NeoOffice's small development team has been concurrently developing the technology for its user interface, so these delays have often been several months. Because NeoOffice is based on releases of, there is a delay between those releases and corresponding versions of NeoOffice. However, it requires more memory than the X11 version to perform well, some functions are allegedly slower, and the additional code it adds to the main code base is not as fully tested. NeoOffice is more 'Mac-like', with easier installation, better integration into the OS X interface (pull-down menus at the top of the screen and familiar keyboard shortcuts, for example), use of Mac OS X's fonts and printing services without additional configuration, and integration with the Mac OS X clipboard and drag-and-drop functions.

2.x for Mac OS X (X11) is an older version of developed and distributed by the team it runs in an X11 environment and requires either X11.app or XDarwin to be installed. NeoOffice 3.1.2 for Intel and NeoOffice 3.1.2 for PowerPC are based on 3.1.1 and on Go-OO 3.1.1.1 code modifications.

Oracle Open Office - requires Intel hardware.

IBM Lotus Symphony 3 - requires Intel hardware.

NeoOffice is one of a number of -based titles for Mac OS X:

2.3 NeoOffice 3.x and IBM Lotus Symphony 3.0.

If you're strapped for cash or simply don't want to install Microsoft software on your Mac, OpenOffice for Mac is an excellent, if slightly imperfect alternative. The numerous settings and buttons that come with it can also be a little overwhelming too and it would be nice to see it made a little simpler and streamlined in future releases. This has certainly been improved in the latest releases but its still a sluggish old thing compared to Microsoft Office. However, the main one is that since it is largely based on Java, it can be rather slow and unresponsive particularly when opening new files.

Occasionally, you will experience formatting or printing issues when using documents that have been made in Microsoft Office. There are some drawbacks to OpenOffice for Mac of course. The six components OpenOffice for Mac comes with are Write, Calc (spreadsheets), Impress (presentations), Draw, Base (database management) and Formula (mathematical application).

It may not be quite as polished as Microsoft Office but considering you get all this for nothing, you really can't complain. OpenOffice for Mac includes the key desktop applications, such as a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation manager, and drawing program with a user interface and feature set similar to other office suites.

Openoffice org 3.1 review