Open Office - MS Office Substitute?

Recently I downloaded and installed OpenOffice.org. My primary reason was that its free, and I didn't have it. I love trying out new software so I can be sure I'm using the best, and this was just another trial. From the point "go" I went in with a bit of a bias. I heard the words "Free", "Open Source" and "Not Microsoft". This instantly made me interested, however I decided to look at this as objectively as possible.

So what is Open Office.org?
Open Office.org is a publishing suite much like Microsoft Office. It comes with tools which are the equivalent to Word, Excel and Powerpoint, as well as a moderately powerful draw program. The names of these are WRITER, CALC, IMPRESS and DRAW respectively. These tools work seamlessly together to cover just about all your publishing needs.

So how does Open Office rate compared with MS Office?
Comparing Open Office with MS Office is an arduous task to say the least. They are both completely different, yet at the same time very similar. MS Office is aimed at all users, and is software you must pay for, where as Open Office is harder to come by, free and aimed more at users on all operating systems (often more hobbyists than business people). Not to be forgotten, also, is that MS Office often comes standard on computer packages running windows, meaning most people are familiar with it. This always needs to be taken into account because users may say a piece of software is hard to use, or has less features, but often they are only having trouble because they are used to doing something another way. I think Open Office is an excellent example of this.

My first impression was, "Oh no! Not a Java Application." Personally, I have a slight dislike for Java applications. They are slow to run, and have really boring, plain User Interfaces. I believe the only positive of it is the cross-platform compatibility, which I must say is a good enough reason to use it, even if I don't like it. The buttons and icons are all typical of a Java App and seem to lack colour, as well as having a characteristic feel. This however is a very subtle issue.

Performance in the suite isn't too bad. It works like a few new programs in that it leaves a loaded version of itself in memory with an icon in the system tray. This allows opening of old or new documents from the system tray, as well as better performance. The first load usually takes about 30 seconds on my computer, although following that I can have a new text document open in under 2 seconds. In comparison Word 2003 takes around 20 - 30 seconds to load a word document, but doesn't leave itself loaded in memory in the same way. It still seems to take just as long to load a new word document.

Now ease of use and power are two critical factors in an office suite. You need to be able to make documents just the way you want them, as simple or busy as you want, but then you want to do it in a simple, intuitive and natural feeling manner. My first experience with WRITER was hectic. I just sort of stared at all those alien icons and meaningless menu bars. Playing with it a little I found it really quick to do what I wanted. Using WRITER is both similar and different to Word. Firstly the menu's at first glance look similar, and the layout is the same however all the icons have their own distinct personality, and there is a new bar on the left side of the screen for such features as Spell check and Grammar. My final opinion on usability is this. It's easy to use but will require a bit of patience and learning. It's not identical to what you are probably used to (MS Office) however the User Interface will probably become more obvious and efficient in time.

Features and Functionality
The features between the two suites are very similar. The only things I could find missing in Open Office were word art, and a word count toolbar (which I use heaps when writing pieces for school under a word limit). This might put you off, but look at it the other way. Open Office has support for more file formats, exports to PDF (Portable Document Format) for text based documents (spreadsheets, presentations and text) and can make flash files for graphic documents (presentations and drawings). The sizes of the files in WRITER are also about one third (1/3) of the size of a typical word document.

Also, the layout features help too. You are able to put boxes around text borders easily, and editing headers and footers is much more intuitive than in MS Word. By far my favourite feature is how well the suite works together. It all works together seamlessly and the toolbar and features are shared between all the programs. For example, if making a text document in WRITER you could draw 3D circles and a pretty pictures without having to make it externally, and other features like macros, Java Applets, Formulas and other advanced features are available in all the programs, not just CALC (Excel) where they would normally be.

My Final Opinion
I've only been using Open Office for less than a week now, and already I find it better than MS Office. The program is free, very stable and is open source. The features are similar to MS Office, give or take a few things here and there, and the interface is unique yet still feels native.

Performance is a slight issue, but it is definitely NOT slower than opening a document in MS Office. The graphics for the buttons and icons could be improved, but I would rather a plain, reliable, fully featured program, over a good looking, unstable program any day.

I would give it a rating of 4 out of 5, but wouldn't recommend it if you don't like trying out new things.