Comments on: Go-OO: the most compatible office suite

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 10:54:27 +0000

I’ll certainly have a look at those. Interesting, but the problem is the lack of cross-platform compatibility, unless I’m missing a link on their website.

By: BeBob Esq

BeBob Esq — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 10:27:17 +0000

You should also try SSuite Office for a free office suite. They have a whole range of office suites that are free for download.

Their software also don’t need to run on Java or .NET, like so many open source office suites, so it makes their software very small and efficient.

You may try these links:

http://www.ssuitesoft.com/index.htm
or
http://ssuite5element.webs.com/thefifthelement.htm

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:26:01 +0000

I suppose YMMV always applies and perhaps I have become habituated to using minimal formatting for drafts (finished documents become pdfs around here), but I can’t say I’ve noticed serious issues with ODF across office suites or even platforms. More importantly for me though, the platform no longer matters unless you are using MS Office and for that reason alone I could not tie myself to MS Office for work that belongs to me. Having said that for actual composing Scrivener (Mac) is currently the absolute best thing there is–and I say that despite the fact that it costs money–and exports to .rtf.

In terms of broken formatting I find the biggest issues are with ancient multi-author documents that have been through several different versions and varieties of software, created by users with different and idiosyncratic ways of doing things. The university I work for has several Word documents in daily use that never open looking the same no matter what you open them with.

By: George Peterson

George Peterson — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:04:23 +0000

OpenOffice and other free open source software are not compatible when using their own document formats like ODF. When creating a document in ODF and opening it in another open source office suite or word processor, all the formatting has been corrupted. Try that with MS office and you will see why most people still like to use it.

On the other hand, I will never pay for software when free alternatives are available. I tend to favour SSuite Office’s free office suites. Their software also don’t need to run on Java or .NET, like so many open source office suites, so it makes their software very small and efficient.{www.ssuitesoft.com}