Microsoft® Office® 2010 Versus OpenOffice

Microsoft Office has been dominating the market in its segment ever since the launch of Office 95. Now, Microsoft is ready with another version of Office. Industry sources claim that the move is an attempt to lure back users who have in recent times migrated to the OpenOffice world. Microsoft recently released a public beta of the product with a lifespan of one year, as well as a free, ad-supported starter edition containing Word and Excel.

Small businesses with fewer tech assets and perhaps less legacy kit, and those looking to set up a new department and try something new before reporting back, for example, may be intrigued by open source alternatives to Office, but they are not quite sure what’s in it for them. Most of the users are likely to be exasperated with the arrangement of features with the classic interface just as often as they are with ribbons.

As for the editing window, one office suite enables the user only to implement a feature for the other one to copy it. For instance, OpenOffice borrows a zoom slider bar from MSO, while MSO borrows floating windows from OpenOffice 3.1. And, although you could point to areas where the interface of one is easier or more efficient, such as the template selector in the Navigator, which allows you to jump from feature to feature, of MSO or OpenOffice 3.1, there are other features as well meant to counterbalance disadvantages in specific areas. While we recognize that many businesses might not be in a position to rip out and replace their previous Microsoft infrastructure, particularly if they’ve invested heavily in it over the years, the purpose of this comparison is to outline the key points in favor of Office 2010 and OpenOffice.

• FIVE – Features

  Open Office does not have an e-mail client, a desktop publisher, or a note taker. If you have the starter edition with the ads, Open Office definitely outmatches Office 2010. However, the Office 2010 web app should be available for free for everybody with a Windows Live account, which includes PowerPoint and OneNote. This might solve the problem for some people, but there are doubts as to whether the web PowerPoint will be as powerful as OpenOffice Impress.

• FOUR – Interface

  The three interchangeable color themes and the ribbon interface in Microsoft Office makes the whole thing look very appealing. All the tools are structured very well in the ribbon interface. Ribbon is definitely a more advanced way of sorting things. Microsoft has also implemented the ribbon across each single app in Office 2010. Things are hard to find, especially if you do not already know where they are.

• THREE – Value

  If you have the money or funds to buy Office 2010, it is definitely of great value. If you do not have to make any presentations, the starter edition would be perfect for you. The PDF export option is available for both products and each one of them can handle ODT. If you are an OpenOffice.org user, there is no particular reason why you should go for Office 2010, unless you need a specific app, like Publisher, SharePoint.

• TWO – Easiness

  The majority of people in the world are tied to the Office universe. In this context,Office 2010 has a nice platform to make its mark as users are already to a good extent familiar with its structure and functioning. The Ribbon theoretically should make things easy to find, although some people might be challenged by it. Office 2010 is generally easy to use, unless you are doing some crazy stuff. It will take you some time to master all the tricks associated with Office 2010 as it is more complex than MS Office, but it is definitely a lot faster.

• ONE –  User interface

  Both the suites have been lauded for their user interface in the past, albeit for different reasons, and now their incarnations aim to continue that trend. The interfaces are of varying strengths and weaknesses, and there is no clear winner between the two. A reason for preferring one interface to another can be arrived at based on the comfort level that you have with a particular type.

There is no clear advantage of one suite over the other, mainly because it depends on the edition you buy for Office 2010 and it might or might not exceed OpenOffice 3.1.