Loving NeoOffice (OpenOffice for Mac)

One of the risks I took in switching to Mac was that my Microsoft Office 2000 discs would be unusable and I'd have to either find an alternative or ante up and buy the Mac version of MS Office. I'm immensely relieved to report that NeoOffice, one of the two OpenOffice options for Mac, is splendid (I generally try to avoid that word but it really sums it up).

First I tried to official OpenOffice Mac version but couldn't get past the X11 business. I thought I installed X11 but the Open Office installer still wouldn't run, so I gave up. (I got a Mac precisely to avoid getting sucked into endless tinkering.) So I went with the native Mac version, NeoOffice, even though it's not an "official" release. So far so good! I had an easy time making the invitation for our Cinco de Mayo party--lots of images, text boxes, playing with margins and borders and fonts, color shading, autoshapes, etc. etc. As I got used to using it, I began to find it easier than Word, which I've been using since 1993 and know pretty well. It's just, I don't know, better organized. Things I need don't seem to be buried 4 layers deep.

So if you haven't taken the OpenOffice plunge, give it a shot.