My favourite feature: Lack of price.

My second favourite feature: PDF conversion

Why I hate Open Office: PEBCAK. I forget to save in .doc format when sending others documents

You can change the default save formats. Makes it much easier in an office. I imagine it could be automated... replacing a config file or something so you wouldn't have to open it and do it all by hand...

Did they fix all the annoying bugs yet? Example: start a new line, press ctrl+b, type a word, press ctrl+b again (to turn off bold). Bold will still be on.

Bug? Ctrl-b is the big, scary, *Word* way of doing things. We don't want to do it that way, do we? In OpenOffice, you simply switch to HTML mode, and type out '' to start your bold word, and '' to end it. How much simpler could it get!

O god, I fail. $lt; > ?

I use Go-oo since it has built-in OpenXML support. No more converting .docx files!

Yes, i forgot. Pressing ctrl+b to turn on bold is illogical. Using parentheses makes much more sense.

yay open office
boo ms office

I tried your bug in the oldest OpenOffice I had here (2.0.3 2006) and it was fixed. I think this bug have been fixed ages ago. Usually OpenOffice bug fixes are very fast.

openoffice 3.0 will bring office 2007 compatibility!

ctrl+b doesn't work in OpenOffice? There's one reason not to use it right there. That's not a Word command but a universal command. USE IT. I refuse to relearn shortcuts for basic commands used in other porgrams. The closer you can get to Word the better.....but not Office 2007, that ribbon bar is as annoying as HELL~!!!!!! Good god I hate the ribbon.

Ctrl-b works fine for me in OO 2.4.

What kind of VBA support is in Open Office?

Don't get me wrong, i love open office. I just get annoyed with simple bugs like that, that go on for years without getting fixed.

Hm, yeah it must have been fixed somewhere along the line. I have 2.4 and it doesn't do it. I just remember that being there for a long time. 3.0 sounds great though.

I use OO daily...and as an IT Manager I've rolled it out to dozens of machines.....

Do I prefer it to Office 2007? No. It's free - that's cool - but that's just about the only reason it's cool. The "scary" office installer? Which version of Office was this reviewer installing exactly?

Getting rid of the splash screen requires the user to edit an ini file? Yeah that's user friendly. MS Office gets a bad rap because it's written by Microsoft - it's that simple. Open office takes long to open (because it's Java), and it does have a small army of bugs to deal with.

OpenOffice is good for what it is - a free alternative to "real" Office, but if money wasn't an issue - MS Office would win hands down.

Yep, price is a biggie all right - and I say that as a Micro$oft partner

However, as an OO newbie, can anyone give me the 5 second difference between "Sun" OO and the OO foundation versions? Is it just the support Sun offers? (hence there being a price).

As long as you have to install piece of crap Java, I'll never even try this. Neither will the rest of America. Java, AOL, and RIAA are all evil.

Even if MS Office were free, I would still use OpenOffice. Here's a few features it's got that MSO does not:

1. Runs on Linux (and Solaris, and OS X, and Windows)
2. Vector drawing program, "Draw"
3. More languages, better internationalization
4. Extensions, like for Firefox, offer tons of niche functionality
5. OpenDocument Format is better than MSO's binary or "OOXML" formats (can be read by tons of other programs and lots of programming libraries provide support to new apps easily)
6. More logical user interface
7. No tiered pricing and confusing options of included programs

Also, OpenOffice does not require Java. Some of its functionality does, but if you skip Java you can still install it and do most everything.

"Getting rid of the splash screen requires the user to edit an ini file? Yeah that's user friendly."

Wow! It took me all of 15 seconds to FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS and get rid of the splash screen. I bet even you could do it if you try!

"MS Office gets a bad rap because it's written by Microsoft - it's that simple.”

I'd used MS Office for many years and have a paid for copy but quit using it many years ago when I found OO.o. Inferior to MS? I think not! I was help desk at The University of SC for quite a while and the biggest problems we had arose from MS software. And yes we had all the competing software at that time. And trying to get help from MS was like pulling teeth even though we were one of the largest users in the state. There is a reason M$ gets a bad rap. I detest them!

“Open office takes long to open (because it's Java), and it does have a small army of bugs to deal with."

Takes long to open? Dunno, took less than 10 seconds to open after removing the splash screen. I have yet to find bugs in oo.o to the extent we had them with MS.

Sounds to me like lack of knowledge and [u]sour grapes[?u] on your part, is that why you are anonymous?