Microsoft Office and Open Office have so many similarities, that for the average user, choosing one over the other can be a confusing task. After all, don’t they essentially do the same things? I would say that with respect to the average user, the answer is yes. An average student/office worker would most-likely be interested in things such as basic spelling/grammar checking, inserting footnotes, and some basic text formatting. However, the average network administrator in an IT department may be very interested in being able to administer application settings, which makes MS Office the clear winner. Then there is the advanced user who has invested heavily in mastering MS Office over the course of several years. For those advanced users, the choice is also clear. However, I believe such advanced users are only a tiny minority and the days of the overly controlling network admin are on their way out.
The most compelling difference between Office 2013 and Open Office 3 is that Office 2013 is shifting into a service model instead of being a standalone product suite. Anyone can register for a Microsoft live account and use several office applications for free right from the web browser without any installation required. This account also includes free storage, access from any computer and the ability to easily collaborate with others. As long as a user can access the skydrive website, it does not matter how much a network admin at school/work restricts the features, settings, etc. of the desktop version of MS Office, users can work with all their settings in tact without the interference of IT. However, if that same user wants to use Open Office instead, the person will have to convince the IT department at school/work to install the program on their computer. This represents a much more cumbersome and unreliable process in comparison to just visiting a website.
The second most compelling thing about Office 2013 is that easier is better. Most computers today still come with MS Office already installed, even if it’s the starter edition. Chances are also pretty good that the person’s school/work PC will also have Office installed and if they use an android tablet or windows tablet, they can access those same word documents via the web browser. Although a similar situation can be done with Open Office, the process is less smooth. First you would have to install the program yourself on your new computer. If the application is not available in your school/work computer, then you can still edit the .odt files with MS Office, but I have found that the document starts to have formatting issues and/or broken text when using both programs to edit the file. If you would like to edit your document in a web browser, you may be better off using google docs which uses the same document format by default. However, google docs does not have the same level of integration with Open Office that Microsoft Office has with skydrive. This means that editing your .odt file stored in google docs requires a little more legwork. You must download the file, then open it with open office to make changes, then upload it back to google docs. While you’re at it, you should really be doing this with google chrome, which is designed with google docs compatibility in mind. Lastly, if you need to send your completed document to someone, chances are that they will want a word version of it. Saving your .odt file to .docx is not always a reliable process and you can end up with broken text. Your best bet may be to send the file as a .pdf which will keep your text and formatting in tact, but then make your document read-only to anyone who just has acrobat reader.
Moral of the story? Easier is better, and although you can accomplish your basic word editing tasks with either program, your interest in working anytime/anywhere will likely be the deciding factor on which is the best program for you to use. If you only need to edit documents on your home computer, then perhaps Open Office is the better choice. Unlike Microsoft Office, you can keep updating/upgrading the product suite so that it is using the latest and greatest version. With MS Office, your updates are generally free but upgrading to the next level is usually fairly pricey. At the time of this writing, a retail copy of Office 2010 Professional goes for $349.95.
Reference:
- office.microsoft.com/en-us/office365-sharepoint-online-small-business-help/difference
- www2.buyoffice.microsoft.com/usa/default.aspx?cache=717722014&culture;=en-us
