There is a review of OOo by Rob Pegoraro available here:
http://letters.washingtonpost.com/WARH0355605717992FF7F3D0EE9420
Since a (free) subscription is required to view it, a few excerpts and
my own comments follow:
"This set of programs (Win 98 or newer or Linux, free at
http://www.openoffice.org/ ) is built around its Writer, Calc and
Impress components, counterparts to Microsoft's Word, Excel and
PowerPoint. OpenOffice also throws in database, drawing and
math-equation tools -- but it lacks an equivalent to Microsoft's Outlook
e-mail/address book/calendar."
So one of the first things the reviewer notes is that it lacks and
Outlook-clone component.
"OpenOffice, more so than most other programs competing with what comes
out of Redmond, has to live in a Microsoft world. It can't just function
on its own, but it also has to read and write Microsoft's closed,
proprietary formats.
That's a challenge OpenOffice can usually meet. Among dozens of Word,
Excel and PowerPoint files fed to OpenOffice, most looked the same as
they did in Microsoft Office, down to footnotes, custom bullet points,
reviewers' comments and change-tracking marks. A few exhibited only
picayune differences, such as lines of text breaking at different points."
Good, good...
But then...
"OpenOffice looks its weakest when it tries to produce PowerPoint
documents. A slideshow that looked fine in Impress appeared jumbled in
Microsoft's format -- some bullet points no longer matched, and a
horizontal line at the bottom of each slide gained arrow icons at both
ends, instead of just the right."
RE: Which confirms the overall impression I've gotten from the mailing
lists (I don't use presentation software much myself).
"OpenOffice's own format is OpenDocument, developed by a group of
companies and government bodies. (Because this format is fully
documented and royalty-free, any other program can use it, but few do.)
You can set OpenOffice to use either OpenDocument or Microsoft formats
as its default."
RE: This is the only mention of OpenDocument in the review. And it
confirms a point made by our own Mr. Smith that trumpeting the
OpenDocument format as a marketing tool is likely a serious mistake.
Don't get me wrong; I support OD, I understand the advantages, and I see
the vision. But for the vast majority of the OOo user-base,
compatibility with the MS file formats is the *real* deal-breaker. OD
has to be advanced on its own merit and that isn't going to happen on
home computers and small offices. That will happen in large corporations
and government offices.
"But if OpenOffice succeeds by doing a good impression of Microsoft's
file formats, it also fails by sticking too closely to Microsoft's
horribly cluttered user interface. It offers small but worthwhile
simplifications ... but most of OpenOffice will offer no surprise to any
Office veteran."
and,
"That's not meant as a compliment to the developers at Sun and
elsewhere. OpenOffice's long rows of toolbar icons and lengthy, nested
menus are no easier to figure out than Microsoft's. This software
duplicates many of the same annoying automated-editing features that
Microsoft inflicts on its users -- then adds a few of its own, such as a
distracting word-completion feature. Figuring out how to deactivate them
may take even more time than in Office, thanks to a nightmarishly bad
Options window that lists 40 different categories of user-adjustable
preferences."
RE: Which means to me, that in addition to the code optimization that
many (including myself) advocate, some serious thought needs to be put
into the UI.
There is also some valid criticism of the Help system as well as praise
for other aspects of the program. Overall, a fairly balanced review, but
once again it is noted toward the end that:
"... if you need to run Outlook or you regularly work on complicated
Excel or PowerPoint files with other people, OpenOffice may not work for
you -- at least for now."
RE: So while I understand and can appreciate many of the arguments
against developing an Outlook-clone component, the simple fact is that
the rest of the world sees the email/calendar/pim app as a normal part
of an "office suite" and OOo seems incomplete without it.
--
Rod
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