Download openoffice and play with it, it's free. It's not a Mac-like program, that's for sure, but there's a lot of great open source software out there that runs on the Mac: Gimp vs. Photoshop, Inkscape vs. Freehand, openoffice vs. MS Office, R vs. SPSS. I've been using all of those lately rather than their commercial counterparts, and it's great!
What are you intending to do with it? My limited experience with open office is that it works but the point of being on a mac in the first place is that I want to use Mac-like programs. If I wanted to use Linux-like programs I would run Linux.
There are a couple word processors that are very mac-like (Nisus Writer Express, Mellel, Pages; each has its own strengths). Keynote is an excellent replacement for PowerPoint. Excel is the only Microsoft product I don't mind using. No other spreadsheets really have all the functions I use. Still there are a few basic spreadsheets out there (Mesa is very mac-like but they don't seem to be actively developing it any more; Mariner isn't bad).
i don't want to buy anything that has microsoft on it, and i'm not sure if i should buy applewroks or download openoffice.org? please help.
OOo needs to be run in X11 so it won't look and feel like a Mac OS X application. There is NeoOffice/J which is a port of OOo to use Java where ever OOo is using X11 libs (like gtk and that), and it runs like a normal OS X app. I'm not a fan of OOo 1.x line, but 2.0 looks a lot better and a lot more compatability has been put it, also they now have a Access like database (called Base) and that is powered by Java (the FOSS community cracked a big stink about it). I'm not sure if OOo 2.0.x is available for Macs.
Don't buy Appleworks, what ever you do. I have no idea why Apple still sells that POS. Pages does a pretty decent job of opening Word files, if that's what you need. It you just want a nice writing app, try out Nisus Writer Express or Mellel.
I recommend VI, just open up a terminal and type "vi". You know your cool when you deliver complete 2000+ word proposals written in a terminal window, goose bumps. Long live Wordstar!
I recommend VI, just open up a terminal and type "vi". You know your cool when you deliver complete 2000+ word proposals written in a terminal window, goose bumps. Long live Wordstar!
If you're using VI, how about writing the document in LaTeX, forget this stupid Word stuff
If you're using VI, how about writing the document in LaTeX, forget this stupid Word stuff
Looks pretty interesting, by wouldn't someone just use XML and write a nice CSS? This just looks like another markup-language or am I missing something?
Comments
There are a couple word processors that are very mac-like (Nisus Writer Express, Mellel, Pages; each has its own strengths). Keynote is an excellent replacement for PowerPoint. Excel is the only Microsoft product I don't mind using. No other spreadsheets really have all the functions I use. Still there are a few basic spreadsheets out there (Mesa is very mac-like but they don't seem to be actively developing it any more; Mariner isn't bad).
Originally posted by WH4T
i don't want to buy anything that has microsoft on it, and i'm not sure if i should buy applewroks or download openoffice.org? please help.
OOo needs to be run in X11 so it won't look and feel like a Mac OS X application. There is NeoOffice/J which is a port of OOo to use Java where ever OOo is using X11 libs (like gtk and that), and it runs like a normal OS X app. I'm not a fan of OOo 1.x line, but 2.0 looks a lot better and a lot more compatability has been put it, also they now have a Access like database (called Base) and that is powered by Java (the FOSS community cracked a big stink about it). I'm not sure if OOo 2.0.x is available for Macs.
Originally posted by Relic
I recommend VI, just open up a terminal and type "vi". You know your cool when you deliver complete 2000+ word proposals written in a terminal window, goose bumps. Long live Wordstar!
If you're using VI, how about writing the document in LaTeX, forget this stupid Word stuff
Originally posted by wgauvin
If you're using VI, how about writing the document in LaTeX, forget this stupid Word stuff
Looks pretty interesting, by wouldn't someone just use XML and write a nice CSS? This just looks like another markup-language or am I missing something?