Star Office 5.x

Imagine yourself as a thief. There are chances that you do something like:

1. Shoplifting

   
   




2. Printing counterfeit currency notes

   
   




3. Forge cheques

   
   

And if you get caught doing these crimes, what would happen to your social image? Can you walk on streets with your heads held high? You will be looked at as a criminal. If you try to think of all these, buying things could be cheaper, than shoplifting!

The crimes I just mentioned are not common and not done by decent people. But there is one crime which all of us do, and still not feel ashamed about it. I am sure it is not difficult to guess, it is Software piracy. Every time I insist on buying software, I look like an Idiot. People laugh at me. Just like bribery, Software piracy is into our bloodstream. One reason for this pathetic state is because Software is sometimes very costly(considering it is just a software!) and the another reason is not many freeware have the same quality as that of a software.

If we get quality freeware, would things change?

Microsoft Office is one stuff that we cannot do away with. We feel handicapped when we dont have this on our desktops. Yet not many buy this software. Most of the desktops that have this package would be pirated. After doing a crime of owning a pirated software, what is that we do with these at home? I am not able to think beyond: 1) A mouthshut review! 2) Resume 3) Expense tracking(sometimes). If you do just these try using Star Office 8. It would then be like you have a Genie that can do anything for you, but you use it only to wake you up in the morning.

In short, Star Office has an equivalent to almost all commonly used Microsoft Office programs. You can create documents(Word), Spreadsheets(Excel), Presentations(Powerpoint), Database(Access). It also adds a drawing tool. As a freeware, one natural thought that comes to our mind is that it has to be inferior. Also we are so much used to the Microsoft family that anything other than that feels different. The Star Office though, has a close-to Microsoft look and feel. Especially the Star Office Writer which looks almost like a MS-Word and StarOffice calc that is just like the Excel.

As for the features, the programs match Microsoft for every single option. StarOffice Writer is the one that I commonly use and few stuff in this work much better than Microsoft Word, for instance alignment. It even has additional features that Microsoft doesnt have. Like it has a navigator feature using which you can switch between tables in the document, headers in the document, bookmarks, etc. The most frequently used word appears as you type and you can just select that by pressing the enter(like dictionary mode on mobiles).

One other common feature that is small but very advantageous on all the StarOffice programs is the ability to produce pdf from the document(This is available only on recent Office 2007). You can also save the documents you create in equivalent Microsoft format, i.e. A StarOffice document as .doc or .xls and this solves some compatibility issues. And obviously you can edit document created using Microsoft Office.

I have started using StarOffice for all my small activities at home. I find this pretty comfortable now, though I had some getting-used-to trouble to begin with. All my initial problems had to do with the commands I used on Microsoft Office. To expect even the commands(like a shift+ F7 for thesaurus on Word, but Ctrl+ F7 on StarOffice Writer) would be unreasonable. I am also not sure on the recovery abilities of StarOffice, because it has never crashed even once and it has been about six months since I have started using this.

StarOffice is not without its share of disadvantages. Firstly, it takes quite a bit of time to start. But once it loads, it is pretty fast. Few things like reviewing(not the Mouthshut type of reviewing!) with comments and tracking changes were missing on StarOffice Writer. But that is the only feature I could spot missing on StarOffice in comparison to Microsoft.

You can download the StarOffice from pack.google.com. Just try it once. You would be surprised with the amount of closeness to Microsoft Office. It is not just a substitute to Microsoft, but a fantastic replacement, if not on office environments at least on home desktops. After all, this package comes from another renowned giant - Sun Microsystems. It is worth a try and if such high quality freeware products are available consistently, it can probably be a starting point to control Software piracy.

Smiles,

Envyram

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In two short words I would describe Star Office as Free MS-Office.

I saw it first in a ZDNet CD and decided to install it for two reasons. First, I was looking for MS-Office. Second, it was free. When I ran Star Office, I found out that it is a very good clone of the well acclaimed, MS-Office.

Now I have become a regular user of Star Office. I use it for many purposes, which I will tell you later in this review.

The Introduction

To introduce such a product was to break the monopoly of Microsoft. Star Office is a product of Sun Microsystems Inc., the same people who invented Java. They created a software that was all-in-one, instead of having different application. Also, they distributed for free! It is also an open-ended program.

Star Office has everything. From text document typing, to database designing. You can say that Word, Excel, Access, Powerpoint have come together and have merged in a single, versatile program. There are many other features. Let's start by reviewing each of them.

Text Document

This is a clone of Microsoft Word. All the functionalities and functions are exact copy of Word. Like Word, you can type in, edit, and then print your documents. But the extra feature is that you can add in form elements directly without requiring to draw them. Then you can insert images, objects and even formulas! So, you can have a complete document with everything in it. Printing is simple as ever. You can also adjust fonts, format page properties, and check the spellings. So, this much is enough for the text part.

Spreadsheet

By hearing the word 'Spreadsheet' the only software that comes in our minds in Excel. And this part of Star Office is a perfect photo copy of Excel. You can do the same things that you thought of doing in Excel. You can create charts of various shapes, sizes and colors from your spreadsheet. There are 3-D shapes available for your chart. Now, let's move on to the next part.

Presentation

Here we have a clone of Powerpoint. You can create multimedia presentations by using this Star Office option. When you first begin a presentation, you are prompted to start an empty presentation or from a template. You have the option of selecting one of the many themes available for your presentation. You can also put in numerous other effects. You can also draw in objects like Circle, Square, Line, etc. You can put in images or 3-D objects. You can also out in animations. So, you see that the presentation part is also very complete.

Drawing

Here we have a competitor for PaintBrush, but I think this one is a bit advanced. You can draw in simple objects like Circle or Square. But you can also put in 3-D objects, which is not possible in PaintBrush. You also have the option to align your objects, and make this part work for you as a good DTP Illustration software.

Image

Like Drawing was an illustrating software, this part is an image-editing software! So, Paint Shop Pro and PhotoShop can have a run for their money as this Image part of Star Office performs every function of these two software. You can not only draw objects, but you can also edit images, and even scan images! This is truly great to have such a software.

HTML Document

Now this one's against Frontpage. It performs the same purposes as Frontpage does. You can put in tables, frames, images, OLE objects, and so many more. It is a WYSIWYG software. You are visually seeing what you are creating. It is a very handy software to have in Star Office.

Database

This one's up against Access. You can create a database for your forms running on your Web Server. You can also provide ODBC connectivity through it, without using Access! It is good for any server; no matter whether it is IIS or SQL.

Templates

Like all the MS-Office software, Star Office too has many templates that you can start working on. There are also many Wizards that will help you create whatever you want. There are templates for your bills, documents, resume, business cards, and so many else. There is no need to create everything manually. Everything can be derived automatically by using Star Office Templates.

Other features

When Star Office starts, it takes all the elements of your Desktop as its start up and even puts in the same 'Start' button on its bottom left corner. So, you can start any other application through Star Office without requiring to minimise the Star Office window.

Star Office window can become a browser for you if you type in a web address. Just like Windows Explorer!

Star Office supports all the extensions like doc, jpg, pwp, mdb, gif, etc. It also has its own extensions! So, you can edit other application's files in Star Office. But to edit Star Office files, you need Star Office.

You can also compose, send and receive your E-mails through Star Office.

So, you see that Star Office is a single program that has bundled in all the world's leading program. And what more, it is FREE! So, just by buying Star Office you are not only saving bucks, but also you are learning software like Word, Excel, Access, Powerpoint, Corel Draw, PhotoShop and FrontPage!

I highly recommend this one of my favourite program.

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And yet again I am amazed that no one has written about Star Office!!!! Star Office by far beats anything out there hands down. Anyone who has used Microsoft Office and liked it will absolutely fall IN LOVE with Star office.

Just like microsoft office, Star Office offers the same functions. you can make Spread Sheets, Data Bases, Word Processing, all the same bells and whistles that Micro Soft Office comes with. The one major factor of Star Office over Microsoft office is its FREE, yes thats right it is FREE to download. Or for around 20$ you can buy it with a big ole book to help you from your local software store.

Why more people do not choose to use Star Office over Microsoft is beyond me. I have been using star Office for about 3 years now and I have yet to find something the Microsoft program could do that Star Office can't. And I have even come across some things that Star Office CAN DO that Microsoft cannot, plus the cost difference is just amazing!!!!!

Not only does star office do everything the Microsoft Office product does, and not only is it FREE, but Star Office gives you the ability to save your Star office Word Doccuments, Spread Sheets, Text Files, Presentations, and Graphs , all in Microsoft Excel/Word format and thats not all you can choose from Word/Excel 95 or Word/excel 98. Lets See Microsoft Do that?

All of the functions your used to with Microsoft are the SAME in Star Office your left and right clicks still work the same, can still set rules and macro's. Star even comes with its own media Player, and Java runtime environment.

To anyone who does alot of work with microsoft office and is tired of paying those hefty upgrade fees, or for anyone who is thinking of buying Microsoft Office go check out Sun first it is well worth it.

https://sun.com/products/staroffice/

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