Office users can navigate by StarOffice'for free
It's faster than the speeding Lotus Smart-Suite Millennium Edi-tion, easier than Corel WordPerfect Office 2000 and cheaper than just about any Microsoft product.
By John Breeden II
GCN Staff
It's faster than the speeding Lotus Smart-Suite Millennium Edi-tion, easier than Corel WordPerfect Office 2000 and cheaper than just about any Microsoft product.
It's a bird, it's a plane. Nope, it's StarOffice 5.1.
Sun Microsystems Inc. has fired a shot across rival Microsoft Corp.'s bow by making the StarOffice software suite available as a free download.
Sun acquired the office suite when it bought the German company Star Division GmbH [GCN, Sept. 6, Page 61].
Although Sun chairman Scott McNealy has often called Microsoft's practice of giving away its Web browser monopolistic, I decided to judge StarOffice on its merits. I tested it running under Microsoft Windows 98'one of its many platforms.
This is not just an office suite, it's almost an alternative operating system with its own browser, file explorer and a taskbar that mimics the standard Windows form. At first I was a bit confused when my desktop PC reconfigured itself, arranging all icons horizontally across the screen instead of in Win98's vertical layout. But within the new window, I could use the computer as expected.
SmartSuite Millennium has lost ground against competing suites because it looks so different. If Millennium is a trip to Mars, StarOffice is a one-way trip out of the solar system.
StarOffice's biggest plus is multiplatform compatibility. The suite, originally written for Linux, also runs under Windows, SunSoft Solaris and IBM OS/2. It opens up the possibility that a mixed-hardware office could standardize on it as a desktop environment, making upgrades and technical support infinitely easier. Now if only StarOffice ran under Mac OS.
I tested the main components one would expect to find in an office suite: word processor, spreadsheet and presentation graphics application.
The word processor is good enough to go head-to-head against market leaders. It's pretty easy to use, although you have to get used to seeing your writing area at the left side of the screen and formatting options on the right. This is an intuitive way to set up the page, although most users will find it odd.
Compatibility between StarOffice and the other suites seems nearly flawless. When you click on a file created in Corel WordPerfect or Microsoft Word, it opens just fine in the StarOffice word processor. When you try to save, however, the default is a StarOffice .sdw extension. You can also save the document as a Word .doc file or as text. I found most files could retain their original formatting, though I did run into a few minor problems with indents and the like.
The spreadsheet component of StarOffice is a bit weak. The default setup is not very functional because for some reason, text always flows beyond the targeted cell. It can be reconfigured, but users expect such options to be set up correctly.
The spreadsheet program does have some nice features. You can drag and drop, which is great if the boss suddenly wants line item 229 turned into line item 106. Simply drag the mouse over the text to highlight it, then click in the new location.
The program automatically inserts the old text in the new location, moving other cells to make room. For people who are constantly changing things around in spreadsheets, this is a real plus.
The presentation graphics component shines. Many users are forced to consult those books for dummies to work in Microsoft PowerPoint, but I doubt anyone would need help for StarOffice's graphics program'it's that easy.
For simple slide presentations, the program practically walks you through creation. I didn't even read the instructions to create a 10-slide program with images and generic wiping effects. It was tougher to use the higher-end features, but for basic functionality I have not seen a better graphics program.
Box Score ''''''''  |
| StarOffice 5.1 Office suite freeware
|
It does Windows
GCN,
www.sun.com/staroffice