NeoOffice is a fully-featured set of office applications (including word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, and drawing programs) for Mac OS X. Based on the OpenOffice.org office suite, NeoOffice has integrated dozens of native Mac features and can import, edit, and exchange files with other popular office programs such as Microsoft Office.
Released as free, open-source software under the GNU General Public License (GPL), NeoOffice is fully functional and stable enough for everyday use. The software is actively developed, so improvements and small updates are made available on a regular basis.
NeoOffice 2.0 Aqua Beta will soon be released. Starting 2 August 2006, the release will be available through the NeoOffice Early Access Program.
Minimum Machine Requirements for NeoOffice 2.0 Alpha 4:
• Mac OS X 10.3 or higher
• 384 MB of memory
• 400 MB of free disk space
Important Warnings for All NeoOffice Users: NeoOffice 2.0 Alpha 4 is a test release and may have some undiscovered bugs that may cause NeoOffice to crash.
NeoOffice 2.0 Alpha 4 is available for PowerPC- and Intel-powered Macs.
More information and download link here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “MacMania” for the heads up.]
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Are both ken and ryu in this one?
It’s still ugly, they just don’t get it.
These nauseating Win3.11-like buttons/scrollbars, 16-colour icons are so ninetees.
The Keynote/Pages combo works great, all we need now is “Numbers” (or whatever they call it) for Excel files.
MW — Spreadsheets! ahahahahahaa
samolet said: “… all we need now is “Numbers” (or whatever they call it) for Excel files.”
Uh, sam, until that glorious day, NeoOffice’s spreadsheet is excellent. I agree it isn’t as cool looking as iApps but it is very capable, open source (something I support) and not from Redmond.
They do get it, and the release of the Aqua Beta in August is using all Aqua (or mostly) widgets. Take a look at the info on their page for a screenshot of the Aqua interface. It is a huge improvement.
I’ve been using NeoOffice for the last year for business to read and write into and from Office – and it work well – albeit a bit slow in the earily versions
I f can ponly get better with time
At least NeoOffice is OS X native and doesn’t require X11, like OpenOffice. Apple needs to incorporate X11 into Leopard so that it is no longer a separate install.
As long as X11 is in a sandbox which I can turn on/off admin password.
It has had it’s own share of exploits.
Don’t we have enough already?
NeoOffice: Does it come with a red pill or blue pill?
NeoOffice looks like bloatware, and i hear it’s really slow dealing with larger or complex files.
samolet writes: “The Keynote/Pages combo works great, all we need now is “Numbers” (or whatever they call it) for Excel files.”
Anybody ever try Mariner Calc? It’s supposed to do Excel files.
I’m really interested in user reports of this on Intel. How does the speed compare to PowerPC?
Apple don’t need to make “Numbers”. Has anyone tried “Mesa” – excellent and more like iWork than anything else.
Considering it is $500 less than MS Office and does not require X11 (overhead or fugly interface) I say this is the most complete and best office suite available.
I considered using iWork but honestly, for $80, it didn’t fit my needs. I really WANT Excel-like tools. I would gladly trade that functionality for Keynote. Not that Keynote isn’t great, but I don’t need that tool very often.
But with v2 of NeoOffice, the interface (Aqua) is much improved. Yeah, things still aren’t as polished but hey, it took Red Hat until version 8 or 9 to implement a visual appealing interface with XP/OS X type high res icons. Give these volunteer programmers a break!
Simon Elliott (above) mentioned Mesa. I have not tried it, but I have their Web link for those who are interested.
http://www.plsys.com/mesa.htm
Looking forward to folk’s opinions.
Nisus Writer, Textmate, Outliner Pro, and Mellel all better programs why use Bloatware?
Comment:
From: Edwin
Jul 02, 06 – 01:21 am
I’m really interested in user reports of this on Intel. How does the speed compare to PowerPC?
Well since it uses a lot of Java and the Java for Intel Macs isn’t universal, they had to make an Intel-native version for that, thus it should be full speed.
And about the horrible look, sounds like the beta’s gonna make it more Aqua-fied.
so let me get this straight, you don’t want to use the program because it is ugly? what about the fact that it is free? and works?
pages is not a word processor, it is a ms publisher replacement. abiword, mellel all those are decent, but they don’t have the robustness that writer has. not to meantion the rest of the suite.
as for ‘bloatware’ most people call those ‘features’ but hey, if all you need is to type, they use textedit. it is free, comes with the OS and reads .DOC files.
ha!
Yes, i don’t want to use ugly apps for free because i am a fucking elitist ahahahahahaa
.. TextEdit can’t import complicated .docs — tables and graphs always tend to fuck up.
God bless Pages, it handles them just fine.
The NeoOffice/OpenOffice developers do get it, they just don’t have the resources to fully fund the project. That’s why they have the Early Access Program as a fundraiser, which is way cheaper than MS Office and has allowed to read and create documents without MS Office.
I do wish, however, that they (OpenOffice) rethink the whole UI and its organization, not just making it more Mac/Aqua-like. They seem to try so hard make it look and function like MS Office (on Windows, anyway), and they also copy the UI flaws in it.
Alex
I just don’t see the point in worrying about little things when you get it free. If you want to have a pretty program M$ makes office for mac, if you are like me and can’t afford it on Mac or PC then you get a free program. Yes it would be great if they could make it “pretty” and don’t get me wrong I would love if they did but I want them to add on mor to the usage of the programs than the UI.
-Zak
For those who are prepared toi give NeoOffice a try, but also want to make it look “pretty”: a couple of tips. One, use uno, from http://gui.interacto.net/ to give you consistency of menu bars etc. Two, use NeoOffice’s preferences to put a bit of delicate colour behind the applications. Three, you may want to look at using Iconic, a simple program to replace the OpenOffice.org icons with a new set:
http://brettisangry.com/Iconic/
One replacement icon set being developed currently is Akua [looks very mac os x] from:
http://homepage.mac.com/punto_mac/projects/neo/downloads/Akua_Prerelease.dmg
or replace them with a new set of Tango icons, also more like what one expects in aqua:
http://au.geocities.com/aussie_149/index.html
An hour spent chasing this up may reward you with lots of hours looking at a prettier screen
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” />
For those who are prepared to give NeoOffice a try, but also want to make it look “pretty”: a couple of tips. One, use uno, from http://gui.interacto.net/ to give you consistency of menu bars etc. Two, use NeoOffice’s preferences to put a bit of delicate colour behind the applications. Three, you may want to look at using Iconic, a simple program to replace the OpenOffice.org icons with a new set:
http://brettisangry.com/Iconic/
One replacement icon set being developed currently is Akua [looks very mac os x] from:
http://homepage.mac.com/punto_mac/projects/neo/downloads/Akua_Prerelease.dmg
or replace them with a new set of Tango icons, also more like what one expects in aqua:
http://au.geocities.com/aussie_149/index.html
An hour spent chasing this up may reward you with lots of hours looking at a prettier screen
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” />