NeoOffice

Same Song, Another Verse (NeoOffice)

        John Carter to the rescue.  A question on NeoOffice brought this speedy reply. "Documents written with Pages will not come up in NeoOffice, OpenOffice, LibreOffice, or MS Office.

        "Documents written with MS Word will come up in NeoOffice, but there may be some formatting changes.
        "The only reason to use NeoOffice is if you don’t have MS Office and you want to create a document that can be shared with MS Office users in the .doc format — but you have to keep the formatting simple and use only standard fonts like Arial, Courier, Times, Helvetica, etc.
       "Personally, I have MS Office but only for tutoring purposes. I use Pages for PMUG documents and NeoOffice for everything else. Pages is not a real document processor and NeoOffice is."  So, now we know more than we did.  Thanks, John. 

What to Know About NeoOffice

        John Carter recommends NeoOffice.  He explains, "Here’s something good to know about NeoOffice:   NeoOffice includes the following open source software:

  • OpenOffice.org and Apache OpenOffice
  • LibreOffice
  • Akua icons
  • NeoOffice icons and images
  • Minizip
  • Mac remote control
  • The main difference between NeoOffice and OpenOffice or LibreOffice is that NeoOffice is built specifically for the Mac.
  • Another main difference is that NeoOffice launches MUCH faster than LibreOffice.
Here are features in NeoOffice that are not found in OpenOffice or LibreOffice:
NeoOffice :: Open at Launch menu to open Calc or Impress instead of Writer at launch
  • File :: Browse All Versions menu to restore previous versions of your documents
  • Native file locking to safely edit files in iCloud Drive, Dropbox, or network drives
  • Native Mac OS X grammar checking
  • Native Mac OS X text highlighting
  • Support for Mac OS X Services
  • Native floating tool windows
  • Menus open when no documents are open
  • Command-clicking on window titlebar
(Go to neooffice.org to get details on those features.)
        "NeoOffice can be freely copied. However, it is only available in the Apple App Store for download, and that copy you have to pay for. Hence, a copy of NeoOffice installed on another computer can only be updated from the App Store, and that would require the original owner’s Apple ID and password.
        "The developers of NeoOffice believe that they have produced a more stable and secure version of LibreOffice or OpenOffice.
       "Hence, NeoOffice is much more impressive as a tool than either OpenOffice or LibreOffice. A document written with NeoOffice will open in MS Office, OpenOffice, and LibreOffice. However, when opened in MS Office the formatting may change. My personal experience with all four products convinces me that NeoOffice is the best way to go for a Mac user.
        Thanks to John we know a lot more than we did at the beginning of his report.

NeoOffice Now Available at App Store

        John Carter has some good news.  "In the past, NeoOffice (which contains a full featured word processor nearly identical to Word in MS Office) was available for a nominal fee of $10, which presumably had to be renewed every year. NeoOffice is now available in the App Store for $29.99, and presumably all future updates will be FREE. I would expect this to apply to minor updates, but major updates might come with a fee (and discounted if you own a previous version).

         "If you decide to get the FREE version as indicated in the image, please note that you won’t be able to save changes — or save a new document. It is therefore a read-only version.
       " If you already have NeoOffice installed, there is nothing for you to do. You will still receive notices when an update is available, but now you will no longer be bothered with having to login to get the update. I might expect that when the next major update comes along that you will be asked to pay for it — but you can continue using your current version.
       " LibreOffice, and its precursor OpenOffice, works equally well on PCs as it does on a Mac, whereas NeoOffice runs only an a Mac. There is almost no difference between LibreOffice or OpenOffice and NeoOffice. Unlike LibreOffice or OpenOffice, NeoOffice runs natively on Mac OS X. Since it’s inception in 2003, the NeoOffice engineers - Patrick Luby and Ed Peterlin - have continually added improvements to NeoOffice that users will not find in OpenOffice or LibreOffice such as:
• The option to open Calc or Impress instead of Writer at launch
• Works with Mac OS X Gatekeeper
• Works with Mac OS X Versions
• Native Mac OS X text highlighting
• Native file locking support for local and networked volumes
• Mac OS X Services support
• Native floating tool windows
       John has more info here:  "If you find that some of the above features are not working in your current version of NeoOffice, then purchasing NeoOffice from the App Store will make those features available.
     "LibreOffice does ask for a donation when you initially download it, but you can still get the app if you choose not to donate and nothing will be disabled.
    "One word of caution about LibreOffice: Do NOT download it from anywhere other than www.libreoffice.org. If you do a Google search for libreoffice, be sure that the site you go to is the authentic place.
     "One user has reported that NeoOffice has been acting up lately. Switching to LibreOffice resolved that issue, and there were no noticeable differences.
     "How NeoOffice (or LibreOffice) differ from Pages is fairly significant. For one, Pages does not have a feature to include cross references in a document. That feature is only useful for serious authors. For two, it is much easier with greater flexibility to manage the properties of a picture or other object in NeoOffice/LibreOffice. Pages does have an extensive assortment of templates to work with whereas NeoOffice/LibreOffice have only a few.
     "LibreOffice loads much faster than NeoOffice. Patience will be needed when downloading either one. If you download LibreOffice, you then have to install it and then remove (eject) its presence in the Devices section of Finder and then delete the .DMG file in your Downloads folder. If you purchase NeoOffice from the App Store, installation is automatic and there is no clean up to do.
     "For as long as LibreOffice is free, that is the app that I will be recommending."
    And John concludes with,  "The choice is yours."

Seeing Stars & Planets

        This month's Prescott Astronomy Club meeting on October 5 will feature John Carter and his presentation, "Planets in Motion."  The meetings are always held at the Prescott Public Library in the Founders Suite from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. every first Wednesday of the month.  John will be using his MacBook Pro; his slides were created using NeoOffice.  Take a look at NeoOffice here.  "All are welcome," John announces.

Office, Free?

Some of you may have decided to download NeoOffice for all of your Documentation, Presentation, and Spreadsheet needs (because it's free). Now what? John Carter shares some details here.

"Would you like to get to know this application a little better? What better way than with a tutorial that guides you through several practice items for each type of document? You can get this tutorial online as an eBook in PDF format here.

"That site contains links to several documents in the section labelled 'Download Documentation.' The one I recommend is OpenOffice.org 3x Conceptual Guides to get a thorough treatment of all aspects of NeoOffice. Please download any and all documents that pique your interest. And don't forget to grab the OpenOffice Lesson Files (a zip file that you have to unzip) that go with the OpenOffice.org 3x Conceptual Guides. Download all these files to the same folder in your hard drive where you can easily access them.

"Even though these documents are written for OpenOffice, they will work for NeoOffice. The differences will be slight, if any, and the compatibility is 100%.

"There are significant advantages to using NeoOffice over OpenOffice, mainly speed and in additional features added specifically for the Mac.

"The NeoOffice documentation shows how to create a PDF file using 'File->Export as PDF...', but sometimes that method doesn't result in a 100% accurate rendition of the file. The method I prefer to create a PDF file is to use File->Print, then select 'Save as PDF...' from the PDF button in the first print window:

"This gives you a 100% compatible output with the way it looks on the screen."
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