Customer Reviews

Sun StarOffice 8

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I've been a user and big fan of Star Office since version 6. At first this was because I couldn't swallow the outrageous pricetag of MS office, and still can't, but now I simply prefer using Star. While some will claim that you must have MS Office because it "is the industry standard," this is an extremely weak sales point in my opinion, since many things of marginal value are now or have at one time been recognized as industry standards. Star Office has often been noted to be more compatible with the various versions of office files than the latest MS versions are themselves! My experience, with many versions of both packages, has been consistent with this assertion, and I convert files on a regular basis. My favorite things about version 8: excellent pdf export function, the database application, flashy new icons, better looking on-screen display of bulleted lists etc (they always looked fine once printed), many times less expensive than even a MS Office upgrade, $20 rebate form in the box. Least favorite things: it tends to use a lot of memory (although this has not resulted in any noticeable problems for me, and it runs faster than version 7 on the same machine), the documentation is too basic (maybe a plus for beginners, but it doesn't help me much), and no special upgrade price available. I realize that Star Office may not be the right choice for everyone, and some will prefer to pay for MS Office (though I really don't know why), but I highly recommend that before putting several hundred dollars in Mr Gates' wallet you download the demo of Star Office and check out how well it performs. You will not be disappointed. Bottom line is that this is a great package in its own right that has become stronger in each succeeding version, and stacks up very well in comparison with its competition.
P.S. Although I haven't tried OpenOffice, I've heard good things about it. Apparently it's practically the same as StarOffice but freely downloadable. I don't mind paying the cost of StarOffice, because I feel like I have some recourse/customer support if there are any problems, but I admit that my willingness to pay for piece of mind may or may not be the best value. I haven't had problems, or needed any customer support, which speaks well of StarOffice. Taking a look at what OpenOffice has to offer should also be worthwhile for many though.

I have been using StarOffice since version 5.2, it's a great product.
SUN provides a trial version of Staroffice 8. It's always a good idea to try something before you buy it, especially if you are new to it. Sun also sells a downloadable version of StarOffice 8 at $69.99.
If you are a student or a teacher, you can download StarOffice 8 for free from SUN's education software programm. Actually that's how I get my StarOffice since version 5.2.
StarOffice 8 is based on OpenOffice 2 with a little bit more features, including more fonts, more clip art and 60 days of free support. If those are not important to you, you might just want to download OpenOffice 2.0 since it's totally free.

Here is my experience of using StarOffice.
1. There are many non-Microsoft office softwares, none of them is 100% compatible with Microsoft Office. But the compatibility is more than enough for home users who do not heavily use Macro or scripts. I use StarOffice at home, Microsoft Office at school, I don't have any serious problem to use one to open files created by another.
2. SUN does not provide a full user manual for the downloadable version when I wrote this review though a simple getting-start guide is available at their website, I don't know if it's included in the retail package. That's too bad for new buyers since the features and functions can easily overwhelm anybody. But if you used StarOffice in the past, you should have no problem. I still use the manual of version 7 for version 8 since most of it does not change much. The manual for OpenOffice 2.0 applies for StarOffice 8 too. I just downloaded the manual. It's still in draft version, but looks pretty much complete.
3. StarOffice 8 is a solid package which covers everything for home use.
4. The PDF export function is great.
My overall experience with this software is more than satisfactory.

For $69.00 I bought the Sun StarOffice8 suite of programs. You get Word Processing, Speadsheets, Presentation, Database, and Drawing and Graphics programs. You also get the Mozilla Firefox Web Browser and Mozilla Thunderbird Email service. They also send you verions of Office8 for Linux, two Sun operating systems, as well as the Window version, and even a small manual. I find the on screen Help Menus to be much more helpful and useful than those in MS. It's also nice not getting charged extra for certain programs as you do with the the MS suite. It's also compatible with MS Word Excel, etc., so you can send and receive documents to people with the MS suite. More people should check it out.

Sun's open source StarOffice 8 is a fantastic alternative to the MS Office suite of products. Though a bit slower to load initially once you are up and running I find StarOffice every bit as intuitive and easy to use as any other office suite.

The hot-keys available in StarOffice will be instantly recognized by most Mac users as well since most are the same in Apples OS X as used in StarOffice.

Being able to open and save files in numerous open source, MS, or StarOffice formats is a BIG PLUS!

I really enjoy the PDF utility. Now I can run one single application and save/export the file as a PDF with ease.

Two Thumbs up.

If you are looking for MS Office or a much better cost alternative that runs on any PC platform - Buy StarOffice 8.

JP

This program does everything I need from an office suite and much more. I use mostly the word processing and spreadsheet features and they are as easy to use as MS Word and Excel. Earlier StarOffice vesions had some MS Office compatibility problems - mostly with document formating. I have not noticed any problems with compatibility between StarOffice 8 and MS Office, but would be carefull using it if 100% compatibilty was essential to the application. Overall I find StarOffice a far better value than MS Office.

I've used both Microsoft Office and StarOffice for a number of years, with the handling of Microsoft Office files critical to me. The current version of StarOffice, version 8, has finally evolved from earlier revisions into a program that can easily replace Microsoft Office. There are still some differences (a web page on the OpenOffice web site lists these in detail). And there are also some remaining minor issues, most quickly and easily resolved.

Regardless, StarOffice is a robust, reliable, and featured ladened set of applications (word Processing, spreadsheet, presentation, database, and draw). Most of these (excluding draw and database) can open/save Microsoft Office files effortlessly. If one doesn't have MS Office installed, one can even setup StarOffice to automatically handle MS Office files (when double-clicked in a folder, for example). As such, Microsoft Office did not get installed when I recently upgraded to a new computer. I'm now using StarOffice exclusively.

NOTES TO OTHER REVIEWERS:
To Eli (reviewer elsewhere here), complaining about ###### in Excel cells, your data was not lost. These symbols ("##") appear whenever text or numbers flow beyond the width of a column (because of differences between the default fonts used by the two programs, for example). To resolve the issue, change the font to a smaller one (select all & change), lower the font size (also select all & change), or increase the column width. Your data would have appeared intact.

To Julio, complaining about poor service, there is a massive amount of support data (FAQ's, tutorials, demos, videos, and so on) on the StarOffice and OpenOffice web sites. You questions would have to be truly exotic not to be covered at least somewhere in all that. However, if that were the case, join the OpenOffice forum and ask there. Many answering questions in that forum are directly involved in the OpenOffice/StarOffice project.

Does all I need to do for home and also for windows files from work with my linux machine. Cost for the whole package less than 1 MS upgrade. No regrets

I love this product. I use both MS Office (at work) and SUN StarOffice (work and home). Given a choice, I prefere StarOffice because it is clean, I have to fight with it much less, and I love the native PDF support. I have more experience with MS Office and found it easy to transition into StarOffice.

It is also loaded with feature and templates that require extra work to install and setup with MS Office. Plus SO8 is secure and does not have all the macro virus exploits MS has.

I am extremely happy with this product. I like the fact that it uses open standards and support JAVA for scripting and plugins.

SO8 runs very nice and after installing SO8 Update 1 it runs even faster and cleaner. Plus for < $100 it is a no brainer.

MS Office doesn't have any advantages over SO8. And at 4x the cost, they can keep it.

I plan on starting my own company soon. When I do, this will be the office product we will use. It scales nicely and the PDF support makes it professional when sending contracts, quotes, bills, and other business documents to other companies.

UPDATE: I recently wrote some code to interface JAVA with SO8. Their free SDK is pretty easy to use and comes with a 1135 page PDF of how to use it. Granted, most people don't need to do this but, it is easier then MS Office C# equiv. Very powerful. SO8 is the only thing to use for me.

i was going to actually purchase microsoft office for my office but reading the spotlight review there made me consider buying star office instead.and boy i'm glad i did,star office has more features,easy to use interface,for a MUCH lower price.dear reader:don't go for microsoft office,instead buy this one,you will not be dissapointed.oh and thank you amazon for letting your customers write reviews on your products,it definitely helped us out a whole lot:)

I bought this to upgrade from StarOffice 7 to 8. I've always been very happy with StarOffice as a less-expensive alternative to MS Office. The default format in version 7 was StarOffice format. In version 8, it's open-document format. So far, I've been able to open any MS Office 2000 document in StarOffice 8 without any serious differences. My only complaint with this product is that, even with the "Quickstarter" running in the system tray, the program takes twice as long as MS Office to open. If Sun could make it launch as fast or faster than MS, I would gladly give it five stars.