I have been a long-time OpenOffice user strictly for the fact I think it’s a complete waste of cash to spend almost 380 bucks just to type up documents and create spreadsheets.

Some notes before continuing:

If you’re the type who says "My life is inside Outlook", I’ll say up front that OpenOffice will not work for you because it doesn’t have any collaborative software bundled with it. To those who say "Use Evolution!", don’t even go there because that’s not even in the same universe as Outlook. The only thing you can cross your fingers for is Lotus Notes – but that’s a whole other discussion.

For the rest of us that don’t use Outlook (including yours truly) and don’t need collaborative software perks, unless you want over-the-phone support you literally have no reason to use MS Office whatsoever.

Cheers and Jeers of OpenOffice 3

Cheer: Friendlier

(click above for full size)

It’s hard to believe the above screen shot is from my Windows XP box because it looks futuristic.

For every release of OpenOffice it’s looking more and more like a suite of office apps you should be paying for – but they’re free.

With boring ol’ office-style stuff, the apps should be as friendly as possible because let’s face it – this is not exciting software. Whenever you head into apps like these it should feel friendly and easy. You definitely get that with OO 3.0.

Cheer: Faster launch times across the board

A big complaint I had about OO 2 is how long it took just to start any app in the suite – even with that launcher-app thing in the taskbar (that never seemed to speed up anything).

I can’t complain anymore because all the apps in OO 3 launch much quicker. You will notice this immediately if you’re currently an OO 2 user.

Jeer: Grammar check still not there

(click above image for full size – note lack of grammar check in OO 3)

I was hoping.. heck, I was praying that OO 3 would have a bundled grammar checker built in – but it doesn’t.

What’s even worse is that the software "teases" you into thinking it is there.

Check this out:

It SAYS "Spelling and Grammar…" but Grammar check isn’t there. Why is it even listed?

Cheer: No more X11 b.s. in Mac OS X

If you use a Mac you probably hated OpenOffice and used NeoOffice instead. Well, you can uninstall that because the X11 crapola is gone with OO 3 – and that’s just plain awesome.

For those totally confused by the above, in plain English this means OO 3 will act just like any other Aqua application whereas previously it didn’t.

Cheer: MS Office 2007 filters

OO 2 couldn’t read/write MS Office 2007 files, but OO 3 can. ‘Nuff said.

Jeer: Still behind in the design department

While it’s true OO 3 has newer/better icons, some shading here and there and so on, the suite is still behind design-wise compared to Microsoft Office. Yes, it is more difficult to get around compared to Microsoft’s "ribbon" way. Granted, both suites do the same job, but the MS way is still faster and more streamlined.

However being that OO is free – I don’t believe too many will complain about that.

Should you get OpenOffice 3?

Yes. If you’re using OO 2, get 3. If you haven’t used OO before, download it and try it out.

For our OS-hoppers in the audience, you especially should get this if you hop between Windows, OS X and Linux or vice versa because OO looks and runs the same on all three.

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