StarOffice 7

StarOffice has been around for a while now, quietly providing users with a credible alternative to Microsoft Office. Sun's free version, OpenOffice, has been available for some time but StarOffice comes with loads more features. This latest version offers much the same features as Microsoft Office, but at a fraction of the price.

The biggest advantage StarOffice has over its Microsoft rival is the ease with which you can use applications together. For example, if you are writing a letter and decide to create or open a spreadsheet, the new file can be accessed from the Writer program. This is a very useful feature if you constantly have to refer to various documents.

Most word processor document formats are supported, even some that Microsoft Word does not recognise. StarOffice can also save files as PDF documents. This type of file is read by Adobe Reader and is an excellent way of preserving the look of a document, regardless of the computer it is being viewed on.

StarOffice also has an automatic word completion function that offers to complete common words. It's very useful once a vocabulary database has been built but if you continuously misspell a word, it will enter it that way in the database.

The animated assistant found in Microsoft Office is absent and is replaced with a light bulb, which appears when StarOffice wants to advise you. Thankfully, it's very unobtrusive and disappears if you do not use it. On the other hand, some of the menus are more verbose than Microsoft Office and can look a little intimidating.

The Word Count feature is stripped of options and it won't allow you to count the number of words in a selection, only the total number of words in the entire document. Real-time spell checking is included, but there is no grammar checker. Macros are supported in StarOffice, although any created in Microsoft Office are disabled during conversion. Nevertheless, if you're happy to write them out again, the macro language should not present any difficulties to experienced users.

The spreadsheet application has just about all of the features of Excel, including some more advanced uses such as conditional formatting. The samples that are provided offer a good starting point for creating your own spreadsheets.

Another difference between this and the free OpenOffice software is the database program. There's a little less hand-holding with this and you'll need some prior knowledge of databases to get the most out of it. Fortunately, the Autopilot template wizard has some wizards for creating forms and reports.

The drawing program supports both vector and bitmap pictures and is good for creating simple diagrams but it's not designed to be used for editing photos; the emphasis is on producing good pictures for reports. If you use the Microsoft Office website for resources and tips, the StarOffice site will seem a little sparse, although there are plenty of user forums to help with any problems.

Contact: Sun 01252 420000
www.sun.com/staroffice