StarOffice Software

StarOffice 8 Office Suite is a complete, feature-rich office productivity product that's available for approximately 75% less than Microsoft Office 2007 Standard Edition. It includes powerful programs for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, drawing, database, graphics, and Web publishing. Its user interface is intuitive and easy to use. Plus, it's multi-platform: available on the Microsoft Windows and Linux platforms, as well as on the Solaris Operating Environment.

Yes, StarOffice is a complete office productivity suite that is fully compatible with other office productivity suites. Keeping in mind that each organization has its own requirements, many will find StarOffice an affordable alternative to Microsoft Office.

StarOffice software provides the functionality to meet the day-to-day office productivity needs for users in homes and businesses of every size.

There is a lot that is new and exciting in StarOffice 8, including better compatibility with Microsoft Office, a redesigned presentation tool, a new database tool, and Draw.

StarOffice 8 software costs much less than competing desktop productivity suites. Customers receive a savings of up to 80% compared to other suites.

StarOffice 8 Office Suite will be available through worldwide retail outlets (Best Buys, CompUSA, and others), E-tailers like Amazon, and from Sun's Web site site as a fee-based download. In addition, new Sun hardware will come pre-installed with the StarOffice 8 Software for enterprises. The StarOffice product will be distributed through Sun Global Sales Organization, which includes all Sun direct sales and Sun master resellers.

The upcoming StarOffice 9 release will fully support the Mac OS X platform. Stay tuned until the end of this year.

StarOffice is the brand name marketed in the Western markets only. StarSuite is the brand name marketed only in the Asian markets. Apart from the brand name, there are no major functional differences. Sun's StarSuite 8 and StarOffice 8 files are interchangeable and compatible. The primary functionality difference of StarSuite 8 Office Suite is the support for Unicode and linguistic support for Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), Japanese (Kanji), and Korean.

Schools and educational institutions can receive StarOffice 8 office suite for the cost of media and shipping. For more details visit Sun's StarOffice Education Web site.

There will be an evaluation (time-limited) version available free for download.

For enterprise customers, Sun offers evaluation kits for StarOffice software. The kit includes a CD containing the StarOffice software, documentation in Adobe PDF format, and a limited use license. Please contact your Sun Sales representative in order to receive the evaluation kit.

There will no longer be a free download of StarOffice on the Sun Web site, but those seeking a free office productivity suite can go to http://www.openoffice.org.

With StarOffice software the license fee is based on users, not machines. A one-user license allows you to install StarOffice software on up to five different machines you operate, giving you the flexibility to run the software on multiple machines -- be it at work, on your notebook or at home.

StarOffice 9 will be the first release which supports the Microsoft Office 2007 file format. It will be available in the 4th quarter of this year.

Review our answers to Technical FAQs, or submit a support request.

StarOffice 8 introduces a set of tools to significantly lower the cost and time of migrating Microsoft Office users to StarOffice. The migration tools in the StarOffice 8 Enterprise Edition consist of a Professional Analysis Wizard and a Macro Migration Wizard. The Professional Analysis Wizard analyzes user documents to identify potential migration risks, calculates the cost of migration, and reduces that cost by preparing documents for the move. The Macro Migration Wizard analyzes Microsoft Office macros and converts Microsoft Office macros to StarOffice so that those macros can be used by StarOffice users.

No, the Migration Tools are part of the StarOffice product portfolio.

A series of quick reference cards with "how-to" instructions on key StarOffice tasks is available from several publishers. Also, several StarOffice 8 Office Suite user guides and technical manuals can be downloaded from Sun's Documentation Web site

The StarOffice Enterprise license uses the Right To Use (RTU) license. One RTU allows a user the right to install up to 5 copies of StarOffice software on systems they operate in any of the supported languages and on any of the supported platforms.

No. The RTU does not include any documentation or media. Documentation and media are available separately to ensure that you can order as many documentation sets and media as needed for your organization.

StarOffice does not use a license server to control the number of licenses.

Please visit the main StarOffice Software product site for more information.

Document templates, Autotext item and the database elements get migrated automatically. The Administration Guide describes the migration of the StarOffice Configuration Manager. StarOffice 8 has an import filter for the SO 7 file format, and the Product Update 5 for StarOffice 7 adds an import filter for the new OpenDocument file format of StarOffice 8.

Menu and Toolbar customization of StarOffice cannot be migrated to StarOffice 8.

StarOffice 8 provides the functionality to create PDF files.

Yes, patches will be available from SunSolve.

The XML file formats for StarOffice 8 software are standardized by the OASIS standardization organization. The format specification is fully published so customers have control of their files and intellectual property. XML allows for increased compatibility, as any XML-enabled application can read and modify the content of any StarOffice software file. StarOffice 8 software files are also smaller because the XML file format uses Industry Standard compression. The XML file format specification is published at: http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=office.

The single user (retail) version and the enterprise offering, include the same binaries. The only difference between these two offerings is that the retail package comes bundled with printed documentation, a support incident, and the enterprise CD, which contains the following: StarOffice Migration Tools, StarOffice SDK, and Windows Sun Java Configuration Manager client.

Yes, there is an encryption feature which encrypts the passwords and contents of an OpenDocument Format document.

Yes, it is possible with OpenDocument file format. You can obtain a digital certificate from a commercial certification authority, such as VeriSign Inc., Web.de, etc.

Yes, but without verifying the signature. StarOffice does not support the digital signatures from Microsoft Office.

Yes. Beginning with Office XP, Microsoft introduced two new password encryption algorithms: RC4 Base and Enhanced. These files cannot be imported by StarOffice, but Office XP and 2003 don't use this new algorithm by default. Therefore, the vast majority of files will be imported successfully.

Yes, StarOffice 8 software includes import and export filters for WordPerfect.

Yes. StarOffice 8 software features StarOffice Math which is an equivalent component to the Microsoft Office Equation Editor. It is capable of creating equations and formulas in reports/presentations.

No. Rather than develop a new PIM client, we chose to focus on the core office productivity suite.

StarOffice 8 software is a commercial product built on the open source code of OpenOffice.org to provide the best value, multi-platform Microsoft compatible office suite aimed at organizations and consumers. OpenOffice.org 2.0 is the leading open-source project aimed at users of free software, independent developers, and the open source community.

StarOffice includes licensed-in, third-party technology such as:

• Spellchecker and thesaurus
• Select fonts, including Windows metrically equivalent fonts and Asian language fonts
• Select filters, including Asian word processor filters
• Integration of additional templates and extensive clipart gallery
• Migration Tools and Macro Migration Wizard. The converted macros do not run in OpenOffice.org.
• Sun Java System Configuration Manager for Solaris, Linux and Windows

In addition to product differences, StarOffice offers:

• Updates/upgrades on CD
• Sun installation and user documentation
• 24x7 Web based support for enterprises and consumers
• Help desk support
• Warranties and indemnification guarantee
• Training
• Professional services for migration and deployment

For more information on components and services available for the OpenOffice.org product, visit the OpenOffice.org web site.

Yes. Contributions and enhancements to this code base are committed through the worldwide OpenOffice.org developer community, as well as through Sun's development engineers. At regular intervals, Sun takes a 'snapshot' of this code to produce StarOffice. Additional third party technologies are then added to the StarOffice product to offer a complete solution to meet the requirements of professionals in today's enterprise environment. Community-provided contributions which match with Sun's product strategy for future StarOffice releases are incorporated and become a Sun supported product feature, such as the Flash Export feature for Impress and Draw.

The OpenDocument file format used by StarOffice is a native XML format without any binary data. Sub-elements, such as pictures, are placed in the original file format in the XML file. The XML format specification is located at http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=office.

OpenDocument files are saved as archive files (ZIP format), because they actually contain several sub-elements like pictures, macros and styles. To explore the real XML content, you need to unpack the document file (e.g. ending with .odt). You will then find the XML content in a file named content.xml

No, you can not. Part of the Macro Migration Wizard is an additional API layer with a simplified VBA abutted object model. Sun offers special Migration Tools licenses for OpenOffice.org. Please contact your Sun sales representative or visit the Sun home page.

Yes, StarOffice 8 can read and write the Microsoft Office 2003 XML file format (WordML, SpreadsheetML).

Yes, StarOffice will be compatible with the new file format. Microsoft had not published a specification at the launch time of StarOffice 8. The next release of StarOffice will be able to load and save those files.

The new StarOffice 8 database client has powerful database forms, queries, and database table editors. It also includes wizards that simplify the creation of database tables, forms, queries, and reports. Besides the built-in rational database, HSQL, it also has the ability to operate with the following databases:

• ADABAS
• MySQL
• JDBC database driver
• ODBC database driver
• dBase
• Text
• Spreadsheet
• Address book

An ADABAS database server is part of the StarOffice 8 package. ADABAS is a powerful database manufactured by Software AG. The bundled version is limited to three concurrent users. Customers may decide to upgrade the ADABAS database. This needs to be done through Software AG directly.

StarOffice Calc provides an import/export filter for dBase. The StarOffice database client provides interfaces for JDBC, ODBC, MySQL, Adabas, dBase, Address book databases.

StarOffice does not include a direct interface to an Access database. It uses the ADO database interface from Microsoft for the communication with Access. The easiest way to allow this capability is to install the Jet database engine from Microsoft.

Yes, the following Asian fonts are included:

• Japanese: HG Mincho Light J
• Chinese Simplified: MSung Light SC
• Chinese Traditional: MSung Light TC
• Korean: HY MyeongJo Light K

Yes, the Hong Kong Supplementary character set can be used with StarOffice. However, the Chinese font MSung Light, which is included in StarOffice 8, does not contain this character set. This means your system needs to have a font installed which contains this additional character set.

Yes, StarOffice supports these input methods.