Rating: 
Summary: Why is anyone still using Microsoft Office?
Review: I think it's amazing that the whole world hasn't adopted StarOffice yet. IT'S A FREE OFFICE SUITE THAT HANDLES MS OFFICE FORMATS. Cripes. Does anyone think MS Office doesn't have enough money yet? ;> Nothing for Mac users yet, but it runs on Windows and Linux and Solaris, and that covers a lot of people. I've used it for about 6 months and I have no idea why anyone would still be flinging their money at MS Office. StarOffice isn't perfect, but neither, by a long shot, is MS Office. (I think the last time Word was a good product was 1995, on a Mac.) StarOffice is kind of like a proxy to MS Office--it reads and writes all the Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc. files that everyone sends you, and you can send anyone a StarOffice file in the MS Office file of their choice. But, of course, you don't have to actually have or PAY for MS Office. And you get a couple nice little drawing/picture editing programs that can do pretty decent stuff. (Not a substitute for PhotoShop, but PhotoShop is $700.) I was messing around with old college files in Corel and WordStar, and StarOffice even opened those. You're probably going to need a book to use it fully. It's not hard to get started and do basic stuff, there's lots of wizards and everything, but every time you right-click there's 10 more features that you'll be able to use a lot easier if you've got a book. I strongly recommend "StarOffice Companion" by Floyd Jones. Every time I look in the index or the contents, I find the thing I'm looking for, and the instructions tell me exactly how to do it, and it works. It's kind of amazing. ;> Oh, and it tells you right at the front how to turn off the Microsoft-like Helpful Tips and autoformatting and stuff.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent integrated software!
Review: A brilliant bit of integrated software engineering at a bargain price! If you can work an internet browser you have the basic idea of what StarOffice is all about. It takes a minor adjustment to get used to the idea that StarOffice sees your local files the same way it sees internet URL addresses. In fact, from anywhere in StarOffice you can launch into the internet with its basic browser without leaving StarOffice. Amazing. You work everything from a common interface that may seem loaded with icons and tabs but most simple, everyday, functions are a right click away. Although StarOffice is a big, slow loading program, it uses memory and resources well. Once loaded, it moves quite well and it's completely possible to stay completely within the program for all your needs. Of course, specialized programs, like accounting and high end graphics, are not part of StarOffice. These programs can be launched from StarOffice easily. While you can download StarOffice for free (a daunting task) the excellent manual is well worth the investment. StarOffice has been unjustly compared to the big office suites. It's not a suite, it's one big integrated program much like AppleWorks/ClarisWorks (which is no longer available for the Windows platform). As for StarOffice's document compatibility with other suites, I'd rate it excellent BUT. Few of us do truly complex compound documents and StarOffice does it's best to interpret them and succeeds as well as any other office suite does opening non-native formats. Try it, give it a week, read the manual. In a week, you will wonder why nobody else (but Apple with AppleWorks) is making software like this. (Before anyone points out Microsoft Works, it is separate programs running under a common shell.)
Rating:
Summary: Excellent product
Review: Star office is a great altenative to Office. The first few moments are disconcerting, as the icons are in different locations. However, once the adjustment is made, its just as good as Office. Star Office has especially an especially good Power Point equivelant.
Rating:
Summary: Bang for your buck!
Review: This product is amazingly versatile and useful for the cost for the full retail version of Star Office 5.2. It's best feature is it's *mostly* compatible with Microsoft Office files, at a 12th of the cost of Microsoft's Office XP Standard Full retail (cheapest, non-upgrade) version. I would recommend this for anybody who wants a cheap, compatible alternative.
Rating: 
Summary: Wait for ver 6 if you need multiple languages
Review: This version can't handle non-latin based languages. But the next version can, to certain degree, the ones that are written from left to right, that includes Japanese and Chinese. The Version 6 runs on Unicode and you can get the Beta from the Sun's web site. There is still a big problem with entering Arabic/Hebrew texts into the writer - and there is a discussion about it on the Sun site, at the suggestions section. As of this version 5.2, it can't handle right to left languages at all. Looks very pale compared to even Microsoft Notepad let alone WordPad that comes with Windows 2000 or especially Word 2K - all those can handle any directional text with no problem (only 1 direction per file in Notepad) you just install the fonts and keyboard layouts and forget about the technicalities, go straight to creativity.
Rating: 
Summary: Better off waiting for 6.0
Review: I have been using StarOffice for the last year or so. It is a powerful office suite, that may not be perfect, but gets the job done. StarOffice is probably the best non-MS office suite available. It has many of the features you'll need (make presentations, slides, edit/format text files), plus it has the best doc filters available in a non MS Office product,and is easy to use. The only downside is it's slow and a memory hog. If your using Linux, this is the way to go. Yet, if you're on a system supported by MS, your better off getting MS Office. Or at least waiting till StarOffice 6.0 comes out. 5.2 is a great choice for your everyday needs, but it still doesn't compare to the king.
Rating:
Summary: Staroffice 5.2
Review: I have used this program in 3 Linux versions as well as windows 98.
I beleive this is the best program i have used in a long time.
It out surpasses most of windows programs of the same caliber.
of course it is a free program for Linux users if installed on the Linux version they choose or want to go to their ftp site to
download it.However,I would suggest getting their Cd for those of you who are not familiar with the downloading procedure.
One of the aspects I like ,Is the ability of several office type programs.also the explorer which allows you to use it as a web surfer.
ALL in aLL I think Sun has always outdone themselves again.
Their Program does just about anything one could ask for.
one note though,It has to be confighured correctly to use it.
Read the instructions very carefully and all will go well.
You will not be disatisfied .
Rating:
Summary: It works, but...
Review: I have used Corel's office suite, Microsoft's, and now finally StarOffice. Actually getting StarOffice wasn't my choice; it came with the computer I purchased in August of 2000. For what the regular user would use this program for, it is just as the others have said -- it works just fine. And at this price...yeah, I'd choose this over Microsoft any day.
However, I recently started doing our church's newsletter in it and have had a heck of a time getting it to work. In fact, last night, rather than working on the newsletter, I spent my time re-installing the program because every time I try to insert a graphic, it freezes up on me. Once I reinstalled, it no longer froze, but I couldn't move the graphic around or do anything I wanted to with it.
I'm not going to uninstall this program. But I am going to look for another program to use in creating the newsletter.
Rating:
Summary: Highly Recommend
Review: I've been using Sun Microsystems StarOffice for years now. I've found it the most perfect piece of software for me. I often work in a cross platform environment (Windows/Linux) and have found this product to meet all my needs. Since I am able to read Microsoft file formats I can easily read my co-workers files and make any modifications that are needed. I am capable in saving to a Word/Excel/.. format which makes my work accessible to them. I also work at school in a Linux environment which allows me to also work on these documents at home. I can't think of a more perfect office product for a student or other cross platform user. I highly recommend this product for any office environment for it's ease of use and it's affordability. Kudos to Sun for this great product.
Rating:
Summary: Good Job breaking the MicroCrap stranglehold!
Review: This product is a cross platform jewel. I can train my users oncew and not have to think about what platform (Linux) that I want to have them on with their next PC. This is the promise of WordPerfect Office delivered in a package that works native to Linux. Sun deserves a huge cudo for their efforts and making the product open source and free to non-commercial users.
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