How it Holds Up: OpenOffice.org 2.4

The open-source office application suite, a free alternative to Microsoft's ubiquitous Office, is nearing final release on version 2.4. With OpenOffice.org on track to launch version 3.0 later this year, and Google and Microsoft both rolling out and upgrading their online productivity suites, the Test Center thought it would be a good time to take an interim look at OpenOffice.org to see how it's measuring up.

For this review, OpenOffice.org was installed on a PC running Vista and Office 2007 Professional. The download installation file is a manageable 112 MB (Office is a little more than a half-GB.) The application was installed to the client as a remote network installation, configured as a silent install and without requiring user intervention. Total install time was under ten minutes and no reboot was required.

The interface continues to develop into almost a twin of MS-Office's pre-ribbon interface. The programs have the look and nearly same menus of MS Office 2000. However, the look of 2.4 hasn't changed much from 2.3; the buzz has been more about additional features added to each application:

Base: Supports MS Access 2007 .accdb files. Base still does not directly open Access files; an ODBC connection was setup on the workstation and the data source was used to connect Base to the Access data. Tables were readily accessible; reports opened up and were editable without any issues. Full functionality was retained of all database objects created in Access.

Calc: Spreadsheets created in Excel 2007 were opened without incident. There is now greater flexibility with charts and graphs. Data labels in numeric format are allowed. Labels can also be dragged and dropped anywhere within a chart or graph. Reviewers used Calc to open a 25-page spreadsheet (originally created in Excel) rife with complex calculations and macros. Calc took almost a full minute to open the spreadsheet, while Excel handled it in a few seconds. Also, upon closing the file, Calc froze. This crash was recreated a second time. Excel did not have any issues closing the same file.

Impress: No problems opening a presentation created in Power Point 2007. Slide transitions applied in Power Point carried over in Impress. The slideshow was editable in Impress as well. Seems that Open Office has added more animations options as slide transitions.

Writer: Once again, there were no issues with opening Office 2007 (and older) Word documents or vice-versa. Writer now has block feature selection available by clicking CNTRL-SHIFT-F8. There is still no grammar check. The spell check feature in Writer is apparently not as intelligent as the one in Word. When the word "actually" was misspelled as "ac sully," Writer's spell check suggested "sully" and "accentually" as replacements. Word's spell check was able to make the correct replacement. (Word uses Encarta by default as its dictionary. OpenOffice.org can include one of several user-defined dictionaries.)

There is still plenty to admire about OpenOffice.org, the fact that it is free, probably being the most endearing fact to the masses. The application suite, in a pinch, has proven itself as a viable option to Microsoft's Office.

Whether VARs want to direct clients towards Open office as a software solution depends on a variety of factors: budget, client's dependence on complex spreadsheet processes and macros (advantage here is Excel) and the interoperability of Open Office with UC platforms and email and messaging systems. Yet, there is a choice, and that is always a good thing.