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Perhaps you should check out Neooffice
It's an excellent port that uses the native osx widgets. I'm going to be deploying it where I work next January on hundreds of iMacs.

Everyone, pool your mod points and give 'em to this guy. I always found it ridiculous that OpenOffice has to run on an X session, it always seemed like a horrible kludge to me, especially getting printing to work.

I am away from "Open office" scene but I notice there is "neo office" project which runs on java.

What if a P2P hosting distrubuted (yes,needs huge bandwidth) NeoOffice shipped which serves to this need? I mean fire up web browser and quickly edit a .doc fle?

Of course, Neooffice can't run in browser right now. It needs major support/developer force to make it I guess.

Sorry if this idea is completely stupid but there is market for such thing and it is not wise not to give people an open alternative without a cookie expires in 2038.

Here is the suite I talk about. It got nice reviews from Mac people.

http://www.planamesa.com/neojava/en/index.php

" It's not likely that open office will be a success until they have a native os x port."

They pretty much do, NeoOffice: http://www.planamesa.com/neojava/en/ It is not 100% OS X native yet but it does interface with OS X pretty good and has the OS X look and feel, mostly. It's not built off of OO.o v2.0 level yet but give it time.

There's a new version of NeoOffice out, 1.2 Alpha, that's a bit faster and comes a ways integration-wise (i.e. it does use the OS X print dialog now). Still a bit slow and generally not great; I prefer OOo on Linux any day of the week, but it's much better than running X11 on OS X.

Download page

There's a new version of NeoOffice out, 1.2 Alpha, that's a bit faster and comes a ways integration-wise (i.e. it does use the OS X print dialog now). Still a bit slow and generally not great; I prefer OOo on Linux any day of the week, but it's much better than running X11 on OS X.

Download page

How about NeoOfficeJ?? http://www.planamesa.com/neojava/en/index.php

BTW, what's IMAO?

I was a bit surprised folks did not mention the Neo implementation for Mac OS X:
    http://www.planamesa.com/neojava/en/index.php

It is a rebuild of Office using Java as the UI. This allows the UI to be manipulated to be closer to the Mac OS X LAF.

But it also basically would allow you to use Office on the server, and Java as the front end within a web browser. Not easy, but it at least points the way.

NeoOffice/J (http://www.planamesa.com/neojava/en/index.php) is a Java port so feel free to figure out the JavaScript issues and share your pancakes!

http://www.planamesa.com/neojava/en/index.php

This is an OpenOffice port to OS X that uses the Mac UI and reads and writes MS Office file formats.

I don't think Microsoft would tolerate Apple moving to OpenDocument; OS X must be really pissing Ballmer off as it is, not because of the numbers sold, but because it rubs in just how late Vista is -- and that you can just buy OS X 10.4 "Tiger" right now if you want Vista's oh-so-cool features. Apple would not survive a frontal attack by Microsoft. Don't look for help there.

However:

The Mac-specific port of OpenOffice.org, NeoOffice/J is very good indeed, though not fully aquafied (yet). What is more, it is GPL. The "Tiger" live search system spotlight doesn't support OpenDocument out of the bo- er, off the website, but the NeoOffice/J people provide a nice plugin called NeoLight that does the trick. I can recommend NeoOffice/J wholeheartedly. It is a bit slow on my iBook 800MHz G4 with 640 MByte RAM, but then most things are, and it hasn't crashed once.

IMHO, NeoOffice/J and OpenOffice.org are Apple's best long-term hope to get out from Microsoft's thumb. I am disappointed that Apple is not doing more to support their work, but then again, I'm sure Microsoft has somebody sitting in the MS Office for Mac department making sure Apple doesn't do anything to hurt their cash cow. The price tag on the full standard retail version of MS Office if you are not a student is $399, after all. Where would Microsoft be if people used OpenOffice and did something else with that money?

Inkscape's gui is pretty good.
Same goes for Firefox.
In fact, developers do tend to put in a lot of effort to seperate gui from program logic. So with the high value in so many open source codebases locked behind crappy interfaces, I think we'll start to see more optimization and reskin forks coming along.
They did it separating Mozilla from Firefox. I think it is happening with X.Org and GIMP too.
There are native GUIs for OpenOffice being built, so there's probably some hope there too.
http://www.planamesa.com/neojava/en/index.php/
Heck, this kind of thing is even happening at the distro level with micro-linuxen such as Damn Small Linux and Puppy Linux.

Just so there are no misunderstandings here: Though there is an OpenOffice version for the Mac that is in fact only accessable via X11, everybody uses NeoOffice/J instead because it is aquafied to the point where it runs normally. Oh, and it is GPL.

And now back to your scheduled program.

Or, since I'm buying a new computer, I can just use iWork which should be included on the new machine. Or, I suppose I could just use AbiWord or OpenOffice.org.

NeoOffice/J is the port of OpenOffice.org to MacOSX. It does make full use of the Java Cocoa interface.

FYI, I think the moderators marked you "flamebait" because you weren't paying attention. OOo for Mac require X11, looks like crap, acts like crap, and can't properly size a window to save its life. This spurred the invention of NeoOffice/J, which is OpenOffice, but using Java to fill in a few holes (such as the GUI). It does not require X11, it's reasonably snappy, holds up quite well, and has most (all?) of the features of the latest 1.x release of OpenOffice.

though excel really is the best spreadsheet software that I have yet seen on any platform.

That is the oddest thing to saY. IMHO, most spreadsheets are alike and interoperate quite well. It's the word processing documents that are the killer.

Seems the "NeoOffice/J"->"Preferences..." menu option got disconnected in the final build.

You can use "Tools"->"Options" if you want; it's the same thing. Or get this patch.

W

http://www.planamesa.com/neojava/downloads/patches /NeoOfficeJ-1.1-Patch-0.dmg I'll give 'em credit for getting patches out fast, but the nearly flawless 1.1 RC Patch 6 was out for quite a while, so it would have been nice if Preferences... [splat-comma] worked out of the box.

I've been using NeoOffice/J on my Macs for a couple of years now. (I have a rather dated review here.) Without a doubt, it's my favourite office suite for OSX.

What's really amazing is that almost all of the coding work is done by Patrick Luby (pluby) with a fairly small group of very dedicated testers and contributors. Despite the complexity of the code and the magnitude of the task, Patrick and the rest of his small team of volutneers has managed to release the only viable alternateive to MS Office for Mac OSX.

I have been installing NeoOffice/J on lab machines at work for over a year now. NO/J 1.1 is a significant improvement over the earlier versions. It now integrates with the menubar, opens and closes like a Mac app, and even uses OSX's keyboard shortcuts. Heck, they even managed to integrate it with SpotLight!

For everyone out there using a Mac, be sure to check it out. Also, if you like the program don't forget to donate. Even $50 is much appreciated. Think of it, an entire office suite on your platform of choice with perfect interoperability with Linux, Windows and Solaris. And it's Open Source. Surely that's worth a donation.

I'll keep my client running today. Will you?

Mine's chugging away, downloading - there's a fair few seeds already so it hasn't uploaded anything yet!

Here's a nice, friendly Mac BitTorrent client for all you GUI-fiends, and while I'm at it, here's a list of conventional mirrors and translations...

Perhaps when they somehow get the money to do so. Feel free to donate:

http://www.planamesa.com/neojava/en/donate.php

Apparently the homepage is still up http://www.planamesa.com/neojava/en/index.php
Could someone make a mirror before it gets /.

Still, Mac users aren't adopting iWork in large numbers; partly because it lacks components like a spreadsheet application, but more so because Microsoft Office has established itself as an industry standard for home and office productivity.

And remember, Pages doesn't look jack like MS Word. Which is what people want:

According to sources close to Apple's retail operations, the average Apple store only sells a handful of iWork copies each week, if that. Meanwhile, contacts at larger mail-order catalogs have used words such as "awful" and "horrible" to describe sales of the software suite. Instead, sources say the first question to roll off the tongue of most prospective Mac buyers is: "Will Microsoft Office run on my new Mac?"

Which was my point, thank you very much. The best chance for Apple to get out of the MS Office trap is OpenOffice (NeoOffice/J on the Mac). In fact, they way I see it, it is the only chance they have. Instead of fooling around with clever new ways to do things that people don't want, how about putting some oomph behind NeoOffice?

Nope. No way. You, me, and my mother might be able to adapt, but your PHB is going to doubt his army of corporate drones can be that flexible. If it doesn't look like MS Office and feel like MS Office, he isn't going to touch it.

What I hope Apple is doing, because otherwise they will never get away from Microsoft, is putting out a line of "sufficient" programs to hold the line without pissing off Gates while skunkworking OpenOffice like mad somewhere in, say, Far East Siberia. Creating and maintaining a full office suite is an enormous untertaking comparable to, say, writing and maintaining and operating system or a webbrowser. Apple would be better off hitching themselves to on open source project like they did with BSD/Darwin for OS X or KHTML for Safari than trying to go it alone.

There is a semi/nativer version, NeoOffice/J.

I actually own Office X but have using NeoOffice/J instead on my primary computer - for day-to-day use NeoOffice/J is fine. Have not tried beta 2 yet though, which I am thinking will be a lot better.

It's been reported here and elsewhere just about a hojillion times, but since you seem to be the last person on earth to get the message you do not need X11 to run OpenOffice on the Mac.

While Apple dosnt OpenOffice does. NeoOffice is an OS X version of OpenOffice. I have read countless reports that OpenOffice 2.0 is an office killer, I would not be surprised if Apple bundled this with OS X or made their own Office suite based on it.

what was more embarrassing is how badly open office mangled the powerpoint presentation, and you KNOW it did.

Powerpoint presentations usually look pretty mangled anyway. I had endless problems with NeoOffice/J seemingly scrambling the formatting of work-related presentations, documents and so on, until I borrowed a Windows machine with Microsoft Office and discovered that was how the documents were supposed to look... ;-)

"NeoOffice/J works natively"

I understand what you meant by "natively", but an app that looks like this http://www.planamesa.com/neojava/images/sample.jpg makes Steve Jobs cry. And I'm not saying anything against OO - it's just that it's very demoralizing using an early-90s UI like that in OS X. The UI is my chief complaint - it's one of those things I'll use because it gets the job done, but I'll groan the entire time. Kind of like using... MS Office, almost? :)

(I kid, I kid...)

it won't be shipping with OSX, though. It doesn't even run natively (officially, at least, NeoOffice/J works natively), so it has to run in X11... And Running things in X11 really, really sucks. And it's ugly.

Furthermore, Apple wants to, you know, sell iWork. Why would they package a program that would replace that?

If it was to be included with OSX, it might have a chance to become a standard... With the rest of the above? nah.

Done: Neo Office/J

Been there. Done that:

Neo Office/J

I do know that there is a java Office Suite applicaion available, I just don't remember it by name.

You're either thinking of ThinkFree Office (non-free, $49), or the ongoing Aqua/Java port of OpenOffice.org, NeoOffice/J. NeoOffice/J may be our only hope for seeing a truly native Aqua port of OOo, since the main OOo team have abandoned the idea of making their own Aqua port. Just recently they've managed to make it support the native Mac menus and widgets, and it supports the native Mac fonts and printing, so it can almost pass as a real Mac application. They are continuing to work on it. OOo is large and slow, but it's free and getting better.

I tried ThinkFree Office a couple of times and wasn't impressed. Too Windows-oriented to function well in a Mac environment, and because it's some kind of cross-platform Java application the interface is almost as weird as using an X11 application. Blech.

Sure, it is java, but NeoOffice/J is a pretty nice non-X11 dependent OS X port of OOo, complete with an aquafied menu, and continued development. Check it out: http://www.planamesa.com/neojava/en/index.php

i've been a Linux user for about 10 years and a Mac user for about 2. when i went to install OpenOffice on my ibook i had to jump through hoops i hope to never have to jump through again.

So bad where these hoops that i've pretty much tossed OO (using X11) and am using NeoOfficeJ with fairly good success.

If the OO team wants Mac users to migrate from MS Office to OO it would probably be smart to focus some time and energy on a native port. Very few people are willing to take all the necessary steps to get OO running on OS X with X11. not only that but it's slow, doesn't have nearly as nice an interface, and DRINKS DOWN the memory.

The java-nised NeoOfficeJ is the project you're talking about. It runs in darwin and works. The official openoffice requires xdarwin and runs as good as your X.

First of all, this is NOT related to Apple announcing iWork. At all. No, there's no conspiracy.

Second, this is OLD news. Anyone who's even remotely followed OpenOffice.org Mac OS X porting work knew any potential Aqua port was on the back burner. Way on the back burner. With the stove unplugged.

Third, the X11 port will ALWAYS continue to exist.

Fourth, there is a Mac OS X graphical port, albeit via Java, in the form of NeoOffice (1, 2). This project has come a LONG way since its relatively recent inception, and is an impressive work melding OpenOffice with the Mac OS X look and feel. There's more work to be done, but the latest 1.1 development release is impressive.

Fifth, there are gargantuan technical hurdles to maintaining a full Aqua port of OpenOffice without greater engineering support (perhaps from the likes of Sun, who has shown zero interest in maintaining OpenOffice for Mac OS X, much less maintaining a commercial StarOffice for Mac OS X). These are all detailed here, incidentally by one of NeoOffice's chief representatives.

So calm down. This isn't an Apple conspiracy, or the end of OpenOffice for Mac OS X. OpenOffice will continue, in X11 form AND in the likes of things such as NeoOffice. If anyone is to blame for the official OpenOffice.org Aqua port going by the wayside, frankly, it's a lot closer to Sun than anyone else.

I find it (after a bit of a lengthy launch) to be a far larger threat to Office than iWork is likely to ever be.

If iWork had a spreadsheet component, and all components have excellent Applescript support (as I'm sure they do), then I might consider buying it. But I would continue to use NeoOffice as my interface to the Microsoft world.

For example, it:

does not need to run under X11, as it runs "natively under Java" (nice oxymoron, huh?) with a much more OSX-like look and feel.

since it runs "natively", it does not need its own set of fonts, but rather uses the available system fonts by default

it seems to my subjective inner clock to be faster than the X11 flavor of OpenOffice

no dual menus (screen menus and window menus) -- application menus are in the screen meny bar, only toolbars are in the NeoOffice window

Give NeoOffice a try -- I made the switch after about 5 minutes of working with this (very mature) beta program.

NeoOffice/J

The MacOS version requires XFree86 to run...

Check out NeoOffice/J. It's not really Aqua based, but it gets rid of the X requirement. It also does native printing and handles drag-n-drop better.

Probably already posted, but there's NeoOffice/J, which does a much better job of integrating into Mac OS X. Ignore the Windows-style widgets in the user interface - properly important things like styled copy-and-paste, printing, system fonts and so on work brilliantly, unlike with the X11-based port.

Also, it's very much in active development, and keeps on improving. They've been working on the low-level stuff first, getting that to work nicely, and they're now starting on making it much more Mac-like. Aqua menus are just one recent addition... :-)

While the link in the story is to the English download pages, the site itself has the download instructions, FAQ, and other pages available in Dutch, French, German, Italian, and Japanese. You can use the language links at the top of the page or link to the language-agnostic download link which will redirect you automatically to the correct language based upon your browser user-info string.

ed

nice to see the NeoOffice/J people have a sense of humor. From the website:

Warning: all NeoOffice/J development and testing is done by volunteers so there are always some missing features and bugs. So if you expect software to be absolutely perfect before you install it, we recommend that you purchase a commercially supported office suite like MicrosoftTM Office

The preferred implementation of OpenOffice.org for OS X is NeoOffice/J, which is basically OO.o 1.1.2, but it uses Java so that it behaves more like a native app: It does not require X11, it supports native print dialogs, native fonts, all of the OS X international text input methods, and as of recently it even puts menus in the menu bar instead of in the window. I highly recommend it.

Keep an eye on NeoOffice/J, it's a separate build of OpenOffice.org that's being ported to use the native Mac OS X interface (Aqua) so it doesn't require X11. Kind of a stopgap measure while we all wait for OOo 2.0. They seem to be coming along pretty fast. It's still under heavy development but some folks are already using it on a daily basis. For those who can't afford MS Office for the Mac it's already a halfway decent alternative. It's huge, of course, but will probably behave better on the type of Word documents that you have been having trouble with in AbiWord. Might be worth a look.

You should try neooffice/j [http://www.planamesa.com/neojava/en/index.php]. It's based on OOo 1.1.2, and it integrates beautifully with OS X.

Office is really expensive on Mac and stealing it is easier but still forbidden

Umm, have you tried NeoOffice/J? It's awesome. Be sure to d/l the latest patch as well.

W

Office is really expensive on Mac and stealing it is easier but still forbidden

Umm, have you tried NeoOffice/J? It's awesome. Be sure to d/l the latest patch as well.

W