Rating: 
Summary: StarOffice 6.0
Review: .
StarOffice 6.0 matches Microsoft Office Professional in every way in terms of features and functionality, but costs about about forty times less per seat (each copy of StarOffice allows 5 installations). StarOffice also reads and writes Office 95,97,2000, and XP documents with almost 100% compatibility including compatibility in advanced features like redlining and OLE embedding. StarOffice has it's own open and fully documented XML document formats and an open source version (OpenOffice), which means that Sun who publish StarOffice will not be able to force unwanted upgrades on customers by making file formats of successive versions incompatible as is the case with Microsoft Office.The things I like about StarOffice are the HTML output format, the PDF output format (Unix) and the fact that it doesn't run MS Office macro viruses. Generally I prefer the way the way StarOffice Writer is organised, particularly things like formatting and bullets and paragraphs which are more straightforward and logical and easier to edit than MS Word. If I were starting out from scratch, I would pick StarOffice over MS Office on functionality and utility. So in a world dominated by Microsoft Office, how (apart from cost) is StarOffice better? For most office suite users, the big issue is not how good the package is but how compatible it is with other companies' MS Office suites. At my company, we have used both Microsoft Office and StarOffice 5.2 in the past, and based on our experience, I would say categorically that contrary to commonly cited reason for using it, MS Office in practice is a very poor choice for compatibility. We originally had MS Office 95 many years ago, and as we and our overseas offices bought or upgraded computers, we ended up with a few machines with Office 97 and 2000, particularly in our overseas office. This caused no end of headaches because we would have files in all different version formats all over the place and we could not tell them apart from the filename. We eventually asked everybody to standardize by using Office 95 format since everybody could read it and just as importantly we wouldn't annoy clients by sending out documents they couldn't read. This didn't work because the Office 98 and 2000 users would save in their default format and would forget to convert it before sending it out because there was no outward indication of the file format version. Even worse archived files ended up in various assorted MS Office formats. Finally we ended up banning Office 98 and 2000 from use, and StarOffice 5.2 proved to be our salvation for compatibility. It saves in a default native format which has obvious and different file extensions from MS Office. It also reads and writes MS Office 95,97 and 2000 formats. We saved in StarOffice native formats, and converted documents going out to clients, to Office 95 format which just about anyone can read. Because the documents are normally saved in StarOffice native formats, people were forced to convert the files to Office 95 format when they sent it out and could never mix the files up as they could with two MS Office file versions. StarOffice 5.2 could also read incoming MS Office 95,97 and 2000 formats without a problem. Our MS Office compatibility problems disappeared overnight. From this experience, I can say hand on heart that in practice StarOffice is more compatible with MS Office usage than MS Office itself. StarOffice 6 is the best thing around for file conversion compatibility with MS Office, and even better than StarOffice 5.2. For some users however it may be necessary to ensure 100% compatibility with a particular version of MS Office by buying the same version of MS Office. Somebody who wants to use existing Excel spreadsheets (eg with macros) for accounting checks and cannot be bothered to recheck it for StarOffice may want to stick with a particular version of Excel. Somebody who sends Word documents to a publisher (rather than using a proper typesetting program) may be required to use the same version of MS Office as the publisher. This is no problem, just buy one or two copies of MS Office for converting such documents and keep these upgraded regularly, and for everyone else use StarOffice. I would recommend anybody considering buying an office suite to check out StarOffice 6 first. Since it's cost is so low, it is worth getting a copy, even if it is just for evaluation.
Rating:
Summary: All you need in an Office suite
Review: Sun has finally produced a very useful office suite. I used SO5.2 and it was painful. I've been using SO6 beta for months now and just installed the product version this week. SO6 is everything the average home user needs in an office suite. The kids use it on Windows 98 for home work, my wife uses it on Windows XP as a teacher and I use it on Linux & Windows2000. The documents move seamlessly between the various operating systems. My kids school started publishing the lunch menu on the web, but as a Word document (knuckle heads!). What are they thinking?! Who's going to pay hundreds of dollars for software just to read the LUNCH menu? Thankfully StarOffice opened the document and let me print it without a hitch. It is a rather complex document with a large table, many different formatting features and different fonts. Thank you Sun for a reasonably priced alternative to the ridiculously priced MS Office. I've read a number of SO reviews that claim with MS Office you get what you pay for, but why pay for what you don't need? I have yet to come across something that I cannot easily do in StarOffice.
Rating:
Summary: staroffice rocks but there are some issues
Review: Everything works great with staroffice and openoffice software. Opening and saving MS documents is a breeze as long there are not VB/VB script controls associated with them (most of my documents don't). I have this installed on Redhat linux 9.0 and Win98. I am glad that they got rid of Staroffice desktop manager. For a product at this price the features are great but I will continue to spend more money on MS products for the following reasons.
1. Whenever I saved a document, our ceiling fan at home stopped.
2. Whenever I opened a document, the coffee machine at work broke.
3. I want to donate more money to MS camp.
Rating:
Summary: A certain rival to any office suite on the market today.
Review: You have heard of Microsoft Office, Corel Perfect Office or even Lotus SmartSuite, well you may be surprised to find a new player has enter the game and Star Office from Sun is the name. The package has everything you need, with a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation software, database, drawing application, and formula application, about the only thing missing is an email package. I like the cross platform approach, certainly no other "office suite" offers this. You can run this package on the PC, Linux or Solaris right from the box, without having to purchase different copies of the software. The installation was a snap and I found it integrated with Microsoft Office without any problems. I was able to create web pages, documents, spreadsheets and databases within minutes of the installation. I was also impressed with the User manual, unlike most suites, this one has the fairly user friendly manual that may provide real help. The package is complete and cost less than all others on the market. I was able to run it on several versions of Windows and each time there was no errors, making this a real rival to any package out there today. If you are looking for compatibility as well as portability then Star Office may be the one for you.
Rating:
Summary: Free Your Desktop
Review: I have been running Star Office 6.0 since the beta program began, and I love this software. I found the word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation package to be so compelling, I uninstalled Microsoft's product. In other words, Sun has a Microsoft killer on it's hands. There are a handful of MS-Office features that Star Office lacks (most importantly: the ability to handle embedded OLE objects such as VISIO). But there is also a bundle of nice touches that StarOffice adds that do MS one better. The user interface is fast, slick, and powerful. After using it for a few months, I found the UI to be preferable it to MS Office -- though this is a matter of personal taste. I have found Star Office to be fast, reliable, and compatible. I love the fact that I can start a document at work, on UNIX, and finish it up at home on Windows, without a hiccup. StarOffice is so cheap, IT managers ought to be fired if they don't at least consider StarOffice for their corporate desktops. The licensing policy that allows a single user to run StarOffice on a variety of machines (home, work, and laptop, anyone?) is like a breath of fresh air compared to Microsoft's End User Agreement. I haven't played much with the integrated database, or with the photo editting application that was not part of the beta program. I do like the integrating drawing package, which I now use instead of VISIO for all of my diagramming. It will take more than just excellent software for StarOffice to steal market segment away from MS -- but it's at least nice to know that Sun got the "excellent software" part of the equation right this time.
Rating:
Summary: Great choice, especially for schools, libraries, churches
Review: It's kind of hard to believe that it's sixty bucks or whatever the current price is, substitutes for Word Excel and Powerpoint, opens those file formats, lets you SAVE BACK TO THOSE FILE FORMATS, and is still good. But that's the real deal. It doesn't convert everything perfectly, but then if you've ever tried to open Office 97 files in Office XP, you've experienced far more frustration. StarOffice is more compatible with multiple versions of Word than Microsoft Office itself is. It's also basically got a combination of Corel Draw Lite and Visio Lite built into its drawing program, Draw. The other reviewers haven't mentioned it much and I don't know why, because I think it's the best part of the program. You've got:
- Connector lines like Visio
- Spectacular 3D effects
- Bitmap editing ability
- Standard drawing tools
- Gallery you can put clip art into
- Conversion between different types: Bezier curves, polygons, 3D, bitmap, metafile, etc.
- EASY TO LEARN. I've tried to learn Illustrator which of course is a great product but I much prefer Draw. Writer, Calc, and Impress are good too. I imagine there are some features in MS Office that you might want but don't have in StarOffice, but I haven't come across them. My only complaint is that it's kind of hard to figure out where some of the features are. Some are under menu items you don't know about. We finally got a few copies of the StarOffice 6.0 Office Suite Companion at work, though, and it's pretty much got everything you need to know. I haven't found much yet that isn't in there, and they make a point of telling you when stuff doesn't do what you might expect so you don't waste your time trying. I really liked the migration chapter, since I had some 5.2 stuff that I needed to convert, and the database chapter is GREAT since it gives you exactly the syntax to set up databases for mySQL and ODBC and stuff. So in short (though it's too late for that), get this, or if you want a demo download openoffice.org which is the free open source version.
Rating:
Summary: Effective alternative to MS Office
Review: As we all know, Microsoft Office is over priced. What is it now? Like [money] for the standard suite? Even with the release of Office XP, we have found out that there are no real big leaps over its previous incarnates Office 97 and Office 2000. If you are like me, an average person with an average salary, you appreciate great deals. Plus its nice to have an application that can read various formats from Word to Rich Text and Excel and export to PDF. After testing out OpenOffice ... I can honesty suggest either OpenOffice or Star Office 6 for your web processing work (Star Office has extra features and converters that the free version lacks). Not only is it cheap, but it runs on Windows, Linux and Solaris with tech support from Sun. If you are a Mac user, check out the progress of OpenOffice because I believe (prove me if I am wrong) that this retail version doesn't include a Mac installer. I also see Star Office/OpenOffice as an excellent office suite for not only businesses but home users and writers. I know how tough it can be being a freelance writer/publicist or a person typing up a paper for school. Coughing up [money] for Microsoft Office isn't welcoming or pleasing on the check book. Let Star Office/OpenOffice be your guide. Have freedom in how you write and where you type it on. Be released from the Microsoft ball and chain. This is your chance!
Rating:
Summary: StarOffice 6 is fantastic
Review: I found it to be a very good replacement for MS Office. it has read all files correctly so far. It can make special wordart much better looking than in MS OFfice. It's draw program is absolutely amazing. Star OFfice also has many more templates than MS Office and quite a selection of clipart. Another great little program is the HTML program included with it a WYSIWYG program with some nice templates you can build a site out of. In XP and SUSE LINUX 8 PROFFESIONAL it also looks very attractive but you ahve to enable all buttons, select colored tabs, and large 3d buttons... Anyway, all in all it is a grat program. (BTW Sun did not include the e-mail client, web browser or calendar from V 5.2 because Mozilla 1.0 or NS already have very capable e-mail and web browser. The calendar was not included because NS had one and there is a claendar template which you can use as a calendar. I hope they will re-include the calendar, and e-mail client in the next version though.
Rating: 
Summary: Just use MS Office and be done
Review: The functionality of this software product leaves a lot to be desired. You can purchase MS Office and have the complete package and be very pleased. The Star Office is full of bugs, slow and the user interface is ugly.
Rating:
Summary: eeeewwww!
Review: Sorry I ever tried this software. Trying to save money. Doesn't have anywhere the function or ability of MICROSOFT products, difficult and frustrating to use. I am selling my version now... I will happily pay the price for something that WORKS.
| 
