[Berend]

I miss OpenOffice Writer (or NeoOffice) in this comparison.

[brobdingnagian]

Berend, on 09 December 2010 - 08:45 AM, said:

I miss OpenOffice Writer (or NeoOffice) in this comparison.

Apparently we are supposed to pretend that they don’t exist. Macworld is mysterious about what it chooses to review or share with readers.

[ajcarr]

NisusWriter Pro should have been included in the comparison, after all, it got 4.5 mice in a Macworld review in December last year:

NisusWriter Pro review

According to the review:

"Nisus Writer Pro competes with Word better than any word processor I’ve seen in a very long time."

[mjw876]

I don't understand why Openoffice/Neooffice was not included in this review.

[Maxer]

If you work with 95% of the World out there, you need Microsoft Office. For compatibility reasons. A shame, but true.

[hillstones]

Maxer, on 09 December 2010 - 09:35 AM, said:

If you work with 95% of the World out there, you need Microsoft Office. For compatibility reasons. A shame, but true.

Clearly NOT true. I work for a company that uses the Windows version of OpenOffice, because it is free and fully compatible with Microsoft Office. So, you don't "need" Microsoft Office. The article should be re-written to include OpenOffice because it still exists, and it is an alternative choice for an Office suite.

[LynnFredricksjuq5]

While I think MS Office and Pages should be compared, it seems strange to bring in Google Docs but not the many other desktop applications that have long been available on the Mac.

Sadly, this is one reason why many smaller Mac companies die - because they get ignored by the press.

[Jason Snell]

brobdingnagian, on 09 December 2010 - 09:05 AM, said:

Berend, on 09 December 2010 - 08:45 AM, said:

I miss OpenOffice Writer (or NeoOffice) in this comparison.

Apparently we are supposed to pretend that they don’t exist. Macworld is mysterious about what it chooses to review or share with readers.

You're right, that's why we didn't review OpenOffice. And why we kept our air of mystery in the article you commented on by saying "You have plenty of choices when it comes to word processing software, but the most obvious (and popular and ubiquitous) of those choices are..."

[iguanarama]

OpenOffice should definitely be in this comparison; I'm really surprised by its omission. I help many people set up their Macs, and I install OpenOffice on each of them. It's the only free software that opens and saves in Microsoft Word format, which is what I hear the most about when people say they receive '.doc' attachments. Many people buy a base Mac and then just want their attachments to 'work', so OpenOffice it is.

This post has been edited by iguanarama: 09 December 2010 - 12:15 PM

[mcoombs]

You might want to have a look at Papyrus.

See http://www.rom-logicware.com/

At http://www.macupdate...c/18996/papyrus, Macupdate.com describes it in the following words,

Papyrus provides a powerful word-processor for desktop publishing, with PDF-export, integrated spreadsheets, and a relational database using an intuitive user interface for instant searches. You can even use Papyrus from a USB memory stick. This means that you can take your Papyrus (and your data) with you - remove the memory stick, and leave the system 'untouched'.

[axnicho]

Just to add one more voice to those expressing surprise that OpenOffice wasn’t included in the review (and why Google Docs – a very different kind of beast – was included).

[jaydahba]

me too, i ouwld lie to add that omitting OpenOffice is a blatant oversight. Saying that due to volume of choices, limited time and budget sounds like a sad excuse. most people i know have openoffice installed, and many of them like myself, dumped WORD years ago...

[whoda]

No Open Office in the review? Sounds like someone screwed the pooch on that one. The majority of the people I personally know are now using Open Office. This is both the Mac and Windows worlds.

[Chris Breen]

whoda, on 09 December 2010 - 01:30 PM, said:

The majority of the people I personally know are now using Open Office.

Would you consider that a representative sample of the general population or a smaller group of geeks?