I have StarOffice 5.2 and have used it extensively. It is a good package but
it is HUGE. It's one fault is simply that it has everything built into it so
that when you start staroffice, you aren't simply starting the wordprocessor,
but you are also starting the spreadsheet app, the graphics app, the
presentation app, etc.
I have used it quite a bit mainly because of its compatibilities with Word
and other M$ office apps. The one shortcoming it has, in my book, which has
since led me to use Lyx as my primary wordprocessor, is no
citation/bibliography capability. With Word or Wordperfect (on windoze) you
can buy EndNote and write nice research papers complete with citations and
automagically generated bibliography pages. StarOffice cannot do this - any
citations you make have to be hand-written and organized (a hideous
proposition if you are citing many sources). The ONLY wordprocessing app for
linux that can do essentially what the combo of Word and EndNote can do in
windoze is Lyx with pybliographic or sixpack. It is this one thing that
prevents me from using staroffice exclusively.
I actually sent Sun a suggestion that they add a bibliography capability to
StarOffice, and ultimately they did - sortof. It can handle only the
bibliography part, via the builtin database, but it doesn't in any way, shape
or form work the way EndNote does with Word or Wordperfect. The
bibliographies you might create within the StarOffice suite cannot be used to
auto-generate citations and reference pages.
Anyway, the suite is good, works well. If you do not need to write papers
requiring a lot of citations and reference pages, then it is more than
adequate. Otherwise, I would suggest you take the time to learn how to work
with Lyx and pybliographic.
On Monday 23 April 2001 18:22, Neal Lippman wrote:
> Any users of StarOffice out there who can comment on it? I can really use
> something compatible with MS Word 2000; KWord just cannot cut it at this
> point and there really is no choice but to be compatible with the MS world
> from time to time, when I have to bring work home.
>
> Neal
--
Against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain.
