Existing users, 
Our firm has been using NeoOffice for about eight months as our primary office suite, having migrated from Microsoft and Windows at the first of this year. In terms of value (a reasonably reliable office suite for free), NeoOffice can't be beaten.
We would all rate NeoOffice as:
--- Better than Microsoft Office for Mac in terms of versatility, ease of use, and speed.
--- Far better than OpenOffice.org X11, which locked up frequently for us and produced poor print quality. We're not very interested in seeing their Aqua project because NeoOffice appears to have decisively beaten the OOo team to market.
--- Comparable in most respects to iWork 08, although some of us prefer iWork 08 for more sophisticated document design and overall ease of use.
The only negative aspects of NeoOffice that we have observed are relatively minor:
--- Help functions are still poorly documented (but iWork 08 wins no prizes for its help functions)
--- Conversion to/from MS Office documents is only about 90% to 95% reliable. iWork 08 seems to us to be better than NeoOffice in this category.
--- NeoOffice recognizes, but does not fully integrate the Mac OSX set of formatting palettes. Color selections are therefore unreasonably limited and use of special characters is cumbersome.
--- Document layout capabilities are primitive compared to iWork 08.
--- Exporting to PDF is still not quite right.. We find that it is better to use the OSX 'print to PDF" function.
--- NeoOffice tends to slow noticeably on our MacBook/Intel laptops when working with documents larger than 1 mb. iWork 08 is better for large documents.
--- NeoOffice crashes often, especially when working with large documents, We therefore would respectfully challenge the characterization of NeoOffice as "stable." "Usually works well" would be more accurate. Fortunately, NeoOffice has an excellent auto-recovery feature. iWork 08, by contrast, appears to have none.
-- The Impress application failed to do so. There is nothing wrong with the application, but we could find no advantages over Powerpoint (other than price) or Keynote.
As a result, we use both NeoOffice and iWork 08. They complement each other well and give us a flexibility that is a real benefit to a small firm, like ours, that produces a disproportionately large volume of documents.
NeoOffice
Office suite based on OpenOffice.org.
Version: 3.0.1
Some weaknesses remain, but a credible alternative for small businesses
Feedback Type: Review
Contributed by: N.K. Clark Sunday, September 09 2007 @ 02:20 AM PDT
Product Platform: MacOSX
Used Product For: 1-6 months
Recommend Product: YES
Overall Rating:
Ease of Use:
Support:
Features:
Quality / Stability:
Price:
Comments
Re: Some weaknesses remain, but a credible alternative for small businesses - Uncle Asad
use of special characters is cumbersome
I don't quite understand this part; selecting a special character via the system Character Palette seems no more difficult in NeoOffice than in any other Mac app.
NeoOffice crashes often, especially when working with large documents, We therefore would respectfully challenge the characterization of NeoOffice as "stable."
I won't claim that NeoOffice never crashes, but for the vast majority of users, it does so rarely. Have you checked the Troubleshooting Tips in the NeoWiki or filed a bug report about your crashes?
Monday, September 10 2007 @ 06:54 PM PDT
Re: Some weaknesses remain, but a credible alternative for small businesses - Uncle Asad
use of special characters is cumbersome
I don't quite understand this part; selecting a special character via the system Character Palette seems no more difficult in NeoOffice than in any other Mac app.
NeoOffice crashes often, especially when working with large documents, We therefore would respectfully challenge the characterization of NeoOffice as "stable."
I won't claim that NeoOffice never crashes, but for the vast majority of users, it does so rarely. Have you checked the Troubleshooting Tips in the NeoWiki or filed a bug report about your crashes?
Monday, September 10 2007 @ 06:59 PM PDT
Re: Some weaknesses remain, but a credible alternative for small businesses - Uncle Asad
use of special characters is cumbersome
I don't quite understand this part; selecting a special character via the system Character Palette seems no more difficult in NeoOffice than in any other Mac app.
NeoOffice crashes often, especially when working with large documents, We therefore would respectfully challenge the characterization of NeoOffice as "stable."
I won't claim that NeoOffice never crashes, but for the vast majority of users, it does so rarely. Have you checked the Troubleshooting Tips in the NeoWiki or filed a bug report about your crashes?
Monday, September 10 2007 @ 07:03 PM PDT
Some weaknesses remain, but a credible alternative for small businesses - Tyaris Major
Wow, that review was one of the most even-handed and articulate that I've ever read on VT. It wasn't a fan boi's one-eyed flag-waving tribute, and it wasn't a hater's crazy rant. It gave specifics and was realistic about where NeoOffice excels (pardon the pun), where it's lacking, and how it compares in these areas to its competitors. More useful than the "NeoOffice/iWork is flawless/does absolutely everything/will save the world!" style of review.Others may not have had the same experience as you (eg: in regards to crashing), but posting like a rational person doesn't hurt your case for it being not just your imagination or an unrealistic expectation. As someone already said, logging it with their bug tracker is a good idea. However, that doesn't mean you can't talk about it here, particularly for those people who don't want to wade through a raft of bug reports (or don't know that they can), or might have some ideas to help.
Thank you for taking the time to write it.
Tuesday, October 09 2007 @ 08:49 PM PDT
Some weaknesses remain, but a credible alternative for small businesses - knight72429
I must agree, that was a wonderfully written and informative review. I have been avoiding NeoOffice because of a few "crazy reviews" as someone said earlier. But I must say, as a small business owner myself, you have given me a new outlook on this App. As you pointed out iWork '08 is better in somethings than NeoOffice while not in others, so working between the two suites makes sense to me, and now is something I am going to give a try. I have been itching to give up MS Office for the Mac, and as of right now Office '08 is not a viable purchase once it is final released. Thank you for opening my eyes and writing such a reasonable review.Sunday, December 02 2007 @ 03:01 PM PST
Re: Some weaknesses remain, but a credible alternative for small businesses - Uncle Asad
use of special characters is cumbersome
I don't quite understand this part; selecting a special character via the system Character Palette seems no more difficult in NeoOffice than in any other Mac app.
NeoOffice crashes often, especially when working with large documents, We therefore would respectfully challenge the characterization of NeoOffice as "stable."
I won't claim that NeoOffice never crashes, but for the vast majority of users, it does so rarely. Have you checked the Troubleshooting Tips in the NeoWiki or filed a bug report about your crashes?
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Monday, September 10 2007 @ 06:51 PM PDT