StarOffice 5.0

alt="linux.JPG (9333 bytes)" align="left">StarOffice is perhaps the

most well known office suite for Linux. What is not equally well known is that there is a

Windows version as well. The suite is free for download and individual use, but cannot be

redistributed. That is why you have not seen it on the PCQ CD. Currently in its fifth

version, StarOffice includes the StarDesktop, StarWriter, StarCalc,

StarImpress, StarDraw, StarMail, StarBase, StarDiscussion, StarImage,

StarMath, and StarSchedule. Whew!

That’s quite a bunch. All the packages have been integrated into one application and

have a similar interface. The different applications open up as different windows within

StarOffice.

StarOffice has a more professional look and feel than WordPerfect,

probably attributable to the longer time that it has been around. It also has an amazing

amount of settings and customization options that you can play around with.

The application starts with a desktop of its own. In fact, if you

want you can maximize it and use it as your regular desktop. All that you want–word

processor, spreadsheet, database, e-mail, drawing app, scheduler, address book,

presentation package, and browser–are available from here.

Given that it has so many applications built into it, StarOffice can

handle a number of file formats. Version 5 reads all files created in Office 97 also. But

on the flip side, it takes ages to load or to open a file. Currently open files show up on

the start bar at the bottom. Clicking on the start button brings up a start menu, much

like Windows and KDE. And if you have KDE already installed, the KDE start menu becomes

available to you as a submenu from the program files menu item.

For most of us, making presentations have become part and parcel of

our daily routine. Any office suite would not be worth its name if it didn’t come

with a decent presentation package. How does StarOffice stack up here? Pretty decently, I

must admit. StarOffice has a full-fledged presentation module, complete with slides,

effects, animations, and more. You can rehearse your timings, set interactivity options

and any other thing you can do with commercial presentation packages. As can be expected,

it imports PPT files with ease. But with PPT files with a large number of elements in a

slide, some of the elements tend to get slightly out of place. Also, you don’t have a

save or export to PPT option. So, if you want to share your presentation with Office users

you do have a problem. Word processor files can be saved as RTF and shared. You have no

such problems with spreadsheets though. Star can save in Excel file formats.

Should StarOffice crash, as it once did on me, it will save all your

work till then, tell you that it has saved, and exits gracefully. Next time you start up

the package, it will prompt whether you want to recover the file. Neat!

In fact, StarOffice is one of the most complete office suites I have

seen. Star Division has done a good job with this package. It’s only remaining sore

spot is the loading time. But then, if your machine is one of the later day speed

monsters, this should not worry you. Still, some more work on that and you have a killer

package here.