Looking for options......if you are looking for word processing options for your MAC or an alternative to Microsoft Office, you should check out: www.neooffice.org
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 incorporates dozens of native Mac features and can import, edit, and exchange files with other popular office programs such as Microsoft Office.
Unlike the Mac OS X release of OpenOffice.org, NeoOffice does not require the X11 windowing system.
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, and updates and improvements are available on a regular basis.
Here are some key features of "NeoOffice J":
- Uses the Native Mac OS X Spellchecker
- Unlike OpenOffice.org, NeoOffice has an enhanced spellchecker that uses the Mac OS X spellchecking dictionary. With this enhanced spellchecker, users no longer need to download and install spellchecking dictionaries if Mac OS X already has a dictionary for their language.
- Uses the Native Mac OS X Address Book
- NeoOffice has included the ability to use the Mac OS X address book as a data source. This feature, which was developed by OpenOffice.org, is expected to be in their OpenOffice.org 2.3 release.
- Handles Most Microsoft Office 2007 Word, Excel, and PowerPoint Files
- NeoOffice includes the ODF Add-in for Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. The ODF Add-in is an open source project that makes it possible for NeoOffice to open, edit, and save most files in the Office 2007 Word, Excel, and PowerPoint formats. This feature is not available in current Mac versions of Microsoft Office and will not be available until Office 2008 for the Mac is released.
- Handles Macros in Excel Files
- NeoOffice includes the Excel macro support developed by Novell's ooo-build project. The ooo-build project is an open source project that continually develops feature enhancements to OpenOffice.org.
- Aqua Unlike OpenOffice.org, NeoOffice has native Aqua menus, file open and save dialogs, print dialogs, buttons, scrollbars, and many other native Aqua user interface elements.
- No X11 software required NeoOffice uses the Java technology that is built into Mac OS X. By using Java, there is no need to download and install the X11 software that OpenOffice.org requires.
- Uses Mac OS X fonts
- Unlike OpenOffice.org, NeoOffice uses the same fonts that all of your other Mac OS X applications use. This means that NeoOffice will handle reading and writing of Western European characters (e.g. characters with accents, umlauts, circumflexes, cedillas, etc.) and some fonts will even handle Japanese, Chinese, and Korean ideographs. Also, NeoOffice is able to use any fonts that you install using the /Applications/Font Book application.
- Handles international keyboards
- Unlike OpenOffice.org, NeoOffice will use any keyboard layout that you use. Also, if you switch your keyboard layout while NeoOffice is running, NeoOffice will automatically switch as well.
- Native printing support
- NeoOffice supports printing using Mac OS X's native printing functionality. Like other Mac OS X applications, you can use NeoOffice to print, preview, or save a document to a PDF file.
- Native copy and paste support
- NeoOffice supports copying and pasting using Mac OS X's native clipboard so you can copy and paste text and images between NeoOffice and other Mac OS X applications.
- Native drag-and-drop support
- NeoOffice supports native drag-and-drop so you can drag and drop text and images between NeoOffice and other Mac OS X applications.
Requirements:
- 512 MB of memory
- 400 MB of free disk space.
image source: NeoOffice website
Braden Kuznia
Assistant Director of Event Services at Comstock Memorial Union
on the campus of Minnesota State University Moorhead
www.bradenkuznia.com