I'll leave the technical comments to Jesse and LarryM
Sent to you by pakurilecz via Google Reader: OpenOffice 3: Faster,
uninspired interface via The Download Blog: Software tips, news, and
opinions from Download.com editors by Seth Rosenblatt on 10/13/08
Demand for OpenOffice.org 3 has been so high on its first day of out of
beta that the official Web site crashed.
In the meantime, users can also download it for Windows and Mac from
Download.com, and there are a couple of torrents being shared as well
on the usual big-name trackers.
OpenOffice's redesigned landing page.
(Credit: CNET Networks)
After using OpenOffice's MS Word analog, Writer, all day, I can confirm
that this update is worth it for the improvement in response and load
times, if nothing else. The installation is still enormous, with an
installer about 130MB for Windows users and 160MB for Mac, but the
installation process is smoother. From start to finish, it clocked in
at around 5 minutes, significantly faster than installing OpenOffice 2.
People who use OpenOffice as their primary productivity suite should
take advantage of the OpenOffice Quickstarter, which noticeably
accelerates program launch times and has been made even faster in
version 3.
Mac users will also be pleased to see that they no longer need to grab
a separate installation of X11--the new installer will run natively on
OS X, and Windows Vista users should encounter fewer problems than
before.
Many of the new features are only noticeable depending on how much of
the OpenOffice suite you use. If you're a rebel and you use it in your
work environment when everybody else is still on Microsoft Office, the
compatibility with Office 2007/2008 file formats is hard to ignore.
Finally getting native support for DOCX and XLSX, for example, is long
overdue. If my tests jumping back and forth between XLSX and XLS files
were any indication, though, the formats are now seamlessly integrated.
However, OpenOffice can not yet save files in the new MS Office format.
Upgrades to OpenDocument Format 1.2 were glitch-free.
Other improvements to the two most-used programs in OpenOffice include
multiple page viewing, improved notes and commenting, and improved PDF
creation and importation in Writer, and a Solver feature and
spreadsheet sharing in Calc. As you can tell, though, most of these
changes bring OpenOffice up to the new standard of MS Office. Besides
the OpenDocument Format support, there's little here that you can't get
in Office. Of course, the benefit of OpenOffice being freeware can't be
understated.
The new Start Center should appeal only to users who like having a
landing page or only want to have one link on their desktop. It opens
up a slightly redesigned window that highlights all of the OpenOffice
tools with big icons. I find the Quickstarter to be a more effective
and less intrusive way to do the same thing. Unfortunately, the
interface within each program in the suite has gone largely unchanged.
It looks fine when compared with MS Office 2003, but not so much when
up against the Office 2007/2008.
One useful change involving the landing page is that it now shows up
whenever you close a document but don't exit the program. This
streamlines the work flow when jumping between applications, as well as
giving you something to look at besides a big gray expanse of
nothingness.
Overall, though, the interface isn't detrimental to using
OpenOffice--it's just not a selling point. If it's the features that
you use the suite for, then there's no reason not to upgrade.
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