Alternatives To Office For Mac OS X

imatt writes "From eWeek's article on MS Office Alternatives for Mac: 'Major milestones were recently announced for two Mac OS X-compatible software suites that could provide an alternative to the near-ubiquitous Microsoft Office...NeoOffice/J uses a standard Mac OS X installer, presents native Aqua menus, does not require Mac OS X users to install and use X11 software, uses Mac OS X fonts and has native printing support.' Most [options] seem to be open source, which is good for the programming community and better for the Apple user."

Comments

OO.org Vs Neo

[siplus]

I have been using my first mac (powerbook) for almost a month now, and i can say that NeoOffice/J does a much better job for a user in mac os x than the X11 version of OpenOffice.

Since Neo is based on OpenOffice, and I am familiar with it from my use of Linux and Windows, Neo is simply the best choice!

The only bad part; There won't be an implementation of a native version of OpenOffice 2.0 for awhile.

I'm not sure if this is because of my experience in high school, but i like the simplistic layout of MS word more than OOo 1.1 writer. I prefer the OOo 1.9 writer and 1.9 presentation layout; but don't see these coming to the Mac very soon (outside of the X11 implementation)

Open Office

[Eightyford]

What is the status of OO.org on the mac platform? I have heard that the interface is not consistent with other OSX applications. But other than that, what is the stability, speed and usability like? I personally very much enjoy OO.org on Windows, though excel really is the best spreadsheet software that I have yet seen on any platform.

Re:Open Office

[AKAImBatman]

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.

Re:Open Office

[elbobo]

It's the word processing documents that are the killer.

Somewhat off-topic: When it comes to word processor apps, nothing I've seen or used has ever come near the vast superiority of WordPerfect (even up to or even especially the latest versions). It's a sad thing indeed to see WordPerfect die a slow death in the market.

BBEdit/Appleworks

[Anonymous Coward]

Why do people use "word processors" when all they need is a text editor?

Seriously, I haven't used a "word processor" in years, except to read stupid infected files other people send me. Spreadsheets are more handy, but Appleworks/OO.o do just fine in this area. So does my HP49G+

Re:NeoOffice/J

[fm6]

...it has loaded every Office document I have asked it to.

Yeah, but has it loaded it accurately? Are all the tables in your word processor docs properly formatted? Do the bar charts in your spreadsheet look the same? How about your PowerPoint slides? And when you save your changes, do people who open your files in Office complain that they're all messed up?

If you just want to work on your own, there are plenty of decent Office alternatives. But if you want to share files with the huge Office user base, you have to use Office yourself, period.

Re:Why does Apple need office, anyways?

[Graymalkin]

AppleWorks is a nice suite if all you need to do is work with files you've created and work with and only need rudimentary Word and Excel support. When you start needing more advanced features that Office has AppleWorks begins to look extremely basic.

Two excellent examples of this are change tracking and comments. There's no comparable feature in AppleWorks for these. In networked environments these features of Office are seeing more and more use. If several users all edit the same document at different times being able to track the changes made to said document is extremely important. This couples well with the ability to make out of channel comments about the document that travel with it.

If you're trying to switch a business and their existing document base over from Windows PCs to Macs you're going to need software with not just good but excellent Office compatibility. You can't replace a tool with a new one that does half as much as the old.

Nothing like stating your opinion as a fact

[93 Escort Wagon]

"Most [options] seem to be open source, which is good for the programming community and better for the Apple user."

I can more or less see the first one... but better for the Apple user how, exactly? Does it do the job the user wants better than the closed-source option? Most reasonable people would say "no" - the job, like it or not, is to work seamlessly and transparently with MS Office. At (theoretical) best it can do this job "as good as" Office, but if you've used OpenOffice on any significant MS Office document you know that isn't the case right now.

You may feel that "open source" is a laudable goal in and of itself. I won't disagree with you, but I doubt that most users will ever really care.

Re:Nothing like stating your opinion as a fact

[Doctor_Jest]

In the realm of "as good as office"... there are plenty of small organizations, as well as individuals, that never use the "high" end functions of Office.. (more importantly, those that give the Open Source Office suites fits when trying to import the documents.) Those groups would benefit from the alternatives more than an entrenched, giant organization that relies on certain aspects of the Office format (revision histories and that sort of thing.) I think in that group, it is better. It's cheaper for one, and it does what most casual users of office suites need it to do.

And in those offices or homes, as long as its able to save in a format others might be able to open, I think they couldn't care less what icon they pushed to get there. :) Thus we all benefit. Microsoft is kept on its toes making Office better because there is something that can take away their market share, and users can choose between competing suites to find one that best suits their style.

I also think the reason this works now on the Apple platform more than it ever has is due to the demographic of Apple users expanding from the non-techie base. OS X has made it more "geek friendly" and by the same token, made it more of a platform that can benefit from choices offered by the Open Source Community. Sure there are those who will always choose MS Office over any alternative. But that doesn't represent everyone, and with the expanding, diversifying base of Apple users, it won't have to.

But I do agree with your point that there are users who won't care. Just that I think there are more and more users who will (and do) care, all thanks to the Unix underpinnings of OS X.

Heck, it's made me a switcher. :)

Re:Microsoft has to hate this...

[jschoenberg]

The word processing that was in Works is not the same as Microsoft Word. They didn't break any sort of compatibility between versions.

Most people in this thread who want basic word processing should be comparing the various Mac word processing software to Works, not MS Word. MS Word has way more integrated enterprise and work-group features than a regular consumer will ever want to take advantage of. Most people who migrate away from Word to OO or others just want a word processor, not a collaboration tool, so they shouldn't be buying MS Office in the first place, they should buy Works, or...better yet....download Open Office or other free word processors.

Comparing any of those basic tools to Office just doesn't make sense. Apples and oranges.

Sorry, no can do.

[Pliep]

No flame intended, but I think NeoOffice/J is utter crap. Functionality is great (if one thinks duplicating MS features and functionalities is the way to go; personally I am horrified to find the preferences in the "tools" menu, amongst 100 other usability flaws) but the user interface just is an exact copy of the Windows 95 UI. My eyes hurt when using NeoOffice/J. This just does not give me the user experience I expect as a Mac user. This combines a Windows UI with Windows usabilty. I'm not a Windows user you know, I don't want this. But I appreciate the work, and see the importance of alternatives for MS Office. NeoOffice/J is just not there yet, and I'm hoping someone can someday create an Office suite that offers more than being just an MS Office duplicate with an ugly UI.

Re:Microsoft Office still preferred...

[Alioth]

If I was still a student - yes - free is MUCH better than $100. Let's see - no income, having to live off savings and possibly temporary jobs during the vacation and still sinking into debt - that $100 is needed for food and beer, thanks.

Re:Apple's fault

[Anonymous Coward]

You've got to be kidding. No one likes X. Nobody is ever going to bother developing X-based interfaces for Mac software. It isn't even simple to make existing X applications fit in, since at the very least they use different widget sets.

I use ThinkFree

[Ilgaz]

I bought it in my windows days when Sun Java for Win32 started to rock, now on OS X, I still use it and thanks to java maybe, its one of the rare programs did not need a update etc to run on tiger.

It plain works.

Version 3 comes in weeks, http://www.thinkfree.com/

It passed very evil tests here, like editing a very bad formatted pro movie script. When I saw the 450 kb .doc file, I knew what was coming but thank god it worked.

Another problem with them would be? er, whitelist thinkfree if you buy/trial it. They are now Korean company ;) You know what I mean. Besides jokes, they now have a huge Korean company at their back, Haansoft. I wish they try "webtop" type office again some day.

First days of Thinkfree, you could run it from IE, using JVM 1.1. No wonder we must be impressed.

Apple's fault (for making NeoOffice/J possible)

[Kaseijin]

That's Apple's fault: they are putting roadblocks in the way of people trying to do a better job with X11 integration on Macintosh.... There is no technical reason why X11 couldn't be as smoothly integrated into OS X as Carbon and Cocoa are....they probably are afraid that if X11 becomes well enough integrated so that people can write applications with a native L&F, it would become the predominant API on OS X.

What you mean is that Apple isn't doing with X11 what is has with Java, which is to devote significant effort to get to the point where the simplest apps can pass for native and the rest feel like poor imitations. Unlike Java, X11 doesn't have a standard high-level graphical framework, so there's no way Apple can provide generic "X11" integration. They'd need to provide their own APIs, and toolkit developers would have to use them... oh, wait.

The OOo developers got so annoyed with Apple's behavior that they stopped working on Macintosh integration.

The OOo developers stopped working on Mac integration because it wasn't a priority for them, the NO/J developers were doing a better job of it, and NO/J's license precludes merging code from NO/J into OOo.

X11 should... run automatically on every Macintosh

This reminds me of a story, only in reverse. If I wanted X11 to load when I log in, I'd put it in my login items. I don't, because waiting longer for a usable desktop just to hide startup time for applications I may not even use wouldn't do me any good.

Re:Apple Office

[hunterx11]

If Apple did this, there is a chance that Microsoft would stop making MS Office for OS X, and for many users this would make OS X no longer an option.

Re:NeoOffice/J

[fm6]

I'm not "entrenched". I'm simply having to deal with real-world issues. Most real workplaces are full of Office users and the files they've created. If you've never had to deal with people who don't want to relearn all their Office skills, or with all the files they've created, you've probably never had a real job.