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Office 2003 vs. OpenOffice.Org
By Jason Brooks
2004-04-26
Article Views: 48581
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Office 2003 vs. OpenOffice.Org - ' Suite considerations ' (
Page 3 of 5 )
Another Writer feature that stood out for testers was the applications word-complete function, similar to the auto-complete function of many Web browsers. Writer attempts to complete words being typed based on words previously typed in a particular document. Deborah Hordych, a buyer at FN Manufacturing, liked this feature but said that users would have to be careful that Writer was suggesting an appropriate word.
With a Belgian parent company, FN Manufacturing users were, not surprisingly, interested in Word 2003s translation capabilities. Using a document he created, Kevin Patten, a controller in FN Manufacturings finance department, was able to use Word to effectively translate specific phrases from English to French, something Patten said he does frequently during his daily work routine.
"Extras like the translation feature are a really nice touch because they cut down on the amount of time I have to spend on a document," said Patten. "Every minute I save on something like this is a minute I can spend working on something else."
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Suite considerations |
OpenOffice.Org 1.1.1
Pros
No licensing costs As a free-software project, OpenOffice.org
has no licensing.
Good integration among suite applications eValuation testers
said, for example, that they appreciated being able to create
new spreadsheet documents from within the word processor application.
Variety of export options OpenOffice.org ships with PDF export
capabilities, as well as support for saving presentations in Flash
format.
Cons
File-format compatibility issues Although OpenOffice.org does
a good job of handling Microsoft Office file formats, small formatting
inconsistencies will require reworking of complex documents.
Lack of traditional support Office suites typically do not require
much vendor support, but the fact that OpenOffice.org is an open-source
project means software support must come from the community, generally
spread out across various Web sites and newsgroups.
Interface differences OpenOffice.org is similar to Microsoft
Office in its design, but users will need some time to grow accustomed
to differences between the two. |
Office 2003
Pros
Familiarity Most knowledge workers use some version of Microsoft
Office already, and an upgrade to a new version of Office presents
the flattest learning curve.
File-format compatibility Microsoft Office file formats are
de facto standards, and no rival suite handles these proprietary
formats as well as Office does.
Advanced features Office 2003 has more features and capabilities
than competing suites. Although many users do not require or use
much of this functionality, advanced users, particularly of spreadsheets,
often find it vital.
Cons
High licensing costs Microsoft Office licenses are priced at
a few hundred dollars each—a cost that can be difficult to
justify when your users require only basic productivity suite
functionality.
Advanced features require latest versions Some of the most compelling
features added to the last two versions of Office—such as
extensible smart tags, document protection and Smart Document
creation—are not backward-compatible with earlier versions
of the suite. |
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