I just made the switch to NeoOffice, the Mac version of OpenOffice, which is free software versions of Microsoft Office products (word, excel, powerpoint).
I can’t believe it’s taken me this long. When I first tried to get OpenOffice running on my mac, it required the dreaded “terminal” … and was beyond my minimal geekdom. I later tried NeoOffice, but it was buggy, and crashed a couple of times while I was writing novel chapters, so that was the end of that. Probably 2 years ago?
I’d heard the new versions (well, probably for a year or more), were stable, slick and nice-looking. And it is. The transfer has been totally painless.
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April 15, 2007 at 7:23 pm
Bob Goyetche
I’ve been using it for a few months too - it’s solid, It’s a great alternative.
April 15, 2007 at 7:26 pm
Hugh
yup! just spent the last hour using it… seems more intuitive than Word? maybe not. but nice and clean, anyway.
April 15, 2007 at 9:10 pm
Steven Mansour
Good to hear. It’s way more flexible, format-wise, than Microsoft Office.
Was it really totally painless - no learning curve? I haven’t used Microsoft Office in a while so I don’t remember how similar they are.
April 15, 2007 at 9:21 pm
Hugh
well painless so far. but the tools/interface seem more obvious than word … it feels more flexible & better designed. as a little example, the toolbars just look cleaner.
these office tools are pretty mature now - so changes from one platform to another are minor, learning curve is not demanding, tho I am not trying to do anything very complicated.
April 16, 2007 at 8:53 am
Kristin
I’m glad you switched! I’ve been pretty happy with OpenOffice, and I’m glad they’ve now got a real viable option for Mac users :)