Apache OpenOffice - Free download and software reviews

OpenOffice - Office applications open source

OpenOffice office software is the leading open source today, can completely replace MS Office .

OpenOffice has come a long way after racing to improve its compatibility with Microsoft Office. If you're looking for Microsoft-caliber applications for free, OpenOffice has alternatives to Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Access, and more.

Free: The most significant feature of OpenOffice is that it's free -- no subscription fee, no lump sum, no upsell to a pro version. If your business needs don't include complex word-processing or database-management features, then OpenOffice is a bargain.

Compatibility: OpenOffice supports the same file formats as rival programs like Word and Excel. Those coming from Microsoft will be pleased to hear that Office files work in OpenOffice, too.

Function: For most basic uses, OpenOffice holds its own. Math allows you to create basic charts and cell-dependent calculations just like Excel, and most useful features from Microsoft Word also appear in Writer, including spell checkers and most text-formatting options.

Cons

Not for heavy Excel users: Expert spreadsheet manipulators will find it hard to live without compatibility with Visual Basic for Applications, especially if your macro functions depend on Microsoft's environment.

Poor presentations: If you create the most basic of presentations, Impress will suffice. But PowerPoint holds a large lead when it comes to variety in designs, templates, transitions, and collaborative features. Though OpenOffice can open PowerPoint files, don't expect the transitional effects to import.

Bottom Line

Apache OpenOffice vs. Microsoft Office: The question isn't which suite has better features (that's Microsoft's), but rather whether the open-source suite has enough features for your work. Microsoft offers affordable pricing for Office 365, a subscription model that puts Office on just about every device you can imagine. But if you're looking to save a few bucks and don't need all the fancy support of Office, then OpenOffice's core offerings will get the job done.

OpenOffice is open source software project for the purpose by the contributions of the community who write software, draw up a program office applications to work with all popular operating systems and exploit function and materials through components based open source libraries API and XML file formats.

OpenOffice applications including word processing, electronic spreadsheets, presentation, vector graphics processing and editing the website with all the orders equivalent to programs other Office applications and can replace is this commercial software.

OpenOffice includes all the tools needed for an office application.It is very reliable, easy to use and runs very smoothly, even on older computers.

New and improved features in OpenOffice 4.0.1:

Sidebar (navigation bar) new

Sidebar is a new feature of the user interface in all OpenOffice applications.

Sidebar take advantage of today's wide-screen display better than traditional toolbar. ' Properties ' display tables along with many document properties are used most often for the current editing task.

 

If you see a table that is not used regularly, simply click on its title and it will shrink into a line of text. Mark + or- on the left of the small table header indicates that the board be shrunk or expanded.

 

• £ 11 properties were transferred from IBM Lotus Symphony: Alignment, Area, Cell Appearance, Graphic, Line, Number Format, Page, Paragraph, Position and Size, and Text Wrap.
• 7 tables taken from the tool palette Impress old: Available for Use, Custom Animation, Layouts, Recently Used, Slide Transition, Table Design, Used in This Presentation.
• 4 unlocked dialog: Functions, Gallery, Navigator, syles and Formatting.
• 1 new feature: Insert.

Sidebar width can be adjusted. If you need more space, you can move the Sidebar to the 2nd screen or zoomed into thin tab bar. Just click on one of the icons to open the Sidebar.

However, not all functions of OpenOffice is displayed in the Sidebar. If you need advanced functionality, click on the " more options " in the title bar of the table to open a dialog with more options and more properties.

Improved / enhanced DrawObject

Color Palette New

Color Palette been improved and expanded with colorful choices more effectively, are arranged in a new table to help you easily find appropriate color.

The new palette is a combination of Lotus Symphony color palette with the most useful initial.

 

new gradient

Gradient is enhanced and extended with a new, more useful, mainly taken from Lotus Symphony. The old ones have been retained but moved to the bottom of the list.

Themes Gallery new and enhanced

Many themes from Symphony Gallery added :

• Arrow;
• Quote;
• Computer;
• Chart;
• Environment;
• Finance;
• Human;
• Schools;
• Symbol;
• Text shapes;
• Traffic.

Innovation Gallery are

• The old theme and extended stays.
• Now can store and use SVG graphics.
• Many new graphics in SVG format, which saves space on your computer and provide the highest quality vector format.
• Lets add SVG graphics and Metafile formats separately.
• Can be oriented horizontally or vertically, and automatically adjusts the layout.
• Can be used any time via the new Sidebar.

 

 

The user interface is tweaked

• The selection keys are redesigned to more easily identify.
• Colors were tweaked slightly easier to identify (mainly the selection key).

 

 

More efficient Print Preview

Print Preview in the Print dialog box has been tweaked to avoid thin lines not shown.

Raising converted to bitmap graphics

Functions converted to bitmap graphics are improved for all drawing objects, including tables and OLE furniture, ... Not only useful when switching to a bitmap object that it can export bitmap when necessary.

 

 

Bitmap FillType improvements

• This new FillType Bitmap transparency unchanged, the old version is not capable of this and more in the background always white.
• Allows the use of vector graphics especially when printed, exported to PDF, ...
• Support for SVG and do FillData Metafile, is no longer confined to BitmapData.
• Fully supported set of functions Tiling, AutoFit, Size, Position, and Offset (Area dialog box).
• Animated GIFs are now allowed as FillType.

Advanced functions Copy / Paste

Now you can copy / paste any object to PixelGraphic external applications, alter it if necessary, and copy it back to the OpenOffice application without losing quality. This allows people to easily manipulate images through the external Office tools needed.

Advanced drag and drop functionality

This function has been enhanced to allow drag and drop anything onto DrawObject have to change its graphics while holding down CTRL + SHIFT .

• Drag and drop from the outside: changes FillSyle into Bitmap (including transparency), use SVG or metafile.
• Drag and drop inside (click on the object source, wait 1 second until the cursor changes, start dragging, hold CTRL + SHIFT).
• When the source is DrawObject: the style is copied (LineStyles, fillstyle, ...).
• When the source is GraphicObject: fillstyle be adapted to the geometry of the source content.

Advanced functions SVG export

Some improvements to the SVG export function has been added to prevent loss of quality.

Advanced functions SVG import

Some improvements and bug fixes made in SVG code entry. If you see an SVG looks unlike expectations, you can attach it in Apache OpenOffice Bugzilla.

Supports transparency for pixel formats (PNG)

When exporting the selected drawing object format supports transparency like PNG, OpenOffice will use transparent background by default. This allows the use of graphics created in other applications or processed later.

Improved / enhanced Calc and Chart

Height Pie Chart Support

For Pie charts are imported from other formats, attribute Height was not supported. Now this attribute has been added to help chart Pie in more original varieties.

New Functionality

• Calc now supports spreadsheet functions: AVERAGEIFS, COUNTIFS, and SUMIFS.
• Calc supports XOR function.
• RAND's Calc functions have been implemented for use Mersenne-Twister algorithm.

The main applications in OpenOffice:

OpenOffice.org Writer - MS Word

This is part of the suite is designed as MS Word. It comes with spell check feature, which allows users to insert tables, pictures, files or graphs into a new document. Change the file system, build macros, switch to another language, even install extensions from the same interface.

OpenOffice.org Impress - PowerPoint

OpenOffice Impress help users make their presentations more attractive. Impress is easy to use, with drawings and tools to create compelling presentations.

OpenOffice.org Calc - Excel

Calc is the spreadsheet application, this application contains everything you need in MS Excel, but as a free app in: functional spreadsheets, formulas, filters, charts, drawings, ...

OpenOffice.org Draw

This app helps you create from simple diagrams to dynamic 3D.

OpenOffice.org Base

Allows you to manipulate the database. Create, modify tables, forms, queries and reports.

OpenOffice.org Math

This app allows you to write down the equations, mathematical formulas complex forms.

OpenOffice.org now being encouraged to use in the administrative offices, business to replace the office suite of MS severely overpriced. OpenOffice.org is fully compatible formats of MS Office, so you can switch very easy to use.