NeoOffice 2014.3

Overview

NeoOffice is a full office suite to use on the Mac OS X operating system. The package can be used to access spreadsheets, word processing, presentation, and other types of documents. The package is fully compatible with Microsoft Office and so can work directly with Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other types of Office documents such as OpenOffice and LibreOffice files too.

The NeoOffice version available in the iTunes store is sold as a premium product, however there is a version available at NeoOffice.org which allows the opening of Office documents but lacks saving options.

Installation

The installation is straightforward with no issues. There is no additional software added which is malicious or unnecessary. The software requires OS X 10.8 or later and a 64-bit processor to run on. The package is 482 MB which will take a while to download even on a fast internet connection. Many languages are supported including English, Arabic, Norwegian, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, and Spanish.

Interface

The interface matches the standard Apple OS X look perfectly. Menu options appear at the very top. Multiple documents can be open and accessible from this Office package. For any users of OpenOffice or LibreOffice, the interface will be quite familiar as it follows similar design principals.

Pros

• Office compatible suite to use with Mac OS X
• Looks and acts in a similar way to OpenOffice and LibreOffice
• Spreadsheet Calc package for Excel documents
• Writer package for Word documents
• Access older versions of the same documents via the Browse All Versions menu
• Edit files on network drives, Dropbox or iCloud Drive with file locking features
• Grammar checking of documents
• Text highlighting where needed
• Linked to primary Mac OS X services and features
• Floating tool windows
• More attractive interface than some other Office products
• Save Word documents as Adobe PDF files

Cons

• Premium package for Mac OS X
• Free version of OpenOffice and LibreOffice provide competing features for free

Alternatives

Both the open-source OpenOffice and LibreOffice packages are available for free on Mac system and offer much the same functionality. Their interface and appearance is different, so it is a matter of preference for users to see which they prefer using.

Conclusion

NeoOffice is one of several Office alternatives to Microsoft Office that run on the Mac OS X operating system. It looks and feels right, however only the viewer package is free; the premium version is the one that offers full features. Compared to the free OpenOffice and LibreOffice versions it is difficult to recommend NeoOffice. With that said, the cloud integration and ability to view old versions of files is nice.