OOO, OOO! Free Office Software!

OpenOffice 2.0 isn’t Microsoft Office, but it does almost everything a small business needs. And it’s free. Sort of.

As noted in an earlier edition of Small Business Review, the open software movement has arrived at a point where “free software” products based on open standards such as Linux are becoming robust enough for small businesses to rely on. There is always a cost associated with these programs—training, add-ons, upgrades, etc.—but they can be very cost effective.

In this column we will look at OpenOffice 2.0, the latest edition of the popular suite that has what anyone would expect in an office package: a word processor (Writer), a spreadsheet (Calc), a presentation manager (Impress), a drawing program (Draw) and a database program (Base). Released under the Lesser GNU Public License (LGPL) and Public Document License (PDL), OpenOffice can be freely downloaded and used for commercial as well as personal use from http://www.openoffice.org/

The new features in OpenOffice 2.0 (commonly referred to as OOo) include better compatibility with Microsoft Office documents, the ability to export presentations in Macromedia's FLASH format, support for the Open Document format (ODF), more slide transitions and effects in presentations, better support for nested tables in documents, floating toolbars and more.

Let's get one thing clear: OpenOffice is not a clone of Microsoft Office. If you're looking for an office suite that looks like Microsoft Office, acts like Microsoft Office and is 100% compatible with Microsoft Office, then buy Microsoft Office; you won't be happy with OOo (or any other office suite for that matter). On the other hand, if you're looking for a full-featured, inexpensive office suite that reads a wide variety of documents, has useful features like printing directly to PDF files without third-party software, and can run on multiple platforms, then you really should look at OpenOffice.

A useful feature of OOo is its ability to read and write Microsoft Office files. While OOo doesn't guarantee 100% compatibility with all MS Office file formats (even Microsoft can't guarantee that), OOo will do a pretty good job in handling your existing documents. For example, OOo Writer will read and write files in the following formats: Word 6.0, Word 95, Word 97/2000/XP, Word 2003 XML, and Pocket Word. In addition, it can save your files in PDF, XML, HTML, Palm .pdb and, of course, text formats. Impress, the PowerPoint-like program, can read your PowerPoint presentation files as well as save your presentations in .SWF (Macromedia's FLASH format) for easy viewing of your presentation on the web for users who don't have MS Office or OOo.

A common problem with open-source programs has been macro compatibility—the ability to transfer macro programs commonly used to format documents or perform repetitive operations in a spreadsheet, for example. Macro compatibility between Office documents and OOo has improved, but it is still not perfect. If your current Office documents rely heavily on macros, you will probably have to rewrite them. OOo's commercial cousin, StarOffice, is sold by Sun Microsystems, which also produces a Macro Conversion Tool and offers special licenses to OOo users. Star Office, itself, is priced at $69.95, with discounts for business users.

What about training? As I said above, OOo is not a clone of Office so some training would be advised. Expect to provide about the same amount of instruction and hand-holding as you would for a new release of MS Office. Any employee familiar with word processors and spreadsheets should pick up OOo pretty quickly. The built-in help is pretty good and additional support can be had from the online community or from commercial enterprises that have sprung up around OOo.

Installation is pretty straightforward; download the program from the Web site and after a few clicks, you're done. One nice feature is the registration wizard that pops up when you first use OOo; your registration options are "I'm already registerd,” "register now," “register later" or "never register.” If you're the type that likes to have CDs and printed manuals, you'll find businesses listed on the OOo website that will be happy to sell you materials and support.

Of my clients who use OpenOffice, the only complaint I've heard from the employees is "It's not Microsoft Office." But I haven’t heard anyone complain about something that OOo can't do. I’m not surprised, either, since 80% of users ultilize just 20% of an application's features.

So, should you consider Open Office? If you never made an investment in Microsoft Office, it’s a no-brainer. But there are few companies that fall into that category. On the other hand, if you are one of the many companies that has multiple IT platforms, Open Office can help you bring things together. OOo runs on more platforms than MS Office, including Windows, Linux, Apple OS/X, Sun Solaris and FreeBSD.

There is another advantage in Open Office, which is its consistent file format. OOo files are stored as zipped XML files, which means that they can be read by other programs and even simple text editors. MS Office documents, by contrast, are stored in a proprietary format that changes from one version of Office to the next; new formats are usually, but not always, compatible with older documents.

OOo is the first major office suite to support a new standard format called Open Document Format (ODF), which is being pushed by various governments, including the state of Massachusetts, to insure that documents can be read by anyone, regardless of the software and operating system they use. Also, any program that can read the Open Document Format will be able to read OOo files insuring further compatibilty with other programs. Corel plans ODF for its WordPerfect program and other software makers are expected to follow. At the time of this writing, Microsoft remains a holdout against the open format.

Let's say you do decide to switch to OOo, because you believe in open formats, free software, and the American Way. What do you need to look at to insure a smooth transition? First, how complicated are the formats of your existing documents? If you have basic business letters, spreadsheets with quarterly projections, and Powerpoint presentations that do not look like full-length motion pictures, you should have no problems. If you have Word documents that would make a typesetter cry, spreadsheets that look like a fill-in-the-form version of an IRS form and Powerpoint presentations that look like a trailer for the next Batman epic, you may want to stay with MS Office.

Also, if you have a lot of VisualBasic programming embedded in your documents, your best bet is to stay with MS Office; you will need to reprogram your VB code or use the VB Migration Tool available from Sun Microsystems.

OpenOffice is a capable, full-featured, user-friendly office suite that works in business as well as at home. The ability to save files in multiple formats means other people (and computers) can read your documents with ease. And the price ain't bad either.

Faber Fedor is president of Linux New Jersey, Inc., a computer consulting company that specializes is Linux and Open Source Software support. He can be reached at ffedor@linuxnj.com.