TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
SO and OOo are the same software, essentially; SO just has extra goodies like
clip art, templates, and a rarely used database. Plus Sun has recently offered
free support to all OOo users. You can just download OpenOffice.org and be fine.
Get OpenOffice.org 1.1 (corresponds to StarOffice 7.0) if you want a few good
fixes for MS compatibility, creating envelopes and data sources/mailmerges, XML
filters, and exporting to PDF and to Flash (Flash is presentations only).
>> My question -- how compatible are StarOffice and OpenOffice?
I'm assuming, from what I've heard, that OO has some
significant improvements over SO.
They're totally compatible. OpenOffice.org has more frequent improvements;
OpenOffice.org 1.0 and StarOffice 6 are the same, and 1.1 and SO 7 are the same.
OpenOffice.org 1.0.3 has no official StarOffice equivalent, and of course has
fixes and improvements over both 1.0 and SO 6.0. What happens in theory at least
is that OOo development goes along, writing software and all that, and
periodically Sun dips in a big dipper and says hey, here's our next StarOffice
version.
Myself, I found no difference between StarOffice 6.0 and OpenOffice.org 1.0x
running them standalone. In theory, aside from a few stray fixes or features here
and there, they're the same software. I'm not sure that StarOffice itself is
inherently more buggy than OOo. My experience working at Sun was that the
multiuser distribution that the IT folks set up, combined with Sunrays and other
machines and the networks and various degrees of unavoidable network gremlin
infestation, made using StarOffice at Sun an unpleasant experience for some. I
have a few friends still at Sun who just install OOo locally because they don't
want to bother with the multiuser distribution.
> Hey guys,
>
> My current client does some work with Sun, so I occasionally
> need to deliver documents in StarOffice format. The client
> has StarOffice 6, which is terribly buggy and unstable.
>
> My question -- how compatible are StarOffice and OpenOffice?
> I'm assuming, from what I've heard, that OO has some
> significant improvements over SO. Can I use OO for these tasks
> and deliver to the folks up north without causing problems?
>
> Thanks!
> -Sue Gallagher
>
