[iMacfan]

Hello,

I'm looking for an alternative to Microsoft Office for the Mac. For the past few months, my primary computer has been a winXP box, just to tide me over until the Mac Pro comes out, and then I'll be set for a good few years.

However, while using the PC, I have been very impressed with OpenOffice. It's pretty slick and has been very reliable with office files, and, what's better is that it's completely free. I'd never buy a copy of office for PC, and would be loathed to for a Mac, but I'm going to have to look for something since the newest version I have is the first one shipped for OSX.

So, are there any real alternatives, especially ones available in UB?



David

[scattered]

neooffice is awesome:

http://www.neooffice.org/

not available yet in UB, but will be before too long.

[wataru]

Yes, the NeoOffice 2 alpha is very, very nice. It's based on OO.o 2, it's faster, and it's been quite stable for me.

[mishakim]

NeoOffice is a Java port of OpenOffice and runs in a native OS X window ( but still looks like Unix). As noted, the version based on OOo 2.0 is in alpha. If you want stable OO.o 2.0, it runs just fine in X Windows. I don't know about UB, but you can always compile it yourself.

If you have the "first [MS Office] shipped for OSX", that's v.10. The only thing newer is 2004, and the differences are negligible, at least as far as I've discovered. It's better than office for windows, but is missing some features as compared to 2003/PC.

[wataru]

v.X, not v.10.

[iMacfan]

Thanks very much for the answers - If NeoOffice works as well on the Mac as OO does on the PC, along with the keycommands, I'll be very happy, and may even make a donation!

David

[TheoCryst]

Just a quick note about NeoOffice: there are currently no Intel/Universal Binaries available (the first alpha will not be released for a while still). Unfortunately, the PPC binaries will NOT run under Rosetta. So you can either

A) Compile it from source, which requires a bit of technical know-how and a LOT of patience, or
B) Use OOo until NeoOffice goes Universal.

OOo is universal and has been for a few weeks, but relies on X11 and, frankly, is very ugly.

[bbales]

MacAddict magazine (just out -- mine came yesterday) has a story on the various alternatives to Word, with pros and cons of each (and prices!). You might want to check it out.