: I am about to purchase Microsoft Office which includes Powerpoint comparisons: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1571626,00.asp MS word Vs OO Write: "Several testers said they were impressed with the ability of Writer to save documents as PDF files, a feature they believe would save money as well as time because PDF export for Word requires a Microsoft add-in that must be purchased separately" "Another Writer feature that stood out for testers was the application's word-complete function... Writer attempts to complete words being typed based on words previously typed in a particular document. (One user) liked this feature.." "(users said) that they appreciated being able to create new spreadsheet documents from within the word processor application." PowerPoint vs. Impress "testers said they use the PowerPoint presentation app less than any other Office application. However, a move to either PowerPoint 2003 or OpenOffice.org's Impress would require significant training because PowerPoint 2003 is the Office application that's changed the most since its 97/2000 incarnations and Impress is the OpenOffice.org application that differs most from Office in its design. Shaffer said of Impress: "Its icons and commands are not very similar to PowerPoint." ".. an IT manager .. said he's used Impress for some time now and has come to prefer the way that the application is organized" http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/0,14179,2899202,00.html (Linux based comparison, but considering it's reviewing the app not the operating system, the comparison is still valid) "Even those ..who want to make the break from Microsoft ..can't find the strength to let go of Microsoft Office. They can't imagine something that could replace it. So they certainly can't imagine that there is a package out there that can not only replace Microsoft Office but can replace it for free. " "How well does OpenOffice.org perform? I've had the opportunity to work with many different office suites (including Microsoft Office, WordPerfect Office, Applixware, KOffice, Hancom Office, and StarOffice) and, in my experience, OpenOffice.org performs as well as its competitors--if not better. And OpenOffice.org is the only suite that is free. " the website: http://www.openoffice.org/ the mac dowload location: http://porting.openoffice.org/mac/ooo-osx_downloads.html instructions for downloading: http://download.openoffice.org/2.0.3/instructions.html k
