If you've already tested any of the previous development versions, you won't notice much of a change. OpenOffice.org 3.0 reveals itself as a very decent competitor to other popular proprietary office suites: it's light on resources, easy to use and offers full compatibility with standard document formats – including the latest docx, xlsx, pptx and so on from Office 2008.
OpenOffice.org includes six different apps that enable you to work with text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, databases, vector-based graphics and mathematical formulas, respectively. All six apps are easily accessible from a launcher ("Start Centre") with freshly designed icons, as well as from an OpenOffice.org icon (“Quickstarter”) in the System Tray. Both the launcher and the Quickstarter icon include a handy template manager as well, though most templates are to be used only with for presentations.
OpenOffice.org's applications met our expectations in every aspect: they're easy to use (especially if you're used to working with Microsoft Office) and feature all the necessary tools to create complete documents, spreadsheets, presentations, databases and more. They're also thoroughly documented so, if you get lost you can always find a way out by clicking on the Help menu. I particularly liked the wizard-style interface in OpenOffice.org Impress (the "Power-Point" app) which enables you to create presentations in no time. But the best thing about OpenOffice.org is probably the possibility to improve and customize your suite with new templates and extensions, downloadable directly from the developer's site.
OpenOffice.org 3.0 left a very good taste in our mouths. It's a very decent alternative to other suites and can be easily customized with new extensions. Definitely worth a try!
Download OpenOffice.org 3.3.0 RC7 in Softonic