Johannesburg, 11 Oct 2005
Sun Microsystems' StarOffice 8 software will be available in SA shortly. This version of the desktop productivity suite is the first commercial office suite using the Open Document Format for Office Applications - the OASIS open standard that makes sharing files easier, improved interoperability and enhanced programmability.
"This software is easy to use with powerful word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, drawing and database capabilities," says Malcolm Sangster, Desktop and Mobility Practice Manager at Sun Microsystems in SA. Based on open source technology, OpenOffice.org, StarOffice 8 runs on the Windows, Linux and Solaris operating systems. The suite comprises five key components: StarOffice Writer, Impress, Calc, Base and Draw.
According to Sangster, the new StarOffice provides excellent compatibility with Microsoft Office and improves import and export of Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents, including password-protected MS Word and MS Excel files and presentations with complex animations, autoshapes and slide transitions. "It also provides features that look familiar to Microsoft Office users," he says.
StarOffice 8 not only allows users to transparently read and write files in Microsoft Office formats, its new default OpenDocument file format ensures their data won't be bound to a single product, now or in the future.
"With our expanding base of software publishers, StarOffice 8 will be easily accessible to cost-conscious customers at retail locations around SA. This is part of our overall effort to ensure all customers from students to governments to enterprises have access to information in an open, secure and freely available fashion, independent of any vendor or product."
StarOffice 8 Enterprise Edition also simplifies configuration across desktops enterprise-wide with its bundled management tools. Using built-in MS Office file analyser, users are better able to manage migration from Microsoft Office. In addition, it includes a Macro Migration Wizard to convert VBA macros, a commercial spellchecker, the Adabas D database engine and additional clip art, fonts and templates on top of OpenOffice.org.
"Local companies are looking for ways to reduce their costs of using information technologies and also make their IT investments provide real, measurable benefits in a very short term. Software, such as Sun's StarOffice 8, could neatly fit into both of these requirements. It could be used to reduce the software costs for each of their many desktop or mobile computers while also keeping the staff-related costs in check," explains Sangster.
There is a 90-day trial version of StarOffice 8 available for free download in seven languages and four platforms from the following Web site: http://www.sun.com/software/star/staroffice/get_eval.jsp. The trial version has all the features and functionalities.
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