Is anyone else really disappointed with OO.org 3??

[davbren]

I was just wondering if anyone was as disappointed with the new OpenOffice as I was.

Don't get me wrong I think OpenOffice is good. I don't really find the format difficult. As long as I don't have to collaborate with others, which I rarely need to.

Sun did however have the ideal opportunity to up their game after the release, of lets face it, an epic version of MS Office.

I would say that the main base of OO.org users are linux users. We need a *really* good office app. MS really laid the gauntlet down this time. I'm just wondering why we don't have anything of this quality.

I'm going to try and create some templates, but I'm not sure I'm creative enough...

Your thoughts are welcomed.

[fatality_uk]

Sun did however have the ideal opportunity to up their game after the release, of lets face it, an epic version of MS Office
Sun can't release Microsoft Office. Microsoft do that already! :D

What were you expecting? 3d interface with voice recognition?
OOo3 is a solid release and as always with OOo, they build on a stable application by making small'ish steps forward.

[Skripka]

Sun can't release Microsoft Office. Microsoft do that already! :D

What were you expecting? 3d interface with voice recognition?
OOo3 is a solid release and as always with OOo, they build on a stable application by making small'ish steps forward.

Ditto.


OOo3 is tool-and if you notice it, odds are something isn't as it should be. I find OOo3 MUCH more useable than Office2007....Microsoft has lately been trying to make things more intuitive-which makes old schoolers annoyed because then no one can find anything.

[PilotJLR]

I feel OpenOffice 3 is an excellent release... it does everything I need to get my work done.
MS Office 2007 is quite good also, but runs slower (on equivilent hardware) and takes more disk space. To each their own.

Just curious - what big features did you find lacking in OOo3?

[OldDirtyTurtle]

I'm pretty pleased with OOo3. I've been using OOo off and on for years but only recently made the full switch when I dumped windows (almost completely). The only real bugbear for me before was comments - until ver3 we didn't have good integration with MS-using coauthors on papers. Now we do.

The only remaining problem is an good interface with Mathtype. Complex equations just don't work. Exporting to pdf and submitting to coauthors is a hassle because it precludes all the benefits of change logs and comments.

[OutOfReach]

I feel OpenOffice 3 is an excellent release... it does everything I need to get my work done.
MS Office 2007 is quite good also, but runs slower (on equivilent hardware) and takes more disk space. To each their own.


+1.
I believe that a good program is a program that does what it's supposed to do. Not a program with fancy menus or graphics.

[miggols99]

Just curious - what big features did you find lacking in OOo3?
Yes, I'd like to know this as well.

[hessiess]

Can't say that iv ever been much of a fan of open office, or MSoffice for that matter simply because there spell checkers don't recognise most of my spelling mistakes and give the correct word as a suggestion. For some reason Vim usually suggests the right word, maby just because it gives vastly more options. But whatever the reason, It means that I can work faster in Vim. Since finding LaTeX, allowing me to format right in the editor, I hardly ever use OO.o any more.

I don't like Office 2007, the interface wastes *A LOT* of screen space. I would prefer hot-keys and no GUI, which can be (almost) achieved in open office.

[rudihawk]

Its a major improvement! How can you be dissapointed with something that is as good as it is!?

[oldos2er]

"or MSoffice for that matter simply because there spell checkers don't recognise most of my spelling mistakes"

For a mistake like the above, you need a syntax or grammar checker.

[binbash]

openoffice 3 is really a nice release.It is a major improvement.Tho i dont use office software a lot.

[anonymous_user]

The only thing I dont like about OO.org 3 is that it looks like crap with fluxbox. Isnt there a GTK package for it?

[hessiess]

The only thing I dont like about OO.org 3 is that it looks like crap with fluxbox. Isnt there a GTK package for it?


export OOO_FORCE_DESKTOP=gnome

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/OpenOffice

[s.fox]

I really like Open Office 3. Calc and Writer are life savers and allow me to use Ubuntu for work related purposes. Impress is also something I have made use of in the work place. I have never used Draw, Base or Math but I assume that they are up to the same high standard as well. I can't thank the developers enough for all the hard work that must have been put in making the office suite such a joy to use.

The only problem that I have found is that I can't seem to remove clickable hyperlinks in Writer. If I could make a request of any kind then I would defiantly like to see the GUI's improved in a similar way to MS Office 2007 suite.

Other than that I am very happy with the whole package, especially considering its FREE :).

Once again a HUGE thank you to all the people have been working on it!!!

[davbren]

Lol, seems like I'm developing a knack for being controversial! haha.

I'm not saying its a bad program, not by any means. Its stable, it does most of what I want it to. So I also thank the programmers for a) making the thing, and b) making it free and open source.

I'm not sure there was enogh change in the new version to warant the "major" release title. I'm also seeing a lack of polish compared to MS Office. I think OOo is very much comparable to the previous version of MS Office. The new Office does step its game up somewhat. The drawings are easy to use and relevent. They are smooth and pretty. I could now quite happily use templates for presentations whereas before I would never dream of it.

As I said, its possibly just an artwork thing. So I'm gonna have a look to see if I personally can do anything to resolve that. I won't put sole blame on the devs, that wouldn't be fair. As a Software engineer myself I know how difficult it is. Although, it might be that I'm just not very good. lol.

I still don't see why there should be a gulf in ability with Office.

[s.fox]

I just had a thought. If MS have overhauled their GUI would it not make sense for Open Office to do a similar thing? I am coming from a user trying to switch to Linux from Windows point of view. Surely a user may see Open Office as a step backwards because it doesn't look as flash as MS Office.

Just a thought...

[JackyBox]

I like OpenOffice, but if I'm going to be reading or exporting .doc files I much prefer MS Office, for reasons of compatibility.

Yes I know OO is a lot better at .doc support than it used to be, but it's not perfect. If I submit a resume for a job, I want it to look as good as possible. I KNOW the employer/recruiter will be using Word because, frankly, very few risk using anything else in the corporate world. Any slight differences in the reproduction of the .doc file will stick out like a sore thumb, and given how difficult find a job can be, you need to make the best impression.

Oh, and before some smart buddy says "why don't you just supply a PDF?" Sometimes I can, but recruiters and HR often prefer .doc files because they can strip all the pertinent details from it automatically ready for presentation to their employer/client. If you supply a format that's not easy to manipulate, they might just skip your application.

I like ODF for my own personal use, but I can't trust .doc for anything else but MS Office. For now.

[Kingsley]

You can't be disappointed if you don't expect many cool, new features.

I use the MS Office suite for data analysis, graphing, and other scientific stuff. OO.org suits me for simpler tasks.

[davbren]

I like OpenOffice, but if I'm going to be reading or exporting .doc files I much prefer MS Office, for reasons of compatibility.

Yes I know OO is a lot better at .doc support than it used to be, but it's not perfect. If I submit a resume for a job, I want it to look as good as possible. I KNOW the employer/recruiter will be using Word because, frankly, very few risk using anything else in the corporate world. Any slight differences in the reproduction of the .doc file will stick out like a sore thumb, and given how difficult find a job can be, you need to make the best impression.

Oh, and before some smart buddy says "why don't you just supply a PDF?" Sometimes I can, but recruiters and HR often prefer .doc files because they can strip all the pertinent details from it automatically ready for presentation to their employer/client. If you supply a format that's not easy to manipulate, they might just skip your application.

I like ODF for my own personal use, but I can't trust .doc for anything else but MS Office. For now.


This is entirely true. I guess I will be doing my dissertation in OOo. But I can't imagine using it in the real world. Simply because of compatibility issues.

It is also right that it may seem like a step in wrong direction not redesigning the GUI. It could also be seen as copying for copying sake though. I can't see why anoyone would doubt the quality of Office 07... It has been made much more intuitive. Its much easier to do great looking work on it. Before it took some real skill to do something that looked good.

At Uni we were learning about features and scope creep and the like. I read that around 80% of features weren't used in applications like OOo and Office 07.

What I would like to see a lightweight office suite (at the very least a word processor) that made it easy to do the stuff we usually do. Even that of course would be a massive undertaking. I'm probably looking at google for something like that. I always look towards Picasa for ideas like this. Simple drag and drop productivity that does the job damn well. I think it needs to be said that Sun can't compete with MS for the office market. I don't think they should give up, but maybe look towards a different market. One for the casual user. Just open OOo, do your biz and leave. There are too many features that are missing from it in comparison to Office 07 to make it a viable option. I really want to be able to use it, but its not possible really unless im not collaborating. luckily for me all the uni pcs have open office so its not too much of a problem for uni work.

It gets annoying though when my classmates turn up with great looking documents without struggling like I have to get effects anywhere near as good.

[Skripka]

I just had a thought. If MS have overhauled their GUI would it not make sense for Open Office to do a similar thing? I am coming from a user trying to switch to Linux from Windows point of view. Surely a user may see Open Office as a step backwards because it doesn't look as flash as MS Office.

Just a thought...

OTOH,

Just about anyone who is/was fluent with Microsoft Word before 2007--will be driven INSANE, as things are no longer where they used to be or shown how they were. I know more than one person who needed a word processor, bought Office 2007--and wanted to return it as they couldn't find anything.....there is such a thing as moving forward with GUI, but a top to bottom GUI face-lift, for facelifts' sake drives end-users crazy. :mad:


I like my old-school OOorg3. :)

[s.fox]

OTOH,

Just about anyone who is/was fluent with Microsoft Word before 2007--will be driven INSANE, as things are no longer where they used to be or shown how they were. I know more than one person who needed a word processor, bought Office 2007--and wanted to return it as they couldn't find anything.....there is such a thing as moving forward with GUI, but a top to bottom GUI face-lift, for facelifts' sake drives end-users crazy. :mad:

That is true. What about having some kind of option to choose either the classic look or a flashy GUI? :)

[Skripka]

That is true. What about having some kind of option to choose either the classic look or a flashy GUI? :)

Now, THAT would be the Linux way of doing things "You betchya!"

[s.fox]

So... Where does one have to go to suggest such a thing to the developers?

[mrgnash]

Only from the point of view that I recommended it to my sister as something that would be good for editing PDFs, and it wasn't, but I haven used it myself. I gave up word processors for LaTeX, and won't be going back :)

[Vadi]

I am. I'm using Adobe Buzzword (https://buzzword.acrobat.com/) now primarily.

[bruce89]

Only from the point of view that I recommended it to my sister as something that would be good for editing PDFs, and it wasn't, but I haven used it myself. I gave up word processors for LaTeX, and won't be going back :)

I second this, but I don't write much anyway.

I also have a natural suspicion of any major version bumps like this, as it is usually just a method of grabbing peoples' attention as opposed to being a massive code change.

[EdThaSlayer]

I still use Openoffice 2.4 for compatibility reasons as it works much nicer with KDE at the moment. :)

[Spr0k3t]

I'm not upset with OOo 3.0, I'm actually quite thrilled. I heard rumors (unconfirmed) of a ribbonface hack that might have been available in the 3.0 release. I'm content with 3.0.

[mike1772]

It is also right that it may seem like a step in wrong direction not redesigning the GUI. It could also be seen as copying for copying sake though. I can't see why anoyone would doubt the quality of Office 07... It has been made much more intuitive. Its much easier to do great looking work on it. Before it took some real skill to do something that looked good.


I have Office 07 at work on my PC. I love change as much as the next person - but personally hate the new look of Office 07. Using an office suite is a small percent of my job and there is no time allocated to finding out how to do something in the new office. Perhaps it is just me - but I find the interface change to be too big a change with little or no benefit and see the Openoffice interface to be more 'office like than office'. In the past - MS pushed office by saying you wouldn't have to retrain your users... Now it's easier to say go to Open Office so you don't have to retrain your users.

[Georgia boy]

I'm using the 2.4.1 in Ubuntu. Does the new one still have the same problems with copying photos from the gallery into the document or has that bug been fixed? If I remember right Kami mentioned that it was being worked on before. Also, are there more fonts to choose from?

Tom

[wrtpeeps]

Quite simply, Office 07 blows all competition out of the water. The new Ribbon interface is brilliant.