BRANDON MOL  I've been using Go-OO http://go-oo.org/ which is an improved-upon build of OpenOffice 3.1.1 with native aqua interface. After installing the newest NeoOffice on Snow Leopard, I noticed immediately that NeoOffice feels LESS Mac-Like and has LESS native GUI gadgets than the Go-OO build of OpenOffice. The NeoOffice build launches a half second faster or so but lacks many features from Go-OO. All of the things that the NeoOffice team point out on their wiki as differentiating themselves from OpenOffice are no longer valid (save a few very minor things that affect only a small number of users), particularly with Go-OO as of version 3.1.1.

I used to be a big fan of NeoOffice, but now its dead. I just don't see any reason to use it rather than Go-OO.

Besides, which, NeoOffice is always at least one major version behind.  
(Version 3.0.1)

LUBA  Snow Leopard "... caused all previous versions of NeoOffice to fail to install or fail to launch. This release is the first NeoOffice release that should install and launch on Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard."

Well, I've been running NeoOffice 2.2.5 Patch 14 and I seem to not been having any issues whatsoever with Snow Leopard.  
(Version 3.0.1)

KLAGRECA  New version effectively leaps past OpenOffice with new features and performance enhancements. Nice work!   
(Version 3.0.1)

JAZZADDICT  Can't use the app. When I start typing it hangs and I get a popup saying it can't contact the Spell Checker. Not sure what's up. I have the latest build running on 10.5 on my PPC. I disable my firewall and little snitch but to no avail. Any ideas what's causing this behavior. Thanks. :-)  
(Version 3.0 patch 7)

EASER  My wife is taking a course that requires her to access her professor's PowerPoint lectures. Those lectures require the use of special international fonts. I installed those fonts on her MacBook Pro and opened the lectures using MS PowerPoint for Mac. Nothing came out correctly, no matter what I tried. Restarts. Permission repairs. You name it. In desperation, I opened the lectures in Neo Office. Everything worked perfectly. This tells me all I need to know about whether I intend to keep investing in Microsoft. I don't think so. If you've never encountered the FREE Neo Office, give it a look.   
(Version 3.0 patch 7)

OPETER  NeoOffice website is down (I think because they cannot pay for the domain and webspace, thats why they are asking for donation).

In the meantime, here is a website, where you can download NeoOffice:

ftp://ftp.uio.no/pub/neooffice/

Please consider to donate some money to the team of NeoOffice.  
(Version 3.0 patch 7)

DOKTER_MAC  Yesterday I tried to patch NeoOffice, which is by the way a very good program and I use it a lot, and the patch failed to update. It was patch 6.

Then I installed version 3.0 from scratch, because patch 6 messed up the program, and I was getting a message that patch 7 was out. So there was something wrong with patch 6 like I've thought and experianced...

Anyway, I installed patch 7 with succes and now NeoOffice (patched to 7) crashes almost all the time on startup... Sometimes the program starts normal after 6 or 7 crashes and works normal?

I believe this patch 7 is a quick fix for patch 6 and that a patch 8 will follow very soon because something is wrong with the last two patches (6 and 7).

So for the moment I installed a clean 3.0 again (works like a charme on 10.5.8) and I'm waiting for patch 8.

Again, NeoOffice is one the programs I'm often use and I Iove it!!! So 5 stars from me!!!

It's always possible that something is going wrong during an update, we are only humans and we all make mistakes ;-). So no harm done, I'm still a big fan of the NeoOffice Project and all the great developers!!! Thanks a lot for the effort, the great program, etc. !!!

Greets.  
(Version 3.0 patch 7)

MAXEMOM   An interesting thing has happened to me: I have practically "lived" in MS Excel and MS Word during most of my work days for 12+ years now, finding MS Office somewhat bloated and not the most nimble software, but useable and getting the job done nonetheless for the most part, then I sort of "stumbled" upon NeoOffice (more or less by accident) several months ago (as a favor to one of my family member who had asked me to evaluate the whole suite for her).

Not only was I able to transition seamlessly on a wide variety of large Excel sheets, as well as MS Word brochures, booklets and contracts, but I've had (and felt) no need to "return" to MS Office... for 2 months now.

NeoOffice (and the docs you feed it) are quite nimble and stable, plenty powerful for my (probably above average) needs, and has not left me wanting for features to get my work done. At this time, I can't find a reason why I would need to "go back"...

Also in my opinion, comparing the iWork suite to NeoOffice is a bit like comparing a BMW to a Kia Rio: iWork is fine if you just need a car to go to your local supermarket everyday, butI can assure you that, for my professional needs, Pages and Tables would barely get me out of the driveway !

Staying with the same analogy, The MS Office suite is probably a Hummer !

We need to be extremely grateful to the people behind NeoOffice.org: They've put together a superb set of intuitive, productive and stable tools, which are basically free !

The frequent updates are a (very mild) inconvenience, and I appreciate the ongoing improvements.

Just my 2 cents... (In case you are wondering: I am not connected in any way to the NeoOffice people, except as a grateful recipient of all their hard work).  
(Version 3.0 patch 7)

DONMONTALVO  I have to agree. I'm a contributor to the NeoOffice application. But the frequent updates are a little disappointing. I would rather see quarterly patches.

I'm getting used to Pages and Numbers. Hoping to see a database solution rolled in as well (Bento is NOT a database solution - and FileMaker Pro is overkill for iWork).

Don Montalvo  
(Version 3.0 patch 6)

WASTEDYUTHE  I stopped using this and use Apple's own iWork- this software is constantly updating, which some might see as a good thing. But it got to the stage that when ever I'd load it up, there'd be a new update to download, and it got very annoying.  
(Version 3.0 patch 5)

JUST A USER  Tried to use it together with Documents To Go on my iPhone, but neither .doc nor .docx is compatible between those to (to those who wonder about that as well: Nisus is compatible with DTG, so is MS Office.)  
(Version 3.0 patch 5)

EIRESURG  Excellent software. Don't buy Office or whatever they have for Mac. This is opensource and offers software that basically does what Excel, Word and Powerpoint do. In fact, you can make xls, ppt and doc files that you can transfer and use on Microsoft-based computers. Great stuff!

My ONLY criticism is that it is slow to load. That is why I give it a 4/5.  
(Version 3.0 patch 4)

RSNS  I have been a user of NeoOffice for about 18 months. It performs very well and I even write technical books with it. In my view it compares favourably with Word, mainly in its ability to write long texts, in many parts. I would have liked a bit more of typographic sophistication (as in, say, Mellel or, better, Framemaker), but it is, anyway, better than Word in that respect.

I upgraded to version 3, but the program felt very slow. As I only have 1G RAM, (but an Intel processor) I thought this could be the reason.

I downgraded to 2.5, and all is well again.

..  
(Version 3.0 patch 3)

EASER  I won't give this a rating because I probably don't work with all of the features than many writers do. For my personal needs, it's a 5-star program. I never really investigated NeoOffice before. I used it primarily to simply open Word Perfect or MS Works documents and convert them. But I recently became dissatisfied with MS Word, mostly because it won't do background scrolling and I need that frequently. Pages was okay, but every time I opened a .doc or other non-Pages document, I had to put up with the annoying "save" message. I've also worked with TextEdit and Nisus Express, but they do not always translate Word documents. In all instances, NeoOffice has faithfully displayed Word documents the way that Word would display them.

I also had the problem of using other, non-Word programs and saving them in .doc or .docx formats, and Word would never render those documents the same way as I created them. But I created a simple document with NeoOffice, including images and such, and saved it in .doc format. Word displayed the document exactly the same way that NeoOffice did. I was impressed.

I initially also avoided using NeoOffice because prior to version 3, it was way too slow. But as others have said, version 3 is much faster. I have now made this my primary word processor. I have yet to tinker with the spreadsheet and presentation features, but I am certainly optimistic.   
(Version 3.0)

DMU  I've been an avid user for more than a year and have donated to the project more than once. But once 3.0 came out, I can no longer use this. When using a table, 5 rows are added to the bottom of the table every time I Save and Close. Suddenly I was printing blank pages and discovered all of these ghost rows that went on to another page. So I opened the document in Word and all of my work was completely gone. Erratic behavior mixed with Word users unable to view my documents, means I can't use it. I'll miss you NeoOffice. I hope you come back to your senses soon.  
(Version 3.0)

ELIEZER_SEGAL  MS Office has reached a stage where it is simply not usable anymore. Not only can it not handle right-to-left languages (and has no plans to ever do so...), but it cannot even read my old Word documents (e.g., text in text-boxes does not show up on the screen!). The current Neooffice Writer seems to be completely compatible--my demanding Word files load up perfectly so far. At this point the main shortcoming is a lack of choices for bibliography/footnoting software. I am restricted to Zotero, which is a fine app., but the plugin chokes on large bibliographies. Hopefully that well-known bug will be repaired soon.  
(Version 3.0)

BURAK  Activity Monitor (in Leopard, PPC) has reported 185 MB real memory usage with a 264 pages long text document and this has risen to 192 MB without doing anything. Openoffice.org 3.1.0 (http://tinyurl.com/dk9qbf) uses 98 MB with the same document.  
(Version 3.0)

THELONIOUSMONK045  With version 2.2.5, this piece of software was coming into its stride for my needs--a word processor to replace Word. With the latest update to 3.0, however, I've lost interoperability with Word using the .docx file format, as .docx files saved from NeoOffice can neither be viewed with QuickLook (it just shows file type and info) nor opened with Word (says "There is a problem opening the file"). Anyone else having the same issues, or is this a case of dreaded user error?  
(Version 3.0)

RS2RUSS   Despite being a great fan of Claris/AppleWorks/iWorks, this is my preferred DTP package now, simply because almost everyone I esned stuff to/ recieve from uses Micro$oft Word and iWorks is not totally compatible.

I have tried OpenOffice several times (even donated once!) but it is too slow (even on my 2.5 GHz CoreDuo MacBookPro, never mind my older machines!). I was reticent about NeoOffice, being based on that pile of molasses, but it seems as fast as iWorks to me and the compatibility is a clincher.

I have deleted M$ bloatware and iWorks from my hard-drive because NeoOffice can do it all - fantastic work guys, donation inbound!  
(Version 2.2.5p7)

ORION MK. V  Just keeps getting better. Good suite now and free. I tried it initially because I couldn't cut-n-past Word 2008 files into Dreamweaver, so I used NeoO to do it. After I got used the suite -- and it evolved a bit -- it's now my tool of choice. Not perfect, but ever-evolving.  
(Version 2.2.5p7)

SPARTAN  Best word processor imho, plus it is open and free. Very fast with an Intel CPU, and pretty good on a PPC. Reliable and really easy to use. 5/5

Many thanks for this OS X port.  
(Version 2.2.5p5)

BRUMM  After a very slow start it is very fast,

it's the better product, I trashed OpenOffice Aqua  
(Version 2.2.5p2)

OPETER  I did try the new OpenOffice 3.0 Auqa (the final version), but it is so slooow, compared to NeoOffice 2.2.5p2 on my Mac mini C2D 1,83 GHz with 4 GB RAM (!), that there is no chance, that i will switch from NeoOffice to OO.org 3.0.

I mean, the responsivenes of opening up a Word document (DOC), the scrolling of pages... OO.org Auqa is simply unbelivalbe slow.

Respect to developers, but I am staying with NeoOffice.  
(Version 2.2.5p2)

QUICKBEN  Now that Open Office is out for MacOS, I think I'll switch to it--not. The guys at Neo have been plugging along for a while and have a great program. No reason at all to switch that I can think of. Plus, I sent them a donation for their fine work, so I'm an investor. :)  
(Version 2.2.5p2)

SAMPLER  OS X 10.4.11 PB G4

I've used the Writer, Spreadsheet, and Data Base modules, and all have been solid. I find Writer very fast, even with relatively large documents (~5 MB, footnotes, illustrations, many tables). Conversion to and from rtf has been excellent. The only difficult that I encountered was that the page numbers in the Table of Contents (created in Word, saved as rtf)did not transfer. However I let Writer re-index the document and it created all of the TOC except where the TOC Bookmark was missing in the original.

In contrast, OpenOffice RC3 for Aqua crashed as I was closing three open windows of small documents.  
(Version 2.2.5p1)

MSWFUJOWDFFYC  This is such a good program and getting better all the time. It took a while to hit its stride, but now it seems to be mature enough that they're adding lots of interesting features to the suite instead of simply trying to make it work properly. There really is no reason not to keep a copy lying around, whether or not you have another productivity suite.

If you don't have any office software already, this is the place to start. NeoOffice is free, it runs great, it's very compatible, and it's learning new Mac-native tricks with every patch. It's far easier to install and use than OpenOffice for X11, more mature and stable than OpenOffice Aqua, and more feature-rich than most of the other independent word-processor products.

And even if you have Microsoft Office or iWork (or something else), it's still worth keeping an eye on, and maybe keeping it around for some of the things your regular suite can't do (or can't do as well or as easily). Sort of like keeping two browsers around. You can (legally) hand it out to people if you're getting complaints about these new-fangled docx, xlsx and pptx files you're sending people, or to give your students or your friends/relatives who are on a budget.  
(Version 2.2.3 patch 6)

SCOTTDB  Try deleting your font caches. I use Linotype Fontexplorer to manage my fonts. It has an option to delete application specific caches, as well as the system caches. Always fixes weird font issues for me, regardless of the application.  
(Version 2.2.3 patch 5)

ORDER2  After upgrading to N.O. patch 4, all my NeoOffice documents containing the Helvetica font (I use a Helvetica postscript font stored in the system font folder for my prepress work) were displayed and printed incorrectly, looking more like chinese or whatever, thus being unusable. All other fonts seemed to work. Swapping the Helvetica postscript with the default truetype dfont didn't seem to help. But, after reverting back to NeoOffice patch 3 version from a backup hd, documents containing Helvetica displayed and printed correctly again. So, use with care.  
(Version 2.2.3 patch 4)

DONMONTALVO  As always, a welcome patch from a great opensource group. Kudos to the whole NeoOffice gang...every single one of you who put in the effort to give us a problem free, versitile, powerful and FREE office suite that is fully compatible with MicroSnort Orifice.

Don Montalvo, NYC  
(Version 2.2.3 patch 4)

RATTUS  I'm a student currently trying to wean myself off MS Office by running NeoOffice and the Aqua beta of OpenOffice.

I must say, I'm pleased with Neo: it seems more stable (both MS and Open have wigged out on me) and the little touches like nice menu and file icons are cool.

I hope NeoOffice keeps updating once OpenOffice Aqua comes out of beta. I think it will be a similar situation as it is with Firefox and Camino. The multiplatform version is great but the mac-specific version is nicer :-)  
(Version 2.2.3 patch 3)

TOURNESOL  Great update. Media browser is really welcome.  
(Version 2.2.3 patch 3)

WEBGODJJ  I have been using NeoOffice for years and am quite happy with it. Speed is a real issue, however, and this is because it's a Java application.

The real question is how will NeoOffice compete now that Open Office (what this is developed upon) is now going to be native OSX program. They already have a beta out!  
(Version 2.2.3 patch 2)

BEBDABHRHBRWEFG 3R§5Y5H4WTEDSFB  hmmm... it kind of 'does what it says on the tin' and the [small] development team should be congratulated for building something that works this well in a microsoft office dominated environment - and for giving it away free.

however, i still can't bring myself to really like neooffice. like all OSX java based apps, it just feels too slow and clunky and windows-like for me to get any pleasure from using it.

i also wonder what neooffice's future is likely to be, given that apple are now busy removing java as an option from their developer tools.   
(Version 2.2.3)

ANDU  frustrated by µSoft office 2008 I returned to neooffice and I'm sooo happy with it. Great speed improvement, compatible and offers as the only alternative I know also "hidden" Text as formating option. After getting used to the way of defining shortcuts it's very easy to handle. Thanks a lot to the developers of this product.  
(Version 2.2.3)

JOHNNY ROCKET  I've never had a version of NeoOffice that could open the degree plan worksheets from my college properly. They're supposed to be 2 pages, with the notes below the table. But all versions of NeoOffice that I've tried make the notes part of the table and all in the first column so that it goes to 7 pages. Anyone else seeing this problem?

here's a link to one of the degree plan worksheets...

http://www3.austincc.edu/catalog/fy2007/degpsyc01.rtf  
(Version 2.2.3)

DONMONTALVO  This newest release, 2.2.3, addresses some GUI issues many of our users have complained about (most importantly, the lack of ability to COMMAND-click the title bar to show path to file.

Bravo, hope to see more releases - so we remain free of the Micosoft "tax".

Don Montalvo, NYC  
(Version 2.2.3)

CALL ME YO DADDY  NeoOffice does everything for me that Microsoft Office use to do on my PC. It's too bad that more Mac users simply have no idea that this excellent alternative exist. Full page ads need to be ran in Mac publications like MacWorld and MacLife.

NeoOffice's functionality is smooth and intuitive. This new updated 2.2.3 version would make any Mac user hard pressed to justify the expense of Microsoft Office 2008.   
(Version 2.2.3)

ROBOTANK  I love NeoOffice. I started using Macs about 3 years ago and I mistakenly thought that Office 2004 on my PPC machine was the best possible option. I was aware of OpenOffice.org but I didn't like the X11 feel. After upgrading to a new Intel Mac, I was looking forward to Office 08 due to 04's sluggish performance on the Intel chip. So 08 arrives and I give it a whirl and then one day it crashes my MacBook Pro in the middle of a class when I try to save my document, causing me to have to force shutdown and lose what I had written. Granted, all new software has some kinks to work out, but I would think that a company with basically unlimited resources that charges insane prices for their software could release a product that doesn't cause system crashes with something as simple as as save-as command. I'd recently become aware of NeoOffice so I decided to give it a go.

After a day of using NeoOffice I dumped Office completely. NeoOffice does everything Office used to do for me, and does it more efficiently. NeoOffice feels far less bloated than its MS counterpart. It's faster to startup and respond to commands and takes up less hard drive space and system resources than Office. I can't speak to NeoOffice's usefulness for a business environment, but I highly recommend it for casual users and students (it certainly fits our budget). Also, NeoOffice's help documentation is thorough and easy to navigate, and there is an extensive wiki available as well. The transition was painless.  
(Version 2.2.2 patch 11)

NUG  One of the issues many reluctant adopters raise about NeoOffice is the perceived lack of instructions. In fact, there is a 500 page manual free in pdf form available from the NeoOffice site via

http://sally.neooffice.org/neojava_userguide/NeoOffice_User_Guide.pdf

Peter   
(Version 2.2.2 patch 8)

SOUTHPAWAMI  I totally long for the universal distrobution that includes all the patches as a current version...

Outside of patching it often.. NeoOffice is nice when Bean or Pages won't do.   
(Version 2.2.2 patch 8)

BUBUMAC  Aqua version of OpenOffice can be found here :

http://ooopackages.good-day.net/pub/OpenOffice.org/MacOSX/

You have to go to "src_mxxx" and download the file named :

OOo_SRC680_mxxx_MacOSXIntel (or PPC)_Install_(language).dmg

Don't download a file containig X11 in it's name  
(Version 2.2.2 patch 5)

KZX72  Nice program just wish it booted up a little faster :-\  
(Version 2.2.2 patch 3)

M30318  This is a very good product and deserve users' support (minimal donations) so that the developers continue working on it.   
(Version 2.2.2 patch 3)

BEN_MARKO  Most pro users looking for a replacement for MS Office are looking for the same functionality - the same interconnectivity (even interdependency) - that MS Office offers.

Yes I should have directed my comments at OpenOffice (and I am sorry, no offence to the NeoOffice devs). But power users need that ability to interact across apps like what MS Outlook and MS Entourage offer to be able to make full use of these apps. Until then, both NeoOffice and OpenOffice will not be truly useful to anyone but small-scale users.  
(Version 2.2.2)

M-RICK  An aqua version of OpenOffice can also be gotten there

http://porting.openoffice.org/mac/download/aqua.html  
(Version 2.2.2)

BEN_MARKO  What this desperately needs is a e-mail/calendar/address book (all in one) app like MS Entourage or MS Outlook. Without it, is really isn't worth it, despite the much-touted features and all the hype.

I need such a feature as I use MS Entourage right now and it integrates right into MS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. NeoOffice, while very stable, and full of features, does not translate MS Office docs very well. Formatting is the first to go - I depend on letterheads and maargins, spacing, etc. to remain just as I had it at work (where I use MS Office). Neo Office just moves everything around the page in PowerPoint and Word docs, and forget about macros in Excel sheets.

Right now Neo Office is just good for the individual who just wants to use it at home, and just for a very limited use. Businesses need to go elsewhere if they have the same needs as I do (above).  
(Version 2.2.1 patch1)

ROBINB  This is brilliant. Period.  
(Version 2.2.1 patch1)

INFINITY DATA SYSTEMS, LLC  This software continues to amaze. Even though its being developed by just one or two individuals, its development progress, adding features at an unbelievable rate.

Its the best M$ Office alternative that exists. And I often find that it can M$ files that even Office can't open.

Well done.  
(Version 2.2.1)

ITBJORN  This version means an enormous speed improvement on a PPC. It now opens under 30 secs instead of over a minute on my old G€ 700 Mhz!  
(Version 2.2.1)

NEALNT  This version (2.2.1) took over 80 seconds to load on my G4 1.25 Ghz tower. MS Office takes 13 seconds. This has been an ongoing problem with this product.  
(Version 2.2.1)

DONMONTALVO  NeoOffice is OpenOffice minus X11. Before you decide whether to take the jump, take a moment to peruse this site:

http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Major_OpenOffice.org_Deployments

I use NeoOffice and so do all my collegues. There is simply no valid reason to pay for Microsoft Office anymore.

Don Montalvo, NYC  
(Version 2.2.1)

GN0S1S  Love it. This 2.2.1 release is amazing, with the new features it adds.

Now uses the Native Mac OS X Spellchecker and Address Book, Handles most Office 2007 files, which current versionsof Microsoft Office for Mac don't do.

Uses native Aqua menus.

No X11 software is required.

Native Mac Printing support, and clipboard support.

And, it's free.

I give it an a lower rating on Ease of Use because its menus mimick MS Office, which are not as easy to use compared to the iWork suite.  
(Version 2.2.1)

NEONBLUE2  Back when I picked up my PowerBook I tried OpenOffice.org and NeoOffice but they were so slow compared to MS Office. But now I have my MacBook Pro things are all different.

NeoOffice is so much faster than both MS Office and OpenOffice.org, it's unbelievable. It boots faster, actually responds to user input and general behaviour is a lot more user friendly.

That's not to say I don't have any annoyances though. For some reason the display doesn't refresh all that well. I had pieces of an image I'd dragged left in a crumbly path. It has also been hard trying to find some features where I'd expect to find them. It's probably because I'm so used to Office though.

And one last thing; bring out v2.2.1 quickly. The spell checker in NeoOffice doesn't work!

Hello I'm neonblue2 and I'm running a Core Duo MacBook Pro with 1.5GB of RAM...  
(Version 2.1 Patch 7)

NOWAY  Better than MS Office for Mac...

More stable and completely compatible with ANY versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint .. (PC apps) unlike MS Office for Mac

Moreover, it's lighter on your system and it's totally free. Althought you might consider a donation after you'll see how great it is.

Recommended to all of you who has to work in a PC environment or with PC users...  
(Version 2.1 Patch 7)

TEKSESTRO  Although OpenOffice.org has announced an 'official' Mac port of their software, there is still a long way to go before we can see the fruits of their labour - and then, we will have to see how that fruit compares to the already existing efforts of the excellent NeoOffice.

NeoOffice has applied several Mac-specific optimisations to the BASE OpenOffice.org code, as can be read in their update logs. Despite being a Java app, the interface is very, very Mac-like, and the package has features not found even in M$Office - such as a Database which can interface with MySQL tables.

Anyone wishing to try OpenOffice.org on the Mac, wait no longer: this is it.  
(Version 2.1 Patch 6)

JONLINK  Now that OpenOffice is being properly ported to Mac, it is hard to see the use in this project.

The developers are clearly smart, it would be great to see them team back up with the porting team  
(Version 2.1 Patch 6)

THREEDEE912  Seems to improve graphics handling alot. Just noticed the Release Notes said the same thing.

Still slower than MS Office, but getting better.  
(Version 2.1 Patch 5)

PEDRORS  Although it says PPC/Intel this patch is for PPC only.

Where is the one for Intel?  
(Version 2.1 Patch 5)

BRENDAN MCKINLEY  To MacUpdate:

Would it be possible for you to report when the NeoOffice team releases patches, instead of just major releases?

NeoOffice 2.1 is already on Patch 5, and features many fixes/improvements since the initial 2.1 release. However currently I have to manually check the NeoOffice website to be notified of incremental updates.

I am considering becoming a paying member of MacUpdate, and detailed software tracking is very helpful in my occupation.  
(Version 2.1)

MINIGUYMAC  NeoOffice is far better than anything Microsoft can create..It does not have any restrictions!! Only one small problem NeoOffice does not have user instructions in case of getting stuck. Apart from that this is a fantastic office suite...and freedom at last from microsoft!!!!!  
(Version 2.1)

JADE & SIMON  Same thing happened to me - so I don't feel so bad now. Cheers both!  
(Version 2.1)

PIZZACAKE  With this 2.1 release NeoOffice has dethroned Microsoft Office & Pages 2. Smooth and responsive on my G4 Mac Mini, I wish Pages was even half as responsive. Keynote is still a keeper though.  
(Version 2.1)

TRICIA  Regarding NeoOffice working so well with Corel WordPerfect, I wondered if my old WordPerfect documents can be opened and the formatting remain the same. Anyone know?  
(Version 2.1)

ASTERAX  I installed NeoOffice on a 500Mhz iMac running 10.4. I installed the PPC version of NeoOffice.

When I click to start NeoOffice, it bounces in the dock for a while then stops. When I right click on it, it says "Application Not Responding."

Any idea why the app is not starting up properly?  
(Version 2.1)

MIKE P.  I have a brand new MacBook laptop (Intel Core Duo). Downloaded OpenOffice without any problems. After clicking on installer (NeoOffice.pkg) had the following message: "NeoOffice cannot be installed on this computer. This package can only be installed on a PowerPC machine and cannot be instaled on an Intel-based machine." Very frustrating. Please help! I'm very new to Mac. Thanks!  
(Version 2.1)

O5220803  Well, I've contributed twice to this project. The project team delivers a truly EXCELLENT application! So, how about $upporting them? It's a really cost-effective investment, when you consider the asking-price!  
(Version 2.1)

SERGIUS  No one seems to have mentioned this and I found out by accident - this seems to be the only OS X office suite that can easily open Corel Word Perfect documents, with correct formatting, and convert them to other formats. That's wonderfully useful in a Windows-dominated environment where Corel Word Perfect is the dominant word processing application.

But for some strange reason NeoOffice doesn't seem to offer the option to save documents in Corel Word Perfect format.  
(Version 2.1)

JMH1  Took a couple of download attempts to get

a healthy dmg file.

Running NeOffice on our iMac G5(ppc) makes the computer fan scream to distraction  
(Version 2.1)

DENNIS ONSTENK  This is the version I have been wating for. I have been using a MacBook (a Core 2 Due with 1 gb ram) since January 07 and love Mac OS X. I have worked with for some years on OpenOffice on both Linux and Windows but bought MS licences because I just could not live with the sluggishnes. NeoOffice beta for Intel was just about adequate but still very very slow on an otherwise fast machine. I have been looking at ALL the alternatives (Ms Office 2004, Thinkfree, Abiword, Ms Office in Crossover, Ms Office in Parallels) and was eagerly anticipating Microsoft's Office 2008 - only because of the Intel built. I really could not care less about ribbons and icons etc.

With this release of NeoOffice I will forget Microsoft Office. This product is just great, it looks good (as good as an office app can look ;-), performs great and the ability to exchange documents in ODF, PDF or doc makes it fully compatible.

I regret not taking out the premium subscription from NeoOffice to get early access to the 2.1 version, but I will certainly do that now to make sure development continues and I encourange any users to do the same.

As I sidenote, I am by no means a Ms hater. We run a small company with a lot lof licenced ms software (even Ms smartphones) and are leaving that platform because of the security, safety, unreliability and the general waste of time associated with it. The programs I use now fullfill all my needs and I have bought a Blackberry to replace the (3 year old) Windows Mobile smartphone and use the included PocketMac syncmanager to sync with iCal and Addressbook. NeoOffice replaced ms Office, Google Earth replaced Ms Autoroute, iTunes replaces Windows Media, iPhoto replaces Photoshop Album and Aperture i use for work photos. iChat through Jabber for msn. Skype works very well with a bleutooth headset. Texwrangler is my preferred html php editor to replace UltraEdit and Cocoa MySql is great for administering an MySQL database for which I used MySQLGui on windows.

Thank you NeoOffice team for making the package complete - you were the missing link!   
(Version 2.1)

GCARCASS  FINALLY!!!! I got ride of Microsoft Office, NeoOffice is an amazing piece of software, and its's free!!!!! now I can proudly say my mac is 100% Microsoft free!  
(Version 2.1)

PEDRO FARDILHA  I't never stops amazing me how a free (open source) office suite can be better for my needs than THE OTHER expensive office package.

It runs really well on my intel Mac Book Pro and even NeoOffice (OOo) dictionaries on my language (Portuguese) are better then the ones from M$.

I definitely think this is THE office for Macintosh (specially now, since it's the only way to open .docx and VBA scripts natively on an Intel mac).  
(Version 2.1)

DONMONTALVO  aside from a few user interface glitches (can't command-click titlebar to get path to file, printing is a bit different than via microsoft office, spreadsheet application doesn't obey our toolbar customization, etc...nothing major), this is an incredible achievement by the opensource community. it shows that a company such as microsoft is not able to stop the opensource community. at times it seems like microsoft (and other companies like quark) simply don't get it. they don't seem to care as long as they're getting your money. my clients are not going to be able to leave microsoft...but many home users, consultants, freelancers and students who are tired of paying the microsoft fee - with little in return but aging, buggy mac software - MUST try neooffice.

it's free, but please contribute to the developer - even if it's a paltry few dollars. you won't regret it.

don montalvo, nyc  
(Version 2.1)

RTOURIS  The good just got better...by far...what more can I say for a full, free user-donationware "office" package that is still under heavy development activity. Granted, this is based on Oo code, but the developers are surely putting a lot of effort into this. And being as there is still no X11 Oo dependless build, I am eager to rate this full score ;-)  
(Version 2.1)

MIGUELCAMPANA  Hey! It's getting there! I'm so happy about NeoOffice: my pirated Word program suddenly began shutting down on me (in the middle of a research paper!) because apparently the key I was using had reached its limit. I'm sure I could have re-registered it with a different key, but with the deadline stress I just transfered the project over to NeoOffice, started footnoting the hell of my paper, and it worked fine. Didn't crash once. Anyway, that's just an anecdote, but I wanted to encourage the developers to keep on refining. It's turning into a great suite.

Cheers,

mb  
(Version 2.0b3)

WWWIRED  I liked previous versions of NeoOffice. This one looks nicer for GUI purposes but it feels like I am driving a big, heavy truck with blind spots.

The apps moves slow with scrolling, and formatting. It crashes on a regular basis too. Trying to do the basic formatting offers up way to many options and I am constantly clicking windows to do a simple chore. It also seems to be a memory hog. Too bloated!

I believe that the OpenOffice.org guys just need to make this app simpler. This app does not need to be a version of MS Office. We are here because most of the time MS stuff is just too complicated and annoying to begin with.   
(Version 2.0b3)

BEN_MARKO  Lots of features, and it is very easy to use. But word documents loss about 75% of their original formating, and powerpoint files just crash outright.

Needs a lot more work to truly be a MS Office replacement. But it is just not compatible enough (it should also keep 100% of the original formatting!).  
(Version 2.0b3)

REVS  For someone who doesn't use office enough to justify MS Office, this is great.

The icons and the UI sucks a bit, but check out the forums for some good replacements.

A native Aqua port of OpenOffice is in development and should be out middle of next year! Cant wait!

Just to clarify, this app is not Java. Some UI bits are Java (i.e. to make the UI use Aqua elements. All other code is C/C++)  
(Version 2.0b3)

GLW  Sorry, I meant to say 2.0b3 Patch 10.  
(Version 2.0b3)

GLW  NeoOffice is a remarkable and feature-rich product and I was SO hoping to be able to make our computer officially "Microsoft-free" by the end of the year, but the Writer module quits unexpectedly every time I try to save my work. For this reason, NeoOffice as it currently stands is pretty much useless to me. (3.0b3 Patch 10)  
(Version 2.0b3)

FERNANDO_JOHANN  When I'm in spreadsheet mode, and I try to insert a chart using the button at the toolbar it does just nothing.

However, if I go to the actual menu it works just fine.

It is a minnor detail, other than that it works perfectly.

Great Ap!  
(Version 2.0b3)

CA  Can't install NeoOffice :(

The installer says it can't find a NeoOffice 2.0 Beta 3 installation.

Huh?  
(Version 2.0b3)

GRUMPYTICO  I was so sick an tired of running Office at super slow speeds on my Intel mac, so I decided to give this a try. The first that I loved was the interface that resembles Windows Office - it feels just like home.

Secondly, it really screams on my MacBook, anything I do is really fast - Excel, Word, etc.

As far as compatibility, it really shines. I could not think of one feature where this product falls short, thanks so much the developers for your efforts!!  
(Version 2.0b3)

JCRAIG  Current users can just launch NeoOffice, and have it direct you to the Patch 7 page. As for it being less responsive than Office, remember: it's using java to draw its windows.  
(Version 2.0b3)

OBERBASTLER  NeoOffice gets better and better. It already has more features than every other Office software for Mac OS X save MS Office.

The user interface, which used to be ugly as hell, is now looking like a real Aqua interface. However, it still doesn't always behave correctly and it's still really unresponsive (much more so than Office 2004 and the latter is running in Rosetta). Then again, it's already faster than it used to be.   
(Version 2.0b3)

BAFFLED EXPERT  NeoOffice is simply the best office software for Macs.

It is every bit as good, rich, and deep as Microsoft Word (and the other Office products)--do not dismiss it just because it is free. In some ways, it is even better.

The 2.0 release is fantastic, making this a true Mac program. Now it is attractive and easy to use.  
(Version 2.0b3)

JSLMG  Version 2.0 is a big, big improvement over 1.0. It's great that the developers got to work and resolved so many issues! First, scrolling is nearly as smooth as in OpenOffice in X11. In 1.0, it was jumpy, slow, and virtually unusable. Second, menus work properly. In 1.0, NeoOffice crunched the CPU when a menu was clicked. The interface is nicer too. With all the problems in NeoOffice 1.0, I've been using OpenOffice 2.0 in X11 instead, but now it looks like I'll give NeoOffice a good, long try once again, keeping OpenOffice on standby.  
(Version 2.0b3)

THREEDEE912  This new beta version of NeoOffice is faster and now has an Aqua interface, and even is compatible with ShapeShifter's GUIkits! Still a bit slow, but it's free! Great!  
(Version 2.0b3)

PEDRO FARDILHA  Yes!!

A standard open / save Macintosh dialog!!!

This was THE number 1 complain that i had every time that i tried to convince someone to change.

Thank you SOOOOOO MUCH Neooffice / OO team.

(oh, and the bars icons are much better also, and the database are working just fine, and... , and... :D )  
(Version 2.0b3)

LEE MAJORS  Much better than the alpha, and beta 1? Don't specifically remember using alpha 1. This is probably getting to the stage where it is almost level with MS Office and seems nicer than the Open Office 2 for the PC, but thats probably because I'm on a Mac. Might wait for the next beta to come out before ditching MS Office for the extra 430MB of space. If you are thinking of buying MS Office don't bother, unless you really need... someone to blame?  
(Version 2.0b3)

ST00P!D M0NK3Y  Great little app. Does so much and it's free. But...the program loads quite slow. Perhaps some polish here and there could make this program run a lot smoother. Right now, Word is WAY faster than this program.  
(Version 2.0b3)

KLAGRECA  Neooffice is a great concept and it's moving along fantastically, however, I believe the next 1-2 revisions of the whole open office project will "make or break" it.

My experience with NeoOffice:

--As far as usability, Calc did some weird things (like paste a change I made in one cell to the same cell in other sheets). The problem is, many of the features are poorly documented or labeled.

--Another quick impression is that he presentation app is slow. It takes forever to open a 100meg presentation I've been working with.

--Compatibility and maintaining formatting is execellent.

--an additional "create a PDF" function. So..umm...why? Isn't this functionality built into OS X?

In summary, the chaps who work on NO should rethink about the presentation layer ot the app. Should it mimic MS Office, or should the presentation layer evolve into something more intuitive? Should they pack every feature into NO, or sould they make core functionality rock-solid, fast, and efficient?

I believe its the answers to these questions that will make or break the OO project.

Good luck folks, you got a wonderful thing going!   
(Version 2.0a4)

APPLECRYPT MODS  why would anyone consider buying MS Office or similar. Download this superb piece of s/w. Excellent - 10/10 !!  
(Version 2.0a4)

ARES  Good, free Office clone. Very good word processor, better than MS Word and free. It is the best port of Ooo on OS X because NeoOffice is stable, it does not need X11 and it uses OS X Fonts.  
(Version 2.0a4)

DOMINO88  If you have installed OpenOffice on X11, you'll know the screen text look weird.

Try NeoOffice on Java Runtime for MacOSX. You won't have much problem working with truetype fonts.

I'm getting my new MacBook. NeoOffice will have the Intel version ready by 5th June. STAY TUNED !

Graphical performance is reasonable. It scores on word processing. CRAW on larger spreadsheets. It took my iBook (1.2GHz 512MB) about 4 minutes to open up a 3.7MB excel file.

Like OpenOffice, you can export files to PDF. This is great when I have to send promotion leaflet in PDF format to the printer.  
(Version 2.0a3)

SCRIVENS  The good news is that it is the *only* word processing app I've ever used that can open complex Word docs without a single part being out of place. I'd given up trying to use converters as they all failed on several particular docs. Not this one. The drawing and presentation apps are excellent as well. Base is fairly useless at this stage, but the groundwork is there. (I'm a db prorammer by trade.) The db connectivity is glacially slow and it doesn't seem to like opening dBase and other formats. Native MS Access compatability would make it a killer Mac app as there is no real equivalent on the Mac platform - which is why a lot of companies have to use PCs given the ubiquitousness of Access these days. It seems to be very stable, and the interface is beautifully done. As a Mac app it is very nice to use.

On the down side, overall it is very sluggish starting up and in loading docs and spreadsheets etc. The screen updating is jerky and slow and saving docs seems to take an inordinately long time. (Word/Excel run like lightning in comparison. (iMac G5 2.1 with 1.5gb RAM) The size of the app is a worry as well. My full install of MS Office uses 216mb - NeoOffice uses 319mb.

This is an alpha release and it can only get better in the next year or so. As others have mentioned, it is the only viable alternative to MS Office for workplace compatability/use and despite the slowness and lack of some useful features it's great even now. Up the speed, cut the bloat and get the db side working and it has the potential to wipe Office from the workplace. AND IT"S FREE!  
(Version 2.0a3)

MAKAI  I was hoping it'd be faster than 1.2, but quite in contrary, the Cocoa version runs decidedly slower. In fact, it doesn't run, it c-r-a-w-l-s... Yeah, I know, it's free, but that doesn't help me if it's anyways too slow to work with it... Well, it's an alpha, keeping fingers crossed for some speed improvements.  
(Version 2.0a3)

CHIEFTED  M$ Office without all the bloat! (in price or "add ons")

While rewritting an instruction manual/student guide I finally gave up on Office for Mac and tried this. Worked flawlessly! There were some minor reformatting issues when I sent it from my Mac to my work account but they were few and far between. Once I figured out how to avoid those I haven't looked back and removed my legal copy of M$ Office and have used NeoOffice ever since.

The presentation side works wonderfully as does the spreadsheet.

It takes up far less room on my hard drive and the support (community) is fantastic. I had a question concerning a spreadsheet and had an answer back to it, again from the support community, in less than 10 mins.

So far I haven't found any bugs in this alpha release. Did have to go through the set up process even though I have been running NeoOffice for about six months. Not a big deal though.

It cheap and it works!

If you are looking for an alternative to Office without the hassle of installing X11 for OpenOffice, this is your software.  
(Version 2.0a3)

CHIEFTED  M$ Office without all the bloat! (in price or "add ons")

While rewritting an instruction manual/student guide I finally gave up on Office for Mac and tried this. Worked flawlessly! There were some minor reformatting issues when I sent it from my Mac to my work account but they were few and far between. Once I figured out how to avoid those I haven't looked back and removed my legal copy of M$ Office and have used NeoOffice ever since.

The presentation side works wonderfully as does the spreadsheet.

It takes up far less room on my hard drive and the support (community) is fantastic. I had a question concerning a spreadsheet and had an answer back to it, again from the support community, in less than 10 mins.

So far I haven't found any bugs in this alpha release. Did have to go through the set up process even though I have been running NeoOffice for about six months. Not a big deal though.

It cheap and it works!

If you are looking for an alternative to Office without the hassle of installing X11 for OpenOffice, this is your software.  
(Version 2.0a3)

UMAROMC  Best version by far! MUCH more useful than OpenOffice X11 is especially because of font compatibilities with OS X! For the first time, in any version, have I opened a certain document up and even the tabbed bulletpoints were where I last left them— no editing and ready-to-print!

Three thumbs up!

Could use some Printing Setup GUI enhancements... but that's not enough to make me purchase Office.

If you're on a budget, want Office-like-usability to compliment your deftness in working around obstacles, and you'd much prefer not having an illegal copy (of Office) I can only *highly* recommend this!  
(Version 2.0a3)

BOOTHEFOX  Great app ! ... i decided to donate and did... bought MBP and now i'm waiting for the Intel version impatiently :)  
(Version 2.0a3)

ROBINB  Great free software. Keep up the good work! The ship in the icon looks great!  
(Version 1.2.2)

CEBN  Its a pirate ship krisk =p  
(Version 1.2.2)

HOBOHAMMSDAFSADFSADFSDAFOCK  excellent app. keep it rolling!

btw what's with the ship in the icon?   
(Version 1.2.2)

SJHA  Not available for download the last couple of days!  
(Version 1.2.1)

APPLECRYPT MODS  great version this! But awaiting the intel mac release now..  
(Version 1.2)

VERSANICK  For those of us not savvy enough to make OpenOffice work, this is the cream of the crop. Better than life.

+Exactly+ Microsoft Word's old menu framework, most of the tools and so on in the same place, and ease of use is exactly the same. Those who have been using Word for years (even if at work or school) will quickly recognize where everything is in NeoOffice.

Very decent speed considering its use of java, very stable, and makes a great solution if I don't have hundreds of dollars to shell out for MS Office.

Thank you, developers! Beautiful job! And you can't beat the price (free).  
(Version 1.2)

SZABESZ  Oh, I just want to give it five stars :) Thank you for the effort and the high quality work!  
(Version 1.2)

TROYKOELLING  Much better integration to Mac OS X than other versions I've used. Some keys are different, but overall it doesn't take as much effort to remember how to use it. I especially like the Native fonts and antialiased rendering that I don't remember seeing in past versions. Also seems faster.  
(Version 1.2b)

HEATHERMASON  Excellent software. Effective and free, just how I like it.  
(Version 1.2b)

PIAKO  This is the finest piece of free software available. I have used this for only about 30 seconds but it's awesome!!! Just like office but FREEEEEEEEEE! Yeah !!!  
(Version 1.2b)

RAZZ  Not so fast, Buckeroo!

NeoOffice does not handle MS Word formatting very well at all. You can create a word processing document in NeoOffice and save it as a .doc file. Open it in MS Word and TABs and Margins are different! Change them in Word, open it in NeoOffice and they are different again!

I'm not talking about simple formatting or extremely complex formatting. Just some tables and tabs and margin settings. Usual stuff...NeoOffice can't hack it.

OpenOffice 2.0 doesn't seem to have these problems so if you can use an X11 application, then use this this one.  
(Version 1.2a)

DEIF  Great. The only app who displays ms office documents correctly! and it's free....  
(Version 1.2a)

KEN.  A brilliant, solid and stable version of OpenOffice that deserves far more attention and credit than it gets in the press. Don't let the "alpha" tag mislead you, this is a solid and stable application in active development.

There are a few places where the size of the app and its lineage shows: the 'nix-like interface, some minor menu lags and other niggly details but, in a larger view, these are minor points.

My thanks to the NeoOffice team...  
(Version 1.2a)

ANONYMOUS  I've been having problems with Office 2004 for Mac: with some big files, Word will start eating up about 85% of my processor's capability (and I'm on a G5 with a gig of RAM), leading to annoying fan noise and high CPU temp.

I tried NeoOffice, and I like it a lot: yeah, I wish it was more Mac and less Windows in its interface, but I absolutely can't complain about its stability, consistency and ability to interact with Word.

Excellent stuff...and of course it's free!   
(Version 1.1)

ANONYMOUS  I quite like this app, it's free, works well and looks a little less crappy than Open Office. Like a lot of free software it's fine for what it is and it's price but this does not even come remotely close to MS Office 2004.

First thing that needs improvements is the interface, I'm sure this is acceptable on Linux or even Windows but on a mac this looks like crap.

Also MS Office works much closer together, not a big deal is you only type letters and do some spreadsheet stuff but if you rely on Entourage you will need Office.

It comes down to this: If you need te give presentations regularly use keynote instead as it is the best presenter on any platform. If you don't mind how an app looks and you don't need the tight MS Office integration you have a damn fine office suite with neo office.  
(Version 1.1)

ANONYMOUS  Although it doesn't act quite like a Mac app yet (but believe me, they're working on it), this is a very solid piece of software.

Stable, reasonably fast for an integrated office suite (which does rely on Java), excellent compatibility with M$ documents and an active community standing behind it.  
(Version 1.1)

ANONYMOUS  I have 4 negative comments:

1. Cannot access Preferences. Either by pulldown menu or key commands.

2. Printing. I always have to uncheck boxes to print. Otherwise I always get a brochure print job (1/4 page).

3. Trying to save a job in a different place other than default is a little tricky. The save window lists everything including invisible files. A normal Apple dialog box would be much easier.

4. The presentation app seems like a compromise. It needs more work.

In all, I really like NeoOffice. It is a little bloated and I would encourage the developers to make it easier rather than comlicated like the MS stuff. It is by far the best free software free can buy.  
(Version 1.1)

ANONYMOUS  Take over 900 MB virtual memory.  
(Version 1.1)

T  Not bad. Opened my Word docs correctly. Very slow to boot, though. And needs better interface. Hopefully, great people in the Mac community can help.  
(Version 1.1)

SUNRAVEN  Finally, it's here! And this app was really worth the wait. Does everything MS Office does and more. I agree that the interface is a drab, but it's incredibly feature rich, stable and fast.   
(Version 1.1)

NEOBOY  This app is really good, my only gripe is that it looks like netscape! It would be great to see it looking more aqua and less classic but apart from that its really worth having! Keep up the good work  
(Version 1.1)

ANONYMOUS  Here is a direct link to the bittorrent download link (in case the website is down):

http://play.aelitis.com/torrents/NeoOfficeJ-1.1.dmg.torrent  
(Version 1.1)

ANONYMOUS  An excellent version of StarOffice and OpenOffice for Mac OSX. A great value as free software and well worth a donation. It requires a few days to really get to know the program and all it's features but it's worth the time.

PS: the very minor Preference "bug" has been patched. The same setting were available through Tools, Options anyway...  
(Version 1.1)

GIMMEFIVE  After the initial start-up lag and first drop-down select (typical of any Java app) this version of Open Office is nimble, bug-free and combat ready.

As a free alternative to something that should be part of any commercial OS, this is hard to beat.

Have already run all of the modules, imported/exported files and checked compatibility with M$, so far, so good.

Preferences are under Options just like the "other Office."

Worth the download and more.  
(Version 1.1)

ANONYMOUS  I appreciate the freeness of it but its been about 50 seconds now and its still loading.

No thanks  
(Version 1.1)

ANONYMOUS  I use it since 2 months...

A great, great job ! i trash MS Office :-)  
(Version 1.1)

LINDA  I had a little trouble getting the program to uncompress after I downloaded it. Seems that the .dmg tag was cut off at the end of the download. I typed the tag on to the end of the file title and it worked just find. Yes the program is a little slow, but I ran Open Office w/ x11 dependency for a while and this is quicker. The interface may not be pretty, but it is a lot better than the version of Open Office I was running. I'm a writer and I've been looking for a cross platform program for my writing. This will definately come in handy.   
(Version 1.1rc)

MACPETE  Great adaptation, great work. It has been even localized in my language!

I feel better now, thanks a lot to the developers that work at this project.

Highly recommended.  
(Version 1.1rc)

ME  Nice but slow.

I hope that a new version will arrive soon.  
(Version 1.1rc)

THEBRIX  I first installed NeoOffice/J a long time ago; since then it has improved by leaps and bounds and I find it more usable and attractive than the Windows version 1.1.4; the integration with the OS X environment is very well done, and the speed has improved hugely too. A fantastic job!

Of course NeoOffice/J is "ugly", but that is the price of being cross-platform and a complete Aqua OOo would be an enormous task. Anyway, function transcends form and, as well as being good in normal operation, for recovering corrupted Office documents OOo often works where everything else fails.   
(Version 1.1rc)

ANONYMOUS  Yes, it's slow, but don't forget Neoffice subsumes ALL the office app, plus other productivity features, in one only packaged app.  
(Version 1.1rc)

ANONYMOUS  Agree with the previous comment.

It's too slow, especially when you need to start a document soon. But.

I calculate the time to open ms word/excel and ppoint consecutively, plus one external html editor, and the total compared time amount is similar

on my mac.

Moreover, as a Java based application, I observed it results faster if closed, and eventually reopened for successive work session.

Yet I would like NeoJ get faster.  
(Version 1.1rc)

OLIVIER GECHTER  Good but it need to much time to start.

Even Openoffice with X11 is three time faster.

I will become a fan the day when this pb will be solved.

OG  
(Version 1.1rc)

MAC  Second day trying to open... What program CAN open this file?  
(Version 1.1rc)

ANONYMOUS  Very very good.

I used NeoJ for several time and I think we're on the way to get rid of M$office.

Just a couple of considerations/requests for me:

-the interface should be much Mac-like (metallifized, for example)and a little more fluid (maybe with further developements of java?);

-should permitt to deactivate that annoying message when saving documents: I think important avoid eventual legal consequences, but it could be possible put a disclaimer elsewhere with the same effect.  
(Version 1.1rc)

DA OFFICE GUY  NeoOffice is NOT perfect, it's NOT Microsoft Office, but it is VERY GOOD. Really. Try it. Most Word and Excel documents open fine and look OK. If you're doing some financial modeling on Excel, don't use NeoOffice. But for basic word processing and spreadsheet, this is very decent.

Problems: It "looks" like a combo of X-11 and Windows, instead of Mac Aqua.

Pros: Free, works well in SS and .doc mode for basic needs.  
(Version 1.1rc)

ANONYMOUS  Now that 1.1.4 is covered, how long until OOo 2.0 will be implemented? This, I think will be going quite a long way towards MS replacements.  
(Version 1.1rc)

ANONYMOUS  Apples PAGES is really (!) worth a try.

But this NeoOff seems to imitate both look and menus of M$. Whats going on with that "open-source" people? Try to be windoze? Bye!!!  
(Version 1.1rc)

ANONYMOUS  they forgot the menu bar standards LOL  
(Version 1.1rc)

PEDRO GOMES DA SILVA  To bad I cannot use the Portuguese dictionary.

NeoOffice is supposed to properly implement that, but for some reason it does not do the spell check in other than English  
(Version 1.1rc)

JOHN E.  I've been using NeoOffice now and feel I can finally kick word off of my computer.

Most importantly I have been able to save work back AND forth from Word with little problem. I currently work in Word format, and am slowly switching to saving in it's native format, and only saving to Word when I need to export.

I finally got to use the spreadsheet in the same manner, and while it may not be as feature rich it gets the job done with less clutter.

Most importantly, dispite any slight downfall this is free free free and ideal for our little non-profit company which needs to read and send Word Docs.

Any word processor can do the job, but nowadays Word has because a huge file exchange format.

Now a little detail. It has a feature I find so cute and I use it alot. You can make a style then set the "stylist" to "paint bucket" mode and simply click once on any paragraph to style it.   
(Version 1.1b11)

ANONYMOUS  Looks waaaay too much like windoze to be tolerable. Gruesome.  
(Version 1.1b11)

CKG  Seems nice. the gui could use a more mac feel but that's just aesthetics... what's been bugging me is frequent hanging (beachball) when copying and pasting tables from the spreadsheet mode into word-processing documents. Also, i can't get captions to appear above pasted or specially pasted tables from the spreadsheet mode... any ideas or luck with this? In my profession figures should have captions below and tables captions are above the table... so i can't use this app professionally yet. Thanks for work so far.

-CKG  
(Version 1.1b11)

ANONYMOUS  I like the program but I am not liking the constant large file size updates. Would be nice to see some new features but why should I complain. This program rocks!  
(Version 1.1b11)

ANONYMOUS  Nice program: I have been using OpenOffice for some time and it is nice not to be required to use X11.

Question: When I opened the program the first time it auto opened Safari and brought me to your home page, Why was this neccesary and the 2nd time I opened the program it ran Curl and tried to connect to 69.93.122.60 OrgName: ThePlanet.com Internet Services, Inc.; Why is this and what purpose does this serve. Being that this program is an Open Source project I do not feel this is a good thing.

Souunds more on the lines of what a BIG CORPORATE software company might try.

I know of this connection because of 2 installed unnamed Firewall programs. Please feel free to answer.   
(Version 1.1b10)

MARTIN  Outstanding port of a very complete application.  
(Version 1.1b8)

YOXI  Note: this page says it's for a 112Mb download, but it's only a 7.9Mb patch - don't worry, you don't have to download the entire app every time there's an update. I've alerted the developers (who are very responsive people) so they should edit this soon.  
(Version 1.1b8)

CLANCEY  NeoOffice works well for me. Just remember to download and install the patches that they put out regularly. They have made significant progress with this app.  
(Version 1.1b8)

RYAN  Impressive. Being too poor to buy Office and too morally inclined to pirate it, NeoOffice/J suits my needs perfectly. It has far more features than AppleWorks, and speed is probably comparable.

It's got killer drawing tools. That's probably one of the biggest selling points for me, at least. UI is still a little complicated and has the nasty Win98/Linux feel to it. However, I was able to learn it pretty well in a couple weeks, using it ocassionally. As of right now, I've ditched AppleWorks in favor of NeoOffice for doing the layout for a yearbook project I'm working on.

The presentation program is nowhere close to PowerPoint, however. Compatibility is very low -- it'll often not recognize fonts and the animation/transition feature set doesn't match with PowerPoint, so naturally, some things aren't going to translate. It's pretty slow too.

This looks like a very promising package. Thank you so much!  
(Version 1.1b)

SOUTHPAW  Wow... I knew of OpenOffice... even been following it, hoping it gets better and better on OS X, even though it seems to be slow in updated, compared to other non-linux os's, like Windows. But, wait.. while looking at the OpenOffice site, they spoke of a 'NeoOffice' project that runs natively on OS X. After wandering and waiting for dial-up(in the process of moving, i've dropped from 1.5mb dsl to 56Kb), I find this *native* OS X application. As usual, someone in the reviews is complaining that it's written in Java. What on earth? A free... MS Office clone/word processor/ *with* a major importance on unicode(that is, multi-language) support in documents... umm... how could that be something to complain about?

And incidentally, Java is not *that* bad when it's worked on enough in OS X natively. Granted, most of my apps currently are Cocoa. But, look at this site http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~ik2r-myr/kanji/kanji1a.htm if you doubt that java can be good in os x for a program. That's the best kanji drill app available for os x... and it's a java applet. (a little fiddlin' and you'll see you can use the keyboard arrows to go back and forth, and you can make individual things disappear in the applet by clicking on them for concentrated study) So... yes, cocoa is native, and usually a little faster, and seems easier to meld with the system features of the operating system, but good perfectionistic programming is FAR more important than whether cocoa or java is used.

I've just got to tell all of you who are working on this project.... I am definitely excited to test japanese and english in the same document... although it wasn't one of the listed languages. I only hope it works. But heck, if it doesn't, I'm sure it will soon enough.  
(Version 1.1b)

ANONYMOUS  I use Ooo everyday (Linux) so I've tried NeoO after a disastrous experience with Ooo for OS X. It does not work well. There are too many problems, fonts, dictionaries, I can't use it in production. Back to Linux... I will try the next version of NeoO, I am sure it will be better. That's wht I don't include ratings, I don't want to be too negative.  
(Version 1.1b)