How can you not root for Sun's quixotic attempt to take down the Redmond behemoth? More people than ever are on the lookout for a decent alternative office suite; StarOffice 7 which offers a reasonable price and supports Linux and Solaris as well as Windows, has made minor inroads among business users, especially in Europe and Asia. Version 8 is better in many ways than its predecessor, yet few users are likely to overlook the rough edges and unfinished business that mark this is a beta release.

Yikes--A 160 MB Download!
StarOffice literally makes a big first impression: At 160 MB, it's a huge software download that took about six minutes to complete on a fast cable connection. The product required another 15 minutes to install, most of it spent waiting for the installation program to finish its job. This is much too slow, and Sun should work on speeding up the process before it releases a final version of the software.

There's another time-wasting quirk in StarOffice: You're forced to accept the same license agreement when you download the software, again when you install the software and a third time when you run it for the first time. Even in an age of legal paranoia, I think nagging users once will suffice.

While you visiting the download page, you should also download the StarOffice documentation, which includes PDF versions of the Getting Started Guide and a programming guide for Sun Basic, the StarOffice version of Visual Basic/VBA. (The Getting Started Guide refers to several other documents, such as an administrative guide, but these were not available on the download page at the time.) The guide is designed for non-technical end users, and it includes a section geared towards former Microsoft Office users, along with instructions for performing basic tasks in each StarOffice application. It could work well as a training document for a business moving its employees over to StarOffice.

In addition to these documents, there is also an online help system. The beta version I reviewed, however, did not yet include contextual links; clicking "Help" from a dialog box opens the system, but the user will have to search for the correct help topic until this functionality is restored to the product.

What You See, What You Get
As with its predecessor, StarOffice 8 includes a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation program, drawing application, and a database design tool. Each StarOffice application allows you to save documents using a new XML format, and you can also save documents as PDF files directly from any application.

In Short Product:: StarOffice 8 (beta) Company:: Sun Microsystems, Inc. 4150 Network Circle Santa Clara, CA 95054 Phone: US 1-800-555-9SUN Pricing: Free download URL: http://www.sun.com/software/star/staroffice/beta/ Platforms: Windows 2000/XP, Linux, Sun Solaris Pros: Excellent integration of suite components. Significant database tool upgrade Feature set competitive with Microsoft Office Cons: Mixed results importing documents in other formats Very large download and slow installation process Beta release with limited documentation and functionality Bottom Line: StarOffice has the rough edges one expects in a beta release. Even so, this is an impressive set of tools that is likely to offer a compelling alternative to Microsoft Office.

In addition, you can save documents in a variety of other formats, making it considerably easier to work with people who use Microsoft Office or similar applications.

People who use StarOffice 7 will notice one difference immediately. In the past, opening a program from the Start > Programs menu was a document-centered process: for example, you clicked "New Text Document" to open the word processor. Now the process is program-centered, so that you now select "StarOffice 8 Writer" to open the word processor. This is a much more sensible approach, and a simple but useful improvement.

StarOffice 8 also built in an integration menu into each program, giving users a quick way to access any other application in the suite from the one in which they are currently working. The "New" button in the toolbar starts a new document for the current program, of course, but clicking the down-arrow next to the button provides access to the rest of the StarOffice suite, as well as some specialized document types. This is a terrific addition, giving the suite a more unified feel and providing an easy way to create any document type from within any application, at any time.

Unfinished Business While most changes in StarOffice 8 are more incremental in nature, Sun made substantial changes to the database program. It is now a fully-integrated part of the StarOffice suite, whereas version 7 included only a limited use license for the Abadas software and did not even include it in the Start>Programs menu. In addition, a new wizard is available to help users create database tables and forms, although it is still on the rough side: Even with help from this and other tools, you really need to understand database design to use it effectively. In addition, when I tried to create a simple database with four columns, the program locked up, and I had to shut it down using the Windows Task Manager. Even considering this is a beta release, the database program needs significant work before it's ready for production use.

The programs in StarOffice 8 also have a somewhat different look and feel than those in version 7, although nothing has changed dramatically. The word processor, for example, no longer displays the toolbar on the left side by default, as it did in version 7. (Of course, you are free to drag the toolbars anywhere you like.) There's also a new menu listing recently opened documents below the "Open" command, near the top of the File menu. Most programs put this list at the bottom of the menu, making it easy to overlook. There's no good reason for the different placement; Sun should move the list to the bottom of the File menu, where people are used to seeing it.

The word processor includes a long list of minor new features including a mail wizard, an enhanced PDF export wizard with extra compression settings and other options, nested tables, and too many other features to list here. These changes are clearly intended to match StarOffice's major business productivity competitors, especially Microsoft Office.

Imported Problems The StarOffice Getting Started Guide states clearly that the program cannot import documents containing macros, but the program does include a number of filters tailored for older versions of StarOffice documents, as well as Microsoft Office documents (a far more likely scenario). I tested the filters in the version 8 beta, using a few simple test documents from Microsoft Office and Adobe FrameMaker (which I saved as RTF 1.6 files). The results were disappointing, even for a beta release.

One problem from the start is the fact that the File menu lacks a clearly marked Import function. Instead, Sun virtually hid this feature under the Wizards sub-menu and called it the Document Converter. This is a key feature that many users will access regularly--Sun should label it clearly and make it available directly from the File menu, instead of making users search for it.

On the bright side, the spreadsheet program imported my sample spreadsheet seamlessly. I'm not a heavy-duty Microsoft Excel user, however, so this only tested the StarOffice spreadsheet program's ability to capture simple formatting and formulas--a task it handled without difficulty. Word processing documents were another story. I started with a simple Word 2003 document, and the program imported it without a problem. But when I imported a RTF document with more complex formatting created in Adobe FrameMaker, StarOffice did not convert the bulleted and numbered lists, although it did convert the other styles included in the document.

Next, I created a simple document in Word 2003, including a numbered list and a two-level bulleted list. StarOffice would only open this document in read-only form, and I had to run the Document Converter wizard for full access--a relatively complex task that could confuse some business users. My last test involved a Microsoft PowerPoint 2003 presentation. StarOffice Impress, the suite's presentation tool, imported a basic presentation, using text and a complex graphical template, without difficulty. It could not, however, import any special effects, such as sound or simple animation, although these effects are now increasingly common in presentations.

Finally, I saved a StarOffice Writer document with a variety of heading styles, along with some bulleted and numbered lists, as a Word document, and then opened it in Word 2003. The filter worked perfectly, preserving all of the formatting in the Word-formatted document.

This was by no means a comprehensive test of the import and export filters in the StarOffice 8 beta. Although it's unfair in any case to pass final judgment until a production release is available, this is a crucial feature that Sun needs to implement as quickly and thoroughly as possible if it hopes to win business converts from Microsoft Office. Managers and business owners will expect some assurances that they and their employees can open legacy Microsoft documents effortlessly, and that will also expect to work seamlessly with organizations still using Microsoft Office.

It's Close--Now Get Closer One can't expect beta software to be perfect, and that's certainly the case here. Sun has added some promising, if not exactly revolutionary, functionality to StarOffice 8, but the suite's document and import capabilities will have to be more reliable and consistent when this product hits the street. Even minor problems in this area could make the difference between success (which would be even a modest increase in market share) and failure (meaning continued obscurity) in the office suite market.

There's a lot to like about StarOffice, however, especially the integration menu and the way the different programs play so nicely together. The suite isn't ready for prime time just yet, and that won't change until Sun brings the document conversion tools and filters up to par. With a little more work, however, StarOffice has the potential to win a significant number of business users, including Microsoft Office users fed up with paying a premium for features most of them never come close to using. Given the reasonable price Sun charges for version 7 (and assuming Sun keeps the price reasonable), StarOffice 8 is even more likely to give companies looking for a reliable, cost-effective Microsoft alternative a reason to make the big switch.