MS Access

Lol; very small companies, perhaps. I spent my first year at this company ripping out Access databases.

I think the mistake is often in comparing MSO and OO at all. Yes, OO has attempted to be very similar to MSO, but they are different animals. Most home users and small businesses could get by just fine with OO; medium-large companies are far more likely to struggle.

[Goldfissh]

Lol; very small companies, perhaps. I spent my first year at this company ripping out Access databases.

I think the mistake is often in comparing MSO and OO at all. Yes, OO has attempted to be very similar to MSO, but they are different animals. Most home users and small businesses could get by just fine with OO; medium-large companies are far more likely to struggle.

Why exactly is that? I'm not very clued up about Access, but why is it so bad for bigger businesses?

[NightwishFan]

I can't imagine a serious business without MS Access

I am so starting a serious business, and having it succeed using not a drop of MS Access. :) /joke

[Johnsie]

MS Office suports full VBA scripting and is also fully compatible with Outlook. Most large businesses have an exchange/outlook infrastructure.

[del_diablo]

I can't imagine a serious business without MS Access

I can not image a SERIOUS establishment to use such a inferior tools as Access and MS servers, but i think you reffere to low level here, bot the serious kind.

[Grenage]

Why exactly is that? I'm not very clued up about Access, but why is it so bad for bigger businesses?

It's a horrible middle-ground between a 'real' database system such as SQL/MySQL, and an excel spreadsheet; leaning heavily to the former (naturally).

Yes, it has its niche applications, but it's vastly overused.

[del_diablo]

Why exactly is that? I'm not very clued up about Access, but why is it so bad for bigger businesses

Its more or less a inteface that is just locked to what the MS server is running, and its not really a good or a functional tool.
Using a better database combined with a better interface for the database is something a "serious" company would do.

[Johnsie]

Most serious companies use Microsoft SQL server or an Oracle server.

[m4tic]

I can not image a SERIOUS establishment to use such a inferior tools as Access and MS servers, but i think you reffere to low level here, bot the serious kind.

It's the most widely used desktop database system so by inferior i don't' know what you mean, have you used it?
It's way cheaper to implement and maintain than large database systems like SQL server and Oracle

[Grenage]

This is kind of conveying the image that anyone using MS Access is walking around in oversized shoes, sporting a honking red nose and a flower that sprays water. ;)

[m4tic]

Most serious companies use Microsoft SQL server or an Oracle server.

Sorry, i was thinking of shops like book stores and similar

[julio_cortez]

Well, Ribbon does make things easier for people. People understand images better than text so new users will get the hangs of it easier. However, many of my friends did not like Ribbon unlike me.The ribbon is good for the majority of people. But I agree it's a pain if you've been used to the good old drop-down menus since Office 97.

By the way, I usually save my documents in pdf so at the moment OOo has "something more" and it comes for less (actually, for free). I don't mind using CutePDF at work, but at least at home I have the chance to export pdf files natively and it's a good thing. :)

[blueturtl]

I think the OP meant features that had to do with creating documents. Things like word count etc. The ribbon menu or ability to open documents made in another word processor don't really count as features in that regard.

For my computing basics course at the university I had to re-create certain sample documents in both Word and Writer. The sample documents were perhaps not the most difficult I could have imagined, but still had plenty of features I rarely use in a word processor. Both OpenOffice and MS Office were equally matched in this comparison, except for the fact MS Office crashed once before I had saved (d'oh) and also had an irritating tendency to screw up formatting when inserting new elements to the document. I spent a lot of time trying to get things right in MS Office.

Let's hear from some of you more advanced typists. Interoperability aside, what actual feature are you missing that is vital to creating the complex documents you handle?

[I'mGeorge]

It makes you buy a license for it

[Pedric]

MSO has a 64bit version for Windows, OOo doesn't (http://qa.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=46594).

[Lucradia]

MSO has a 64bit version for Windows, OOo doesn't (http://qa.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=46594).

OOo in ubuntu repo would tell you that it was "wrong arch" if you tried to install it though. Unless OOo installs ia32-libs?

[P4man]

I don't care about MS Office compatibility.
I don't care about excel.


From a pure word processing perspective, what short comings does OO have ?


Talking about setting the bar low. From a "pure word processing" perspective I havent had shortcomings since Word 2.0 back in.. 1992 or so ?

[kaldor]

Openoffice does PDFs out of the box, and it seems to open all the word documents I've come across, regardless of which version they were written in.


MS Office has PDF support in Office 2010 and 2011(OS X).

Your situation is the same as mine. For school and basic other stuff, OpenOffice is perfectly fine because it's very unlikely you'll run into compatibility issues; profs usually send stuff out in .doc or .docx with very basic formatting... so OO.o opens it up fine.

The problem with compatibility is with advanced functions such as tables and other such things.

As for features... I usually use OpenOffice but whenever I do use Office 2007-2010 (anything below 2007 was useless to me) I enjoy the UI quite a lot and find I can get stuff done fast even though I rarely use it. The ribbon is surprisingly good once you get used to it. MS Office is the only MS product I enjoy.

[armageddon08]

Umm.....maybe.....dominate the global office needs....

[kaldor]

Umm.....maybe.....dominate the global office needs....

Global?

[dr_duck]

I can't imagine a serious business without MS Access
I can't imagine a serious business with MS Access

[P4man]

I can't imagine a serious business with MS Access

In my years as consultant and IT trainer, I dont recall ever having been to a company larger than 20 people where access was not used (abused if you like) in one form or the other. Its *everywhere*. That its usually the wrong tool for the job doesnt change that reality.

[samalex]

Honestly the main two reasons I hear so many businesses using MS Office over OOo is for document compatibility since so many businesses do use MS Office and also cost. Most people would think the Cost of MS Office would be a deterrent, but many old-school execs still think "you get what you pay for" and the though of replacing MS Office which costs upwards of $500 a CAL with a free application might sound nuts.

The only other bigger advantage is MS Access as someone else suggested. Base in OOo is just not quite there, and though I loath MS Access it has its uses within a business, though I think it's WAY overused.

Sam

[Johnsie]

What does MS Office actually do that openoffice does not?

Looks good and is user friendly.

[NightwishFan]

Enough with the random "I love Microsoft" or "I love Open Source" darts. We do not care if you like Microsoft, or think either piece of software is somehow inferior. Give a specific honest answer that is relevant to the thread.


Looks good and is user friendly.

That is opinion and flame bait.

[Johnsie]

Nope. Run Excel and Calc alongside each other and see for yourself. Try getting people in a real world office environment to make the switch. I work in a company of around 30 people and they all prefer Office to OO. All the computers here have OO and MS office on them but they prefer MS Office because that's what they are used to. Microsoft has the advantage that most people have already been trained in that user interface wheras the OOO interface is less familiar.

[weasel fierce]

Like I said, I dont have much interest in Excel. THe few times, I've had to open simple sheets in OO, its worked okay, but I almost never use it.


As far as compatibility, I've had plenty of trouble with office being compatible with itself. At work we have 2 different versions and without a patch, they aren't compatible backwards.
This sort of thing has been the case for years. Not sure why OO has to be more compatible with MS Office, than MS Office is with itself.


When I publish anything, I tend to use PDF instead, as I can ensure it'll look the same, and open on anything.


Is it a low bar I am setting?
Yeah. But I imagine my needs are pretty much the needs of 90% of home computer users.

[lancest]

I personally believe we are moving towards greater document interoperability among office suites in the future.


With so many mobile computing devices not running Windows it's inevitable.

More are realizing that using PDF is a good idea.

OO has million of users and IMHO it's set to greatly improve.

[Stan_1936]

...For other users, such as myself, it is worth it......Even relatively simple tables and bullets are out of place or out of alignment when I open .doc or .docx files in OpenOffice (including Go-OO and LibreOffice). Since I often deal with complex .doc files, I can't afford to have these kinds of discrepancies. Then there are incompatibilities with PowerPoint as well (wrong colours, object sizes, alignment, etc).........

With MS Office, you can be worry free in terms of formatting.

Even some simple documents that I've prepared in MS Office open with the COMPLETELY wrong formatting in OpenOffice Word. For me, that is simply unacceptable. I've tried, over the time that I've used Ubuntu (/3 years), but I just cant say that I would choose OpenOffice over MS Office right now.

Just recently, I opened a pre-installed Powerpoint 2007 template file in OpenOffice Impress. The template file was as-is and I had not made any modifications to it. Needless to say, the formatting was an utter mess in Impress.

Fully Compatible with the Microsoft Office Suite. Based on my personal experience with it, I can not say that I agree.

[earthpigg]

Working on two presentations for school recently, I found PowerPoint to be a bit more intuitive than OO.o Presentation. I did one presentation in each. With more OO.o Presentation experience under my belt, i did the first one in PowerPoint.

[spoons]

Where's the word count feature in OpenOffice? I can't find it myself. Most likely I'm being thick, though.

[weasel fierce]

With MS Office, you can be worry free in terms of formatting.

Even some simple documents that I've prepared in MS Office open with the COMPLETELY wrong formatting in OpenOffice Word. For me, that is simply unacceptable. I've tried, over the time that I've used Ubuntu (/3 years), but I just cant say that I would choose OpenOffice over MS Office right now.

Just recently, I opened a pre-installed Powerpoint 2007 template file in OpenOffice Impress. The template file was as-is and I had not made any modifications to it. Needless to say, the formatting was an utter mess in Impress.

Fully Compatible with the Microsoft Office Suite. Based on my personal experience with it, I can not say that I agree.

Your points are understood but as I mentioned in my first post, I have zero interest in MS office compatibility. I am looking for actual features that OO doesn't have

[Thelinuxgeek]

UGH! How dare you mention a Microsoft product on a linux website!..........Just kidding. Openoffice is better in some areas than MS office and vice versa. I prefer Openoffice 'cuz it's free. Don't waste your money on MS office.

[P4man]

Fully Compatible with the Microsoft Office Suite. Based on my personal experience with it, I can not say that I agree.


To be fair, I cant say that of MS Office either. Its not compatible with itself across versions.

[Gremlinzzz]

What does MS Office actually do that openoffice does not?
Thins your wallet!

[73ckn797]

What does MS Office actually do that openoffice does not?
Thins your wallet!
You got that right. I purchased Office XP at $250 USD in 2001 for the upgrade. It still is loaded on my WinXP drive but I have not booted into it in weeks.

[uRock]

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