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NeoOffice 2.1 Feature Comparison
From NeoWiki
N.B. Some of the information is out-of-date following the release of NeoOffice 2.0 Alpha 4, and an update is in progress. To see the version of this page comparing NeoOffice 1.2.2 with then-current versions of OpenOffice.org (X11) and Microsoft Office 2004, see NeoOffice Feature Comparison.
The advantages of NeoOffice over other office suites, particularly Microsoft's, are legion. Most importantly, NeoOffice is free and open source software relieving you of costly licensing fees.
There is a strong community support forum that is also frequented by the developers at http://www.trinity.org/
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NeoOffice vs. Microsoft Office
Apart from these benefits, NeoOffice 2.0 has features that outshine Microsoft Office:
| Feature | NeoOffice | MS Office 2004 for Mac |
|---|---|---|
| General: | ||
| Price (standard edition) | $0.00 | $399.95 |
| Runs on Intel-based Macs | Natively | Using Rosetta |
| Type ahead functionality (optional) like many mobile phones have | YES | No |
| A logical, safe and suite-wide system for templates, so these are never accidentally updated | YES | No |
| Clean HTML code export (compliant with international web standards) | YES | No |
| Support for international standard ISO 26300 OpenDocument file formats | YES | No |
| Support for voice-dictation and similar software | YES | YES(?) |
| Unified User Interface, reducing learning time and costs | YES | No |
| Localized user interface (number of languages) | 54* | 7* |
| International spelling checkers and localized help | 61** | 12** |
| Support for text entry in non-Roman scripts including South Asian, East Asian, right-to-left and complex text layout scripts | YES | Some [1] |
| Supported scripts or languages: | ||
| Arabic | YES | No |
| Armenian | YES | No |
| Cyrillic | YES | YES |
| Cherokee*** | YES | YES |
| Chinese (Simplified) | YES | YES |
| Chinese (Traditional) | YES | YES |
| Devanagari & Gujarati (Indic languages) | YES | No |
| Greek | YES | YES |
| Hebrew | YES | No |
| Inuktitut*** | YES | YES |
| Japanese | YES | YES |
| Korean | YES | YES |
| Roman (Western and Eastern European languages) | YES | YES |
| Roman (Hawaiian, Northern Sami) | YES | YES |
| Roman (Vietnamese) | YES | No |
| Thai | YES | No |
| Other | Likely**** | Unknown |
| Writer (word processor): | ||
| A logical style system that does not invent styles based on your layout choices | YES | No |
| Functional bullet/list numbering | YES | No |
| The ability to import WordPerfect documents (thanks to the libwpd project) | YES | No |
| Calc (spreadsheet): | ||
| More conditional layout options for cells | YES | No |
| Style-enabled layout system for text and cells | YES | No |
| Impress (presentation): | ||
| The ability to export to Flash animation | YES | No |
| Superior (3D) font art possibilities. | YES | No |
| Notes: | ||
| * NeoOffice 2.0 only ships with a UI for English; UIs for the other 53 languages are freely available in language packs. In OpenOffice.org 2.x, dictionaries are no longer part of the language packs and must be installed with the "Install new dictionaries..." wizard (in the File menu, choose Wizards, then "Install new dictionaries..."). Office 2004 is available in English (all versions of Office 2004), and in French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish and Swedish (for some versions of Office 2004; must be ordered separately) [2]. | ||
| ** NeoOffice includes help files and a growing number of writing (proofing) tools for many languages from the OpenOffice.org project [3], [4], [5], [6]. Microsoft Office 2004 ships with proofing tools for English, French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, German, Danish, Swedish, Portuguese, Finnish, and Dutch [7]. | ||
| *** You must use the Caps Lock key to enable syllabics. | ||
| **** Because OpenOffice.org includes support for languages and scripts which do not have keyboard layouts in Mac OS X, and because Mac OS X includes system-level Unicode support for many of these languages even though Apple does not ship fonts or keyboards, it is very likely that NeoOffice will support text entry (and perhaps sorting) in the language/script if one installs third-party Unicode fonts and keyboard layouts. See Tom Gewecke's Your Multilingual Mac for more resources. For instance, there is a report that NeoOffice handles Khmer very well, and there has even been a report of using NeoOffice with characters in Unicode Planes 1 and 2. | ||
NeoOffice vs. OpenOffice.org for Macintosh (X11)
NeoOffice is far more integrated with OS X than the X11 version on which it is based. Rather than relying on X11, NeoOffice uses Java to bridge the gap between the OpenOffice.org interface code and Apple's OS X.
| Feature | NeoOffice | OpenOffice.org for Mac (X11) |
|---|---|---|
| Uses your normal Mac fonts (no conversion required) | YES | No |
| Smooth font display (Quartz anti-aliasing) | YES | No |
| Allows international keyboards and input methods | YES | Partial |
| Switches keyboards and input methods along with your Mac | YES | No |
| Optimized PDF generation | YES | No |
| Native Aqua menus | YES | No |
| Native OS X printing | YES | No |
| Native (styled) copy and paste support | YES | No |
| Drag-and-drop between other applications | YES | No |
| Normal Mac keyboard shortcuts (command key) | YES | YES* |
| Mouse wheel scrolling | YES | ??? |
| Integrated with Finder and major mail clients | YES | Partial** |
| Usable with accessibility tools such as iListen, Proloquo, ViaVoice, and others | YES | No |
| OpenOffice.org codebase (version) | 2.0.2 | 2.0.3*** |
| Runs on Mac OS X 10.3.x and 10.4.x | YES | YES |
| Runs on Intel-based Macs | Natively | Natively**** |
| Notes: | ||
| * Available only with certain settings in Apple X11, which is available to users of Mac OS X 10.3.x and 10.4.x | ||
| ** Finder integration provided by separate Start OpenOffice.org application; integration with Apple Mail only | ||
| *** The official Mac OS X version of OpenOffice.org is available as separate binary downloads for several languages; a build of OpenOffice.org 2.0.2 is available in English for PowerPC-based Macs, and builds of OpenOffice.org 2.0.3 are available in French and German for both PowerPC and Intel-based Macs. PowerPC builds run on Mac OS X 10.3.x and 10.4.x, and Intel builds run on Mac OS X 10.4.x. | ||
| **** Builds of OpenOffice.org 2.0.3 that run natively on Intel-based Macs are available in French and German. | ||
Still To Do
In all fairness, NeoOffice is not perfect. No software is. Along with relatively large RAM requirements (minimum 384 MB, 512 MB or more recommended), there is always room for improvement. NeoOffice can (and will) get better. Take a look at the following comparison:
| Feature | NeoOffice | MS Office 2004 for Mac | OpenOffice.org for Mac (X11) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bitmap printing at >300 dpi | No | Yes | Yes |
| Standard Mac OS X open & save dialogues | No | Yes | No |
| Media (plugin) support | No | Yes | No |
| Non-Mac keyboard shortcuts | Some | Some | Some |
| Table drawing options | Good | Very good | Good |
| Aqua look-and-feel | Partial | Full | None |
Other Comparisons
Additional feature comparisons between selected office suites and word processors are available at Word-Alternativen: Der Test (apfelwiki.de; compares AbiWord, Mellel, NeoOffice®, Nisus Writer Express, and Apple's Pages [de]).
Supported File Formats
NeoOffice can read and write a large variety of file formats, both current and legacy. Current and recent Microsoft Office file formats are just some of the import and export possibilities; for a more complete listing, see the NeoOffice File Formats matrix.
