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Apache OpenOffice

Score9.9 out of 10

106 Reviews and Ratings

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What is Apache OpenOffice?

Apache OpenOffice is a free open source office suite that includes six applications: Writer (word processor), Calc (spreadsheets), Impress (presentations), Draw (diagramming and graphics), Base (database), and Math (formulas).

Categories & Use Cases

Reviews

What users are saying about Apache OpenOffice.
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Great free alternative to MS Office

Incentivized
Verified User
Director in Engineering (1-10 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use Apache OpenOffice for the redaction of quotations, bills of materials, slide shows, letters and several other types of texts. It solves the problem of needing a good text processor but mainly a free alternative to Microsoft Excel with Calc, which is used for most of the administrative tasks regarding money and even some regarding engineering, like reports.

Pros

  • Being free
  • Opening MS office documents
  • Having a good user interface

Cons

  • Some people used to Microsoft products can feel it's a little bit old in its style
  • I saves documents in its native format, which is incompatible with MS Word or Excel, unless you change that in the preferences tab
  • The UI is not very pretty

Return on Investment

  • It has save me for 8 years the cost of a subscription for MS Office, so the ROI is instant and savings are continuous. 60 USD per user per year adds up quickly.

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Microsoft Office 2016 (discontinued)

Great If You Hate That Other Office Software

Incentivized
Zachariah KingView profile
Editor at Debtfree Magazine (1-10 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

If you have used other products, such as Microsoft Office software, then you know what Apache OpenOffice is all about. Open Word documents and Excel spreadsheets, but... it's all in Apache OpenOffice. You can write documents, work on spreadsheets, etc. If you have had bad experiences with other software providers, find their pricing prohibitive, want to avoid constant updates and downloads, or are worried about big brother spying on you, then Apache OpenOffice has got you covered.

Pros

  • Spreadsheets
  • Word processing
  • Price sensitive (it won't break the bank)

Cons

  • Graphics - I do find sometimes the graphics/icons appear fuzzy even though I have a monster computer (not bragging, just true)

Most Important Features

  • Pricing
  • Opening documents sent by others (in familiar formats - e.g. Word/Excel)
  • Familiar or intuitive UI

Return on Investment

  • Great to use when pricing on other products or software is prohibitive
  • Enabled us to work on and send documents and spreadsheets to others in compatible formats

Alternatives Considered

Microsoft Office 2016 (discontinued) and Microsoft 365

Other Software Used

Yumpu, iLovePDF, TinyURL, Canva, Microsoft Teams, Google AdSense, Google Assistant, ChatGPT

Apache OpenOffice is Best Suit

Incentivized
Aurangzaib AdilView profile
Senior Merchandiser in Customer Service at Junaid Jamshed Private Limited (501-1000 employees employees)

Pros

  • OpenOffice is ideal to have as an application on your PC versus utilizing an online word archive application like Google Docs.
  • OpenOffice can deal with an assortment of document types like [.doc, .rtf, .xml] , making it a fundamental apparatus for the individuals who don't approach Microsoft Word.
  • OpenOffice is a more profound programming than Word and is more open. I know, openness for a record composing programming, I know. In any case, OpenOffice takes into account rapidly evolving edges, typeface, size, and so forth, and I think shows improvement over Word, and in a simpler arrangement.
  • OpenOffice can deal with bookkeeping pages, essential information bases, introductions, and fundamental drawings. It handles the entirety of the typical Microsoft Office instruments inside one application.

Cons

  • In my all through experience of utilizing Apache Open Office, I didn't encountered any issue aside from record design uphold for new Microsoft Office document designs like DOCx, XLSx and PPTx.

Return on Investment

  • Moving to OpenOffice will save the organization the expense of Microsoft Office licenses in our organization.
  • You risk losing records since there isn't cloud saving. Follow general document reinforcement techniques to be protected.
  • OpenOffice has smoothed out representative venture association.

Alternatives Considered

Microsoft Office 2016 (discontinued) and Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365)

Other Software Used

Skype, Android, AnyDesk

I strongly recommend it to my friends

Incentivized
Abdul Wahab KhanView profile
Project Manager in Professional Services at Softronic Systems (Pvt) Limited (51-200 employees employees)

Pros

  • Supports a variety of formats
  • Open source and free
  • Small download package

Cons

  • Does not support the latest Microsoft Office formats
  • Layout doesn't appear exactly the same as in Microsoft Office
  • Theme of the application is not eye-catching

Return on Investment

  • It saves me the cost of a license
  • It occupies comparatively less space\
  • It helps me work on any device running any operating system
  • It limits me when I need to edit DOCx, XLSx, and PPTx

Alternatives Considered

Microsoft Office 2016 (discontinued), SmartOffice and WPS Office

Other Software Used

Skype, Zoom, MySQL

A free alternative to Microsoft Office

Pulkit AgrawalView profile
Engineering Technician in Engineering at Galgotias University (501-1000 employees employees)

Pros

  • Low size, Apache Open office weighs only 200MB with the full capabilities as that of a 2GB Microsoft office. This saves some space on your system and your internet bandwidth.
  • It's Free. That's one of the benefit of open source softwares, they don't cost anything. We can use it on as many systems as we want without any subscription.
  • It's cross platform, unlike Microsoft office which is only available on Microsoft Windows, OpenOffice is available on Windows as well as Linux which is used my most of the students pursuing a computer science degree.

Cons

  • The available file formats are a bit unconventional in OpenOffice. By default it saves the document in .odt format which may work with almost any other word processor but with a chance of formatting issues.
  • UI is not as polished as other mainstream products like Microsoft Office so a new user may need some time to get familiar to it.
  • No cloud save option available. For saving files online you have to save the document locally and upload it on you favourite cloud drive. And for accessing it on other device you have to download the file from your drive and open it. This is not a very long task tbh but it's still an extra step which may be considered as a minus point to a business user.

Return on Investment

  • Our yearly subscription costs were cut down to zero which is quite a big deal considering there are more than 500 systems.
  • We had to give some time to the employees so that they can get familiar with the software and use it as a daily driver.
  • We saved some internet bandwidth and storage space using OpenOffice.

Alternatives Considered

LibreOffice

Other Software Used

GitHub, Atom, Google Drive