OpenOffice.org Features

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The following tables list some important features of OpenOffice.org and compare them with two leading office suites, Microsoft Office 2003 (MSO) and WordPerfect X3' (WP).

Styles and formatting

Feature OOo MSO WP
Navigator yes limited1 no
Styles and Formatting window yes yes no
Keyboard support for paragraph styles yes yes no
Support for page, frame, and list styles yes no no
Word completion yes Excel only no
Spelling and language proofing modules 70+ 50+2 25
Formula or equation tools yes yes no

1 "Outline View" in Word offers a subset of the features of OOo's Navigator.

2 Requires an additional license for the the Multilingual User Interface Pack.

Interoperability

Feature OOo MSO WP
PDF export capability yes yes1 yes
Flash export capability yes no yes
XML export capability yes yes yes
OpenDocument XML format yes no no
Import/Export Microsoft Office files yes yes yes
Import WordPerfect files yes yes yes
Import Lotus 123 files yes yes yes
Connect to external databases
(MySQL, Oracle, Access, etc.)
yes yes yes
Languages available (localizations) 40+ 35+ 30
Supported operating systems Windows, Mac OS X,
Linux, Solaris
Windows only2 Windows only
Unicode language support yes yes no

1 Requires additional third-party software, such as PDF Writer or PDF Converter.
2 Microsoft Office: Mac is not feature compatible with Microsoft Office 2003.

Programmability

Macros are programs that automate tasks and can be embedded in a document. The following table lists the languages available for macro development in each office suite.

Language OOo MSO WP
Basic-derived language OpenBasic VBA VBA
Beanshell yes no no
Java yes no no
JavaScript yes no no
Python yes no no

Beyond simple macros, some office suites can be extended to include new features. This capability usually takes the form of plug-ins. In the case of OpenOffice.org, it can also be done through changes to the source code.

Feature OOo MSO WP
C and C++ yes yes yes
Java yes no no
Python yes no no
Source code available! yes no no

Security

Feature OOo MSO WP
Digital signatures yes yes yes
Strong encryption yes yes yes
Secure paths for macro execution yes yes no


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