Joined: Nov 21, 2005 Posts: 1285 Location: Witless Protection Program
Posted: Tue Jun 13, 2006 11:31 pm Post subject: MacAddict reviews: 13 Affordable Word Alternatives
I just got my issue of MacAddict (issue 119) July 2006.
It has Three articles that mention NeoOffice:
1. on Page 30, NeoOffice was a Runner-Up for Office Suites (AppleWorks 6.2.9 got best?!? )
Cons/Bad News - Unattractive. Slow to Launch
2. 0n Page 31, NeoOffice is mention to replace the rest of Office - "Score another one for the amazing, free NeoOffice. And it's still ugly."
3. on Page 33, There is a comparison table of 11 Word Processor replacements. NeoOffice had every option except: Table of Contents (WTF - I was sure that this was available), and Copy and Paste Text Format (not sure what this means). Neo was truly a leader in this comparison.
Does anyone know about the two missing items
So, if Patrick and Ed and make NeoOffice - Start Faster and look ... prettier we will have ... The WINNER?!?
Then, ALL our problems will be solved, our blemishes will clear up, women will swoon as we past, Ed will have ample Sam Adams....
Does that ever make it onto the web at some point (after a month, etc.)? If so, it would be a nice thing to link to in the Press Kit (heh, more things I need to do).
Smokey _________________ "[...] whether the duck drinks hot chocolate or coffee is irrelevant." -- ovvldc and sardisson in the NeoWiki
Joined: May 25, 2003 Posts: 4752 Location: Santa Barbara, CA
Posted: Wed Jun 14, 2006 9:16 pm Post subject:
It's always refreshing to know that there's some sanity out there. Even though we've been censored and doublespeaked by OOo, someone realizes that hundreds of thousands of users can't be wrong, espeically for something that's free
Joined: Apr 26, 2006 Posts: 49 Location: Vancouver, BC
Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 8:51 am Post subject: Re: MacAddict reviews: 13 Affordable Word Alternatives
LemonAid wrote:
3. on Page 33, There is a comparison table of 11 Word Processor replacements. NeoOffice had every option except: Table of Contents (WTF - I was sure that this was available), and Copy and Paste Text Format (not sure what this means). Neo was truly a leader in this comparison.
Guess they weren't looking too hard for a ToC generator, then -- it's there under "indexes and tables". All the reviewer had to do was open up the Help section and find "tables of contents". I'm not sure where Word for Mac puts this stuff -- but if it's in a different part of the menu, they may have looked for it in the "usual" place, found nothing, and assumed that it wasn't there.
I'm not sure what they meant by "copy and paste text format", either, but it may have been to pick up the style information from a selection and then apply it to another, kind of like the eyedropper in InDesign. I'm not convinced that this is a big disadvantage, especially because Neo and OOo encourage the use of style sheets rather than ad-hoc overrides.
Speaking of questionable reviews, the January issue of Hub Canada (a "digital living" freebie aimed at consumers) did a roundup of software for Windows users those switching to Mac. While they were quick to mention OOo/X11 (and glossed over it as having a more Windows-like interface... groan), they didn't point to Neo. I thought that was irresponsible given that the magazine's audience is not att that technically-minded. Pointing them to something that requires setting up X11, importing fonts and screwing with printers is a recipe for frustrated users. (Oddly, I think that Windows users switching to Mac would do fine with neo -- they'd be less likely to complain about the grey scrollbars, low-colour buttins and so forth.)
Joined: Nov 21, 2005 Posts: 1285 Location: Witless Protection Program
Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 2:13 pm Post subject: Re: MacAddict reviews: 13 Affordable Word Alternatives
iking wrote:
Guess they weren't looking too hard for a ToC generator, then -- it's there under "indexes and tables". All the reviewer had to do was open up the Help section and find "tables of contents". I'm not sure where Word for Mac puts this stuff -- but if it's in a different part of the menu, they may have looked for it in the "usual" place, found nothing, and assumed that it wasn't there.
I'm not sure what they meant by "copy and paste text format", either, but it may have been to pick up the style information from a selection and then apply it to another, kind of like the eyedropper in InDesign. I'm not convinced that this is a big disadvantage, especially because Neo and OOo encourage the use of style sheets rather than ad-hoc overrides.
<snip>
Ian
I checked after I wrote my message and TOC was there - bright as day.
I had not thought that the reviewer might have been looking for it in the old MS Word location.
As for the "Copy & Paste text Format", I think you are correct that the Reviewer might have been thinking of MS Word - Format Painter. Guess they did not see the "Format Paintbrush" on the icon bar (and in about the same location as Word ). I agree it's much better to use Styles.
Did you know if you double click the Paintbrush, you can use it multiple times?
So, with those two items are available - that means that NeoOffice 2.Oh! had ALL of the compared features. It was already rated very high. I don't remember if any Suite had ALL of the features.
NeoOffice 2.0 DOES (it ALL)! So it's ... 99.9% perfect?!?
Philip (has to remember to use STYLES and not Paintbrush )
Ha! AW fan here. Pat and ed have known for a long time and constantly get reminded that the masses rate prettiness and covenience (incl. launch time) as their most desired factors... Hats off to the Neo Masters though for getting a perfect score on the features comparison, the part that counts (even though the reviewer apparently missed 2). Keep up the great work fellas!
Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2006 5:55 am Post subject: Re: MacAddict reviews: 13 Affordable Word Alternatives
iking wrote:
I'm not sure what they meant by "copy and paste text format", either, but it may have been to pick up the style information from a selection and then apply it to another, kind of like the eyedropper in InDesign. I'm not convinced that this is a big disadvantage, especially because Neo and OOo encourage the use of style sheets rather than ad-hoc overrides.
Ian
As much as Neo is great (seriously... our PC with Office 2003 went down, and now it's fixed, my Dad and sister are still using the iMac with Neo!), I still hanker after FinalWriter 97 for the Amiga...
It had a "copy ruler" function, which only copied and pasted the ruler format. It was invaluable when setting up documents, as you could easily set up different styles, or usages of the same style by moving tabs and margins wholesale between paragraphs.
It also had a tabbed interface, like Excel/NeoOffice Calc, which allowed you to easily switch between sections, great for writing documents which cross reference internally. It didn't auto-update tables of contents etc., but hey, this was 9 years ago, running on machines with 2Mb of RAM.
Come to think of it, I get on with Calc and Impress in NeoOffice, as I am OK with the MS versions of the software (IMHO Excel is the only truly great piece of software ever to have come out of MS), but I hate Word, and dislike NeoOffice Writer because it tries to be like Word. Now if there was an oOo derived word processor that was easier to use yet still as powerful... I'll shut up now and get back to the grindstone...
Joined: May 25, 2003 Posts: 4752 Location: Santa Barbara, CA
Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2006 9:53 am Post subject:
No, that's totally a valid point. Someday I hope that things can get to the point where it's easy to wrap other user interfaces around OOo itself. The JavaBean is one way there, but unfortunately we can't implement it on OS X due to security restrictions in the WindowServer (e.g. an application can only draw into its own windows...makes perfect sense, really, and it's scary that you can do that on other platforms. Just wait until that gets used for the next internet exploiter worm...).
The ability to do that is a far way off, unfortunately. I know I'd like to see one with the old FullWrite interface myself (I love that wp), and there have been frequent discussions about making a Word 5 interface. The immediate reality is that those are pipe dreams, unfortunately, and I don't ever see them being real feasible within the next few years given the OOo sourcebase.
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- I was sure that this was available), and Copy and Paste Text Format (not sure what this means). Neo was truly a leader in this comparison.
So it's ... 99.9% perfect?!?
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