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Big Dog Joined: 18 Oct 2000 Posts: 4419

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Original Article - http://www.littlewhitedog.com/reviews_other_00006.asp

Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2004 5:14 pm Post subject:

Has anybody used a recent version of StarOffice? I've used OpenOffice, but never StarOffice.

Guide Dog Joined: 08 Nov 2003 Posts: 9204 Location: MN

depends on what you mean by recent... I used the last fre version they had out... it will do most everything most other office apps will but I thought it was very poorly layed out. (this was 2-3 years ago though) ....

Stray Dog Joined: 21 Nov 2007 Posts: 3

(a long time ago) Rover wrote:
StarOffice offers something MS Office does not and I'm still undecided on the issue. I'm talking about it's integration/takeover of the desktop.

I came across this (well-written happy3

) review with a Google search, and have seen, many times, that StarOffice "takes over your Desktop." I suspect Sun dropped the suite's integrated Desktop feature because many felt the same way.

I can't figure why I've never, ever, seen a single review written as follows: "although it takes your single Windows Desktop, in return it gives back as many Multiple (virtual) Desktops as you care to create." At the moment, I am running fourteen, but no confusion is created as the most frequently accessed Desktops are automatically sorted to the top of the list. Desktops are customized with background color, choice of font, color of font and an identifying image that can be placed anywhere.

Where is the list? Right-click the Desktop icon. There are two defaults, the StarOffice Desktop and a replica of the Windows Desktop. You create the rest.

Of course, when one wants to get back to the OS's (single!) Desktop, it's as fast as <WinKey><M> and then to come back, <WinKey><Shift><M>. So if there is something to be done (usually regarding some OS function) on the Windows Desktop, it's not so far away.

As far as I know, no other office suite has this feature. Vista doesn't have it. There are OS add-ons, but they're not as well integrated with the software, as are the StarOffice modules. Linux has the feature, but I think their number is more limited, and I'm not sure if their integration is as good.

Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2007 2:50 pm Post subject:

There's an interesting comment from an interesting new poster. Your command of the English language is excellent from someone posting from outside of the native English speaking world. Especially resurrecting one very old subject. Although you do bring up a very studied point.

We really should do a review of OpenOffice vs StarOffice now. That review, and yes, Rover did some excellent writing and we still miss him, but that review is indeed rather old. We've been around a half a dog's age in real years, let along internet years. Again it surprises me indeed that an obviously real-person post comes in on this particular article. So, I apologise in advance if I am displaying skepticism, or at least some O_o regarding this out-of-the-blue post.

But I'm sure the Pound will feel free to reply. It should.

Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2007 8:16 pm Post subject:

Star Office goes out of bounds with the control it takes. I have other
software that can provide multiple desktops, if and when I want them.
When I open Open Office, all I want is a spreadsheet or word processor.
That's it. I don't want or need anything else. This is the same unnerving
crap that MicroSoft was pulling when they were fighting Lotus SmartSuite
for market share. All I want is for the program to open, quickly, and all
we keep getting is BloatWare, that takes too long.

I especially don't want unnecessary crap in the SysTray.

/SoapBox

Stray Dog Joined: 21 Nov 2007 Posts: 3

Great! Someone remembers StarOffice5.2:

ThunderDawg wrote:
Star Office goes out of bounds with the control it takes.

Or "took." Sun agreed, and removed the integrated Desktop, and all its features. Schedule and Mail were removed, as well. So a review of the current version would not cover these features.

Eventually the program will have to be replaced, mostly because of its reliance on Internet Explorer, tightly integrated into the suite because it was considered state-of-the-art when SO5.2 was released. When IE crashes, it brings down the suite ... not as terrible as it sounds, because StarOffice is always making backups and (usually) saves open windows from the last successful shut-down.

Question

Has anyone who is/was familiar with the operation of StarOffice5.2 discovered a way to duplicate its functions with up-to-date components? The missing parts in current open-source suites are integrated E-mail and Scheduling.

For example,
Question

is there any combination of open-source alternatives, that would allow dragging a Bookmark for a message located in a Mailbox, a message in progress, or for a web page being displayed in a browser, or some other object of any type, completed or in progress, into a reminder in a scheduling program, that is set to pop-up and remind the user to continue work with one these objects at a certain time, on a certain day?

The page, E-mail, or whatever linked object should be opened directly from that Bookmark ... and, all this should be done relatively easily, under a unified interface. The scheduling program should be at least as well-designed and easy to use at the one included with StarOffice.

This is of course not an attempt to describe the limits of StarOffice, but is just a simplified example. I don't want to complicate it with things I rarely do, such as E-mail or network notification to a list of other users, etc, etc. Suffice it to say, almost any variation of the above that one tries, just works ...

Twisted Evil

Or, should I just go back to little slips of paper all over the place that keep getting lost, or notes on the calendar that I forget to look at?

As I said, the program will at some point have to be replaced. It's about seven years old, and I hope there is by now other software available that can duplicate its capabilities.
Exclamation

Any suggestions will be welcome, whether under Windows or, for the future, Linux.

Stray Dog Joined: 21 Nov 2007 Posts: 3

RonCam wrote:
Has anyone who is/was familiar with the operation of StarOffice5.2 discovered a way to duplicate its functions with up-to-date components?

To answer all those clamouring (are we British?) for a response, and because the folks here are clearly "nice people" I have come across the answer and will share it, under the heading of "the old new thing:"

It will be OpenOffice integrated with Evolution.

I believe the latter also has a Windows port, but to run with multiple virtual Desktops, it would have to be on Linux (or Windows hacked, if one ~~has~~ wants to stay with that). From my limited exposure to Linux' Multiple Desktops, I think StarOffice's implementation is more functional, but that could be just that it takes getting used to for something that works differently.

At the moment there is work-in-progress on integrating the Address Books of both programs. I would hope the integration develops to the point where you can drag any type of bookmark from just about anywhere in the Suite into Task and Schedule, and vice-versa, and then we will be approaching the functionality of StarOffice5.2.

If anyone involved in the SO-Evolution project Googles across this, please give us direct or simple transfer of StarOffice Task, Schedule and Address Book data, as well as getting the StarOffice Inboxes and Outboxes into Evolution -- without corrupting anything.

Aren't you glad you asked?
Razz

[quote="RonCam"]

RonCam wrote:
... for a response, and because the folks here are clearly "nice people" ...

/me raises hand.

I'm not.

/Akely

Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2008 6:05 pm Post subject:

Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2008 10:20 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the update. I've been meaning to put together another OpenOffice review but so many things to do, so little time to procrastinate about them.