@bms: Yeah really, There are so many free online office programs. They should have released this about 2 years ago.

Joseph

Sounds good, but who wants to install software. Everything is in the cloud. Where is OpenOffice web edition?

bms

I believe the native OS X support only applies to the newer Intel Macs, no?

--Scott

Scott Wegner

did they give it decent skinning and add-on support yet?

I actually really like OO, infact i use it in preference to MS Office. However its really frustrating that the guys making it are SO anti-looking nice that they've kind of made a virtue of looking ugly.

If they'd just add firefox style skinning and addon support I'm sure they'd latch on to some of that customization popularity.
(plus they could all keep it looking windows2000 if they really want.)

But noooo... they have to be all superior about it... ;-)

soul_grind

Not to take away anything from OpenOffice, I found the ThinkFree Office for Mac/Windows pretty much usable many times.

vinodlive

I'm primarily a Google Apps user, but a regular Office suite is still a must have in corporate America. I've only been use OOo 3 for a few hours but it is pretty impressive so far.

It looks at home on a Mac, launches fast, and is fully compatible with the MS Office documents I've received from coworkers running the MS suite. No "gotcha's" so far.

devnull

Downloading now. I didn't think this would be out so early this year.
@bms: It's still useful to have a desktop word processor. But you are right, online acces to the files would be sweet.

kennylog

@bms: Open Office is the only desktop word processor client that can sync effortlessly with Google Docs. That's where it's at: a robust, easy to use client with the ability to update shared docs at the click of a button.

farmerfresh

Just tested it, works fine but you can still tell it's a beta by some inconsistencies. Thumbs up anyway :)

kennylog

this couldn't have come at a better time, the sooner it gets finalized for Mac the better because a network i'm doing very soon needs it

Gonzie

There unfortunately currently is not a binary for PPC Macs.

jwisser

When this gets out of beta, please do a comparison for Macs between this and NeoOffice! There are a number of features about NeoOffice that I think are less than perfect, and I'd love to see if this addresses them.

parkerhiggins

@farmerfresh: well i counter with MS Office's integration with office live. i guess there is another interesting front in the war...

natenovs

@farmerfresh: D'oh, you just beat me to it. I was going to point out the OpenOffice.org2GoogleDocs extension.

Tom Ulrich

I'm downloading it right now, but from what I've read, it still looks like OO Writer is still stuck with Print Layout (Page View in Word) and Web Layout. That's unfortunately, because the only features that have continually kept from from dumping Word for Writer are (1) lack of Word's "Normal View" and (2) lack of Outline View. Word's Outline View is so good that it singlehandedly atones for all the sins of Redmond. Have the new views been added?

(And no -- Navigator != Outline View)

Andre Kibbe

@kennylog: Really? From what I remember this thing has been in beta for almost 2 years (pretty much since the Intel macs came out). I was expecting to see it out last year around this time.

Joseph

Is it pretty? (On Linux)
Does it still screw up bullets?

Confuzius

@Joseph: Well, the developers said it would be out this summer, so I only expected a beta in late July or August. This is a good preview :)

Anyway, I haven't found any real bugs yet, just artwork that isn't correctly implemented yet.

kennylog

The reason I won't be switching anytime soon: outline view. What serious writer can stand writing without outline view? It's simply the most powerful mode. Any word processor that can't handle this well is a nonstarter. Apparently it's the second most requested feature. The day they add this feature I'm in.

philosopher_dog

@kennylog: Man you're about to make me download it. I liked it before when I had the PPC Powerbook, but once I upgraded to an Intel box, I stopped using it cuz you needed to install X11.

Joseph

@bms:

when your offsite backup is your parents home in WV where the cloud is connected at 24kbps.

enine

@bms: When servers or network connections go down, desktop apps are superior to web apps.

nighttimestereo

I'm underwhelmed. Maybe I was expecting too much from a 2.4 - 3.0 transition...

And is getting live word count for Writer TOO MUCH TO ASK?!? Argh!!

shatteredmindofbob

I agree it looks like it's from 1995, despite how good it is. Can't it look more like Lotus Symphony?

antman70

Why not a side by side with Oxygen Office? Star Office? Or even a $12.00 OEM version of WordPerfect which is more than enough for most users. Puzzling . . .

rainbowsky

@antman70: True... when you compare the interface to word 07, it looks plain. But it does what it's supposed to do, for free.

kennylog

ARGH! No PPC Version! I knew this Intel transition would hit me sooner than Apple said it would...

marcushe

Stupid n00b question: is there a way to get in-line spell checking in OO, like you can in Word and Firefox?

Bakaness

for Macs there always NeoOffice ( based on OpenOffice). It has been around for a few years now and there also a PPC version. http://www.neooffice.org/neojava/en/index.php -R

MarioCivet

hmm... well it might just be me, but i cant see many/any advantages from 2.4, apart from for mac users of course.

it still seems to be missing quite a few key features, and particularly calc still lacks compatibility with MS office.

bagano

OK, so OpenOffice doesn't looks as "flashy" as Office '07. But the price is right, and I prefer Open Source software to non-free counterparts anyday. I like not having to agree to endless EULAs that take away all my rights as a user. Also, OpenOffice has some neat features that arent/were'nt offered by others. For example, Open Office has supported exporting to PDF since version 1. I will most certainly be upgrading from 2.4.

lifeguardhawk

OpenOffice is a solid program suite, but has a rather heavy footprint. I personally prefer ThinkFree Office for it's online and syncing capabilities. Been using it for the past month and it's highly efficient and compatible.

ultrasur1