Customer Reviews

Sun StarOffice 7

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(22)

 

 

I'm not sure if the average person uses even 20% of the capabilities of MS Office. Most people make extensive use of Word and Outlook, good use of Excel, fair use of PowerPoint, and almost no use of Access. STAROFFICE IS A GREAT ALTERNATIVE THAT WILL SAVE YOU HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS!

Before purchasing, please note that Sun offers this product for download under the name "openoffice".

Benefits of StarOffice:
* Great compatibility with MS Office apps, particularly Word; you'll be hard-pressed to find a Word file that doesn't open accurately (preserved formatting) in Star. In fact, compatibility is *far* better than WordPerfect presently offers--and I'm a WP user from back when it was one of the original "killer applications"
* StarOffice Draw (for creating graphics) blows Word's drawing tools out of the water. This has always been a weakness of Word. Draw is comparable, if not better than, drawing tools in WordPerfect.
* StarOffice Adabas (database application) is included (getting MS Access requires buying MS Office Pro) and is easier to use than MS Access. Adabas integrates with other StarOffice apps so, for instance, users can easily create mail merge documents.

Drawbacks:
* MAJOR: No MS Outlook: This really may be the most important part of MS Office. Detractors can complain all they want, but there is just no PIM available that is near its equal. (The opensource community is working on this, however.)
* MEDIUM: I have yet to see a presentation package as good as PowerPoint (which is by no means perfect). I do hear that Apple's got a good new one, but most of us use PC.
* MINOR: No pivot tables in Excel: If you don't know what a pivot table is, then you don't need to worry that it's not available.
* MINOR: Interface to MS Office apps is more refined than StarOffice's.
* MINOR: MS Access is a better database application, but Adabas is easier to use.

For home or small- to medium- business use, this is a no-brainer. Frankly, with Microsoft's new licensing policies, which will penalize people for not upgrading by requiring them to pay full price for new versions if they skip a version, I expect some large corporations to eventually make the switch.

IMPORTANT NOTES:
* Again, you can download this for free, as OpenOffice v1.1
* It is disappointing that OpenOffice v1.1 became StarOffice v7, when OpenOffice v1.0 was StarOffice v6. There wasn't enough improvement to justify a new version
* THERE IS NO UPGRADE PRICING AVAILABLE FOR USERS OF V6

There has been a lot misinformation in some of the reviews.
Let me point them out for users who are really considering this good alternative to M$ Office.

1) Open Office 1.1 and Staroffice 7.0 are one and the same. You can download Open Office for free and you get only email support. Staroffice is the same software in a packaged version with more options like Adabas database etc. You pay for packaging, phone support and email support. So if you don't want to pay $70, just go to http://www.openoffice.org and download the same software for free with just email support and no database and other features.
For all those who thought Open Office was better than Staroffice, sorry folks, Staroffice and Open Office are one and the same with additional features in Staroffice !!

2) Since when has Java been the reason for Virus? This is total nonsense. There has been no Java based virus at all. The virus is because of security holes in M$. Java is everywhere - this website, your cellphones or in the American Express Blue card. So Java is good not bad.
Java is used for the database part.

3) Yes, there are issues when you open a file created with M$ Office, only if you have used proprietary M$ fonts. To the 95% of the user(maybe more) this is really not an issue. I've opened a lot of files which were created by M$ office and they opened fine under Staroffice.

4) There is a spellchecker and a Thesaurus included as opposed to one reviewer who claimed it's not there.

Now for the real review.
1) It's much less expensive.

2) M$ has no backward compatibility. Try opening a Office 95 or 98 document with Office 2000 with or without M$'s own fonts and see what happens. Forced upgrade anybody?
Staroffice is backward compatible(you can open Staroffice 5.2 or 6.0 files on 7.0), opens all versions of M$ docs and runs on Windows, Linux, Solaris. Check http://www.openoffice.org for other supported OS's.

3)You can save files in the M$ format or staroffice format and still be able to open it !!

4) Export it to pdf format directly. M$ cannot do this.

5) If you use non-M$ font data is not lost.

6) The file size is much smaller(in some or most cases) in Staroffice(Openoffice for all you folks who downloaded it for free).

There are some drawbacks in both M$ Office and Staroffice. But the deciding factor is ultimately $$$.

The only feature that is absent is an email client. But how many of you actually use Outlook with the Office software?

I realy hope this review helps the interested user.

The reviews here are interesting and the negative ones all sound like they are written by the same illiterate person.

On a daily basis at work in my Tech Writing shop we use FrameMaker 7.0, Word 2000, Excel, and Powerpoint. As senior writer, I also use OpenOffice 1.01. Did you know that when Word says a file is corrupt and cannot repair or open it, OpenOffice and StarOffice will usually open that file and save it in Word format? For that alone it's worth having OpenOffice or StarOffice on your computer.

At home we have WordPerfect 7 (very fast), and 8 (Linux), WordPerfect Office Suite 10, Word 97, Lotus Suite 2000 (my old file cracker), Open Office 1.01, and a copy of Star-Office on my Linux partition I keep available just in case. I'm ordering Star-Office 7 for home and will remove some of the others--Open Office, WordPerfect 7, Word 97, and Lotus, at least.

One of the most amusing things in the reviews here is the bogus disclaimer that Word works. Our company switched to FrameMaker for its technical documents for the very reason that Word does not work. The ways in which it does not work are legion and legendary. Did you know, for example, that there is a website
http://groups.google.com/groups?num=25&hl=en&group=microsoft.public.word.numbering&start=25&group=microsoft.public.word.numbering
which has 18,000 threads on Word numbering problems alone?

StarOffice numbers pages and paragraphs correctly, even in complicated documents. It opens and closes MS Word documents with very few problems. No software does a perfect job of that, but only a fool would expect it too. (Heavens, MSWord 2003 cannot save a document in WordPerfect format newer than WP 5.2.) StarOffice can. It can also save in XML which FrameMaker likes alot.

Unless you or your bosses are rigid and opposed to a less expensive solution, StarOffice 7.0 offers a change in software that can save you money, time, effort, and frustration. And you won't be penalized for not upgrading at every opportunity.

Not sure? Download OpenOffice for free or order their free CD + $5.00 S&H. If you like that and want software with support from a well established company, buy StarOffice and get the extras--spellchecker and thesaurus, database, select fonts including Windows metrically equivalent fonts and Asian language fonts, select filters, including WordPerfect, additional templates, and extensive clipart gallery. StarOffice offers updates/upgrades on CD, user documentation, 24x7 web based support, help desk support, training, and professional help services for migration and deployment.

So, if all those extras are important to you, buy StarOffice 7.0 here, get rid of MS Office, and enjoy your work for a change.

Years later, Open Office & Star Office are getting better. They now offer a end user friendly database. I still keep a copy of MS Office for some uses. And Sun's office offering on the Mac blows the heck out of MS Office on the Mac. Many languages and Operating Systems are supported. That is the update as the year 2007 is starting to go into history. My orgional review follows.

Ok. Bottom line. I came here to save money on Buying StarOffice7 after running the Beta.

I cannot believe the half-truths in this thread. Please allow me to kill a few.

1) It needs Java. BS. It asks if you have Java installed which is only required on a few advanced features (mostly database).

2) Same a OpenOffice. BS. It is built ON OpenOffice which Sun supports. I have both options on my laptop (plus MS Word). StarOffice has things they license that is not in OpenOffice.
A (much) better spell checker (even that is not as good as MS Word), Thesarus, and a SQL database (like a real SQL not a user friendly Access database).

3) No Outlook. MS Office is not Outlook. Outlook is Outlook Eveolution = open source Outlook.

That aside, some heads up points.
Must purchase for each platform (Windows/Linux). Good news is I can buy one of each for multiple computers I use.

Slow startup compared to MS Office. Excellent File compatablity, and the comment about much smaller native file sizes is true. Gets very slow on REALLY HUGE (20MB+ documents).

Get your feet wet with OpenOffice (free). Move to StarOffice for saving $$ on licencing for many people who are power users and need the extra/better tool add-ins.

OpenOffice has no phone support. Active end-user community via email. Some decent 3rd party training starting to show up.

Keep legal on some MS Office seats to test complex documents against X-Office (star/open). I'll go away now and give my $ to Amazon. Best price out there.

I have been using MS and Star Office for many years. Since StarOffice 6.0 the usability and feature list bar was raised to that of MS Office at a 1/4 the cost. With StarOffice 7, that bar has been raised above MS easily. At the same low cost, this product is feature rich and easy to use. I especially like their spreadsheet. Very clean and easy to use. I prefer it over Excel now.

I am Jazzed and feel it is at a level to recommend as a replacement to the buggy and overpriced MS Office. MS Office is Ok but SUN has proven that you shouldn't have to pay what MS charges to get a productivity suite that you can run a company on.

Real smart move to add PDF exporting too. That has come in real handy. SUN is on the right track!

It's disturbing how many of the negative reviews here seem to be planted by Microsoft lackeys. They are obviously trying to scare off potential StarOffice users by blatantly exaggerating tales of Java's bugginess and the suite's inability to convert MS files properly, and how in the end, StarOffice represents nothing more than false savings. That's the message Microsoft is trying to broadcast to the world in order to preserve their incredible monopoly profits from Office (about 75% of 10 billion dollars in annual revenues).

Like many of the more balanced reviewers, I think StarOffice is a polished and competent subsitute for MS Office for most users, even those running solely on Windows OS. It takes longer to load than MS Office and has somewhat fewer features. For example, the spreadsheet application in StarOffice, Calc, doesn't appear to be able to create 3D plots, although to be fair, the ones in Excel don't look terribly good. There are also fewer options for interpolating data when compared to Excel.

Compared to its free OpenOffice sibling, StarOffice 7 has nicer-looking icons, better fonts and additional (minor) features, as well as access to technical support. $70 (Amazon's discounted price) seems a fair price to pay for these improvements, although it is nice to know that OpenOffice is always available for the cash-strapped. However, Staroffice is an amazing deal if you are a teacher, student or academic - it's absolutely free for these lucky people. Obviously, Sun is trying to breed a new generation of computer users who will not be afraid of experimenting with and adopting non-Microsoft products in the future.

I've noticed that many of the home PCs sold by HP, Compaq, Dell and others now come with parts of the Corel WordPerfect Suite. I'm wondering if StarOffice 7 is a sound purchase for owners of such systems. Has anyone trodden down this path?

I work on documents in the 3,000-30,000 word range, and I heavily use a lot of word processor features like footnotes/endnotes, tables and references, indexes, version control, etc. We've all experienced in MS Word when you make one small change, it breaks the formatting of the entire document - noone knows why this happens, but it does. It's never happened to me in StarOffice, and that alone is a good enough reason to make the switch. Also, if you publish to PDF that is built into StarOffice, no need to spend the extra money on Adobe - and StarOffice is a fraction of the price of MS Office anyway. I would say you get 90% of the features of MS Office for about a quarter of the price. I've never had any trouble importing documents from Word or Excel, I can't comment on PowerPoint importing because I've never tried it.

Currently I am using the Star Office 7 Beta - Have found it to be exceptional, I have no negative comments at all.

We moved our whole company to Star Office 6 last year, 90 % of our users are low end computer knowledge, but everyone made the transition - with no retraining and minimal support questions (compared to the questions we had when going from Office 98 to Office 2000)- improved network performance do to XML - and 90 to 95 percent of the old office files came over without a problem (those that we did have problems with were because of special MS fonts)

To give you and example of size differences one file under MS Excel was 18 Meg once converted to XML format in Star Office was 2.89 Meg. and when you are sending it on a network that is a BIG difference in performance. (the user did the conversion with no help - and everything worked - the 28 worksheets in the workbook, the linked fields, all calculations everything worked!)

I am going to wait for the upgrade option but the Star Office package is Great!!! We are going to upgrade though. (I provide technical support and software integration)

Star Office is one of the best apps around for the price. Although users may have to make an adjustment here or there, but it is well worth the low... low price.

I use Unix, Linux, and Windows for my department projects. I'm no longer limited to a system because my documents will open regardless of what OS I'm running. Good job Sun!!!

If you work in or work with corporations, this is the software for you. Holy cow, it runs on windows, mac, linux, and solaris. (Unlike MSOffice)

As an MCSE I have solely used MSOffice since it beat out Wordperfect many years ago. Well this transition to StarOffice is just as easy.

It has more windows compatibility than MSoffice. It doesn't remove the backwards compatibility like MS does. So you can work with all your old archived files and still save them in WHATEVER format you want. If you want it as pdf go right ahead. This is awesome.

Highly recommended!

Most things that SUN Micro puts out does require a slightly higher level of computer savvy. So if you are not willing to learn where the button locations are, you might want to stick in the dark ages with MSoffice.