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Filter 55 vetted Apache OpenOffice reviews and ratings
Reviews (1-11 of 11)
February 12, 2020
OpenOffice - Open or Closed?
Part of the work we do requires use of a MS Excel template. Since we use WordPerfect, we tried to open and use this form in QuattroPro, however, for some weird reason, it wouldn't convert properly. We do not use MS Office, so we needed an "MS-friendly" alternative. This fit the bill!
- Converts .XLT files perfectly.
- Easy to use.
- There seem to be issues using this app in Windows 10. It worked fine when we used it on Windows 7, but after we upgraded the network with NEW Win 10 computers, it takes a very long time to process commands.
- It will not allow any upgrades.
June 11, 2019
OpenOffice: Fast, Free, Simple, And Easy To Use
Our web developers and account managers use OpenOffice to create and edit documents and presentations for our customers. The program is lightweight on our computers' resources and runs very smooth most of the time, with minimal technical glitches. It loads up fast and does not have many of the same challenges as the Microsoft Office suite. Although it's not as good for large complex documents, it is all we need for most documents most of the time.
- Lightweight on our computer's resources
- Loads and runs fast
- Runs smoothly without technical errors
- OpenOffice makes it very easy to create and edit documents fast
- Not the best solution for larger or complex documents.
- Doesn't integrate well with third-party software and applications.
- Not as good as MS Office for document sharing and collaboration.
The Apache Open Office suite is seen in our organization as a replacement for Microsoft Office that will be used across all departments. Right now it is not, however, I have been evaluating it for a while now in order to present the replacement proposal to higher management. The biggest business problem that this will solve is reducing cost while addressing the needs covered currently by Microsoft Office.
- The best thing that OpenOffice does is being free. The cost of Microsoft Office is high and smaller shops can't afford it.
- OpenOffice has similar features with Microsoft Office and that is a lot, given that the Office team at Microsoft is huge and this product goes through all cycles of marketing, product planning&requirements, development, testing, rollout, and production maintenance.
- In terms of performance, I have seen OpenOffice run as well as or even better than Microsoft Office.
- It is cross-platform, one of the key strengths of OpenOffice.
- Provides compatibility of the generated files with Microsoft Office - this will make the transition to OpenOffice for any company smoother.
- The look & feel in general of OpenOffice is outdated and it doesn't match with the one from Microsoft.
- The usability of the menus can use a little improvement; sometimes it is harder to find what you need in a reasonable time.
- Some incompatibilities with .docx and macros in Excel .xlsx files are present. If you have complex macros and formulas in Excel files you may find it won't work in other tools.
August 31, 2018
If you need flexibility at a great price, and you don't need online collaboration, OpenOffice is for you
We use OpenOffice in most of our divisions, typically as a translator/swiss army knife for opening almost any file type and being able to work in it. We're a consulting firm, so we get lots of documents from all of our various different clients, and not having to email them back and say "Hey, we can't use your files, can you send us something else" keeps us looking professional. It also lets us do some neat tricks that other document suites don't - like being able to directly edit .dbx files in calc - things that keep us ahead of the curve.
- The number one strength of OpenOffice is the flexibility it gives. We can open any file type, save any file type - it's pretty much invincible. Even if we're going to work on this in a different program, just being able to open some of these ancient files that we get from local city governments is a huge win for us.
- It's also administrator friendly - I'll use it a lot on the road because the licensing is so much easier to deal with than trying to check out a license from a server or make sure that everybody has internet connectivity.
- It just looks pretty! It's legitimately a quality product, the layout looks good, it's not nearly as pushy as "other suites," and for the money it's the best!
- I would like to see more inclusive design - things that make accessibility a priority. Some of our users are older or vision impaired, and being able to include them is important to us.
- This is nit-picky, but I don't like how it opens the startup menu every time - like you open a program, and it opens the overall menu. So, for example, I want to work on a database file in calc, so I open up calc - the first thing it does is say "which of these programs would you like to work with?" I just opened Calc - that's what I want, why are you asking me if I want to edit a presentation?
- For whatever reason, formatting can sometimes be a little wonky around pictures - I get that that's a thing, but man I wish someone would perfect the ability to drag and drop pictures without exploding everything else in the document, you know?
I use OpenOffice almost daily for general note taking and document formatting. OpenOffice is great for handling different document types and as a free alternative to a paid program like Microsoft Word.
- OpenOffice is nice to have as an application on your computer vs. using an online word document application like Google Docs.
- OpenOffice can handle a variety of file types (.doc, .rtf, .xml) , making it an essential tool for those who don't have access to Microsoft Word
- OpenOffice is a deeper software than Word and is more accessible. I know, accessibility for a document typing software, I know. But, OpenOffice allows for quickly changing margins, typeface, size, etc, and I think does it better than Word, and in an easier format.
- OpenOffice can handle spreadsheets, basic databases, presentations, and basic drawings. It handles all of the usual Microsoft Office tools within one application.
- OpenOffice allows for user created third-party plugins so you have many options for pursuing very specific things within the program. This is great because OpenOffice is user-sourced, so there's plenty of new things to try for improving workflow.
- Some people are legitimately not interested in using software outside of the Microsoft Office Suite or Google Drive, so this could be a hard sell for small-mid-sized businesses.
November 30, 2018
An easy-to-use office suite for free
I am the only person in our office who primarily uses Apache OpenOffice, although I have brought some others around to using it at least some of the time. This is especially true of the secretarial staff. As an office suite, it is used for general writing and calculating activities.
- The program is free-ware. It can be quickly downloaded.
- Correcting typos and finding errors in text are easy with this program.
- OpenOffice documents can be saved in other formats such asthose from Microsoft and more basic ones.
- Its interface is fairly straightforward and relatively easy to use.
- For people used to Microsoft products, most of the basic functions are essentially the same.
- It could break away from some of MS Word's structures.
- It should have an (easy to find) option to set the line spacings at something other than the predetermined values without having to reset it every time the program is re-started or a new document is opened.
- It re-saves documents at start-up without explaining why these need to be re-seaved or who to clear them.
November 27, 2018
Free software comparable to Microsoft Office!
OpenOffice is a great free alternative to Microsoft Office, used to create presentations for other employees, briefs, bulletins and to organize information.
- It is free software!
- The user interface is very simple to adapt to
- It saves to Microsoft’s Office formats (like .docx)
- I don’t have anything to critique OpenOffice for
March 09, 2018
OpenOffice - Free solution for word processing
I am a professional freelance photographer, so within my business, I handle all matters that require a word processor. I use OpenOffice, an open-source office productivity suite, to create any and all business-related documents: invoices, receipts, quotes, etc. I do not have the need to create more complicated documents or presentations, so I can move through the administrative part of my day with ease and no cost.
- OpenOffice is free and fully functional. When I bought my first Macbook, I did not want to pay additionally for Microsoft Word or any other processing software. I found OpenOffice as a free alternative that met all of my needs.
- It is easy for beginners to learn. Omitting some of the bells of whistles of Microsoft Word (for example), leaves it super user friendly but still powerful enough to get your work done.
- Because it is open sourced, OpenOffice is well-policed software. Anyone can suggest improvements, propose bug fixes, read about future plans, and avoid the hype of commercial software.
- Though not often, the software can occasionally act glitchy: it can lag a little bit or crash altogether, though this is rare in my experience.
- The primary document format in OpenOffice is ODF, rather than DOC. I sometimes experience incompatibility when opening files from Microsoft DOC in OpenOffice, such as formatting errors.
- OpenOffice does not have a built-in grammar check tool. This can be remedied by downloading an extension, but I'd like to see it built-in.
March 12, 2018
OOO.org -- Heavy on Office, Light on price.
I have been a user of OpenOffice off and on from when it was Star OfficeSuite; at the time it was the only Office Suite for Linux systems, and today is cross-platform and highly compatible and indeed equivalent with Microsoft Office.
While not being used across my current place of employment, in a previous career it was the sole office suite utilized by the business entity, selected because of its price and compatibility. With it I was able to send documents to other (larger) businesses who utilized current versions of Microsoft Office, and they were able to see the issued documents with high compatibility and no display issues.
While not being used across my current place of employment, in a previous career it was the sole office suite utilized by the business entity, selected because of its price and compatibility. With it I was able to send documents to other (larger) businesses who utilized current versions of Microsoft Office, and they were able to see the issued documents with high compatibility and no display issues.
- Price: the version I used was free.
- Compatibility: With exception of specific tabling in the word processor and macros in the spreadsheet tool, there was perfect compatibility.
- System compatibility: I was able to access and use it with fairly old systems, and did not need a new or current PC to install and operate.
- The system is fairly bloated. The amount of space the office suite takes up is increasingly larger and larger with each iteration.
- Macro support is weak.
- Greater XLSX and DOCX extension compatibility without required "conversions" would be good.
February 13, 2018
OpenOffice is fast and reliable
Our university is a Microsoft partnered institute and all the department issued laptops and machines come preinstalled with Microsoft Office solutions. Since I prefer Linux Ubuntu OS, I started using Apache's OpenOffice suite. In my personal use, I found it to be an excellent alternative to Microsoft Office. In our IT department, we also experimented with OpenOffice API as part of a software tool we developed to handle document conversion process.
- Apache Openoffice has some excellent features that made it an attractive tool for my personal use.
- It is fully compatible with all the Microsoft document types and loads much faster on certain occasions. You can easily add on additional modules to customize the software further.
- Being an open source community tool it is completely free of cost.
- The Writer software, which is their equivalent of the Microsoft Word would often have problems importing tables and data from Excel or other spreadsheets and not render correctly.
- One of the things that I have repeatedly had issues with was its presentation software, Impress. Presentations developed in that tool would sometimes not display correctly in projector mode and some graphics would not show at all.
It is being used by persons that use the Linux environment and some Windows users that like that it is open source or just prefer it to Microsoft Office. It is also being used by those who take their work home on their personal devices and want the open source version, so as to not have to buy the Microsoft version.
- It is a great alternative to the high cost of Microsoft Office.
- It is not expensive to upgrade with every new release like Microsoft Office is.
- It is works on multiple platforms. There are version for Windows, Linux, and Mac.
- It does not have an email client. It needs an email client like Microsoft Office has in its Outlook application in Microsoft Office. For this I would suggest getting Mozilla's Open Source Thunderbird email client.
- It does not have a calendar application. It needs an calendar application like Microsoft Office has built in to its Outlook application in Microsoft Office.
Apache OpenOffice Scorecard Summary
About Apache OpenOffice
Categories: Diagramming, Office Suites
Apache OpenOffice Technical Details
| Operating Systems: | Unspecified |
|---|---|
| Mobile Application: | No |