Make OOo Like Word

March 7, 2009 1:46 PM

Can I Make OpenOffice (Mac) look like Microsoft Word 2007 (PC)?

My wife really loves the UI of Microsoft Word 2007 on the PC (screenshot).

Is their a way to change the UI of open office to make it look more like Word 2007's UI?

posted by chrisalbon to technology (9 comments total)

More information: I am not a programmer.
posted by chrisalbon at 2:11 PM on March 7

Really short version: No.

Longer version: while perhaps there are people working to imitate the Office 2007 design, it hasn't happened yet (likely because the "geek" community mostly seems to object to the new interface).. Microsoft really did spend a lot of time and effort overhauling the interface to Office (please, no gripes or whines about whether or not it was an improvement).

If your wife was on a PC, I would suggest geting Office 2007 Home and Student edition. It's quite a bargain at about $100 (note: the license for this version forbids you from using it for commercial purposes). On the Mac, they have Office 2008 (Office 2008 Home and Student Edition is about $150). This version has some of the Ribbon elements incorporated, but it does have the entire interface.
posted by fief at 2:34 PM on March 7

I don't know about making it look like Word 2007, but I like the NeoOffice version of OpenOffice a lot. With NeoOffice you don't end up with the stray X11 window hanging out in the background and the apple key functions like it does in every other app. It's not perfect, but I think it goes a long way towards making it easier to use.
posted by clockwork at 2:37 PM on March 7

OOo 3 doesn't have the stray X11 window.
posted by tcv at 4:07 PM on March 7

Hey clockwork, OO has officially gone native as of 3.0. No more X11 wonkiness!
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 4:09 PM on March 7

Ooh..tcv just beat me to it!
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 4:09 PM on March 7

ah, thanks. that's good to know.
posted by clockwork at 4:50 PM on March 7

Yeah, I've looked around, and there's really no way to do this.

Now, as you probably know, you can move around the buttons if you want to. What's more, you can change what each of those buttons look like, so that, in a way, you can change the 'theme' of OpenOffice. But, not being a programmer, you should understand that changing the whole user interface of any program, not just OpenOffice, is a real undertaking; a 'skin' or a 'theme' wouldn't do what you want it to.

Personally, I know what your wife means; I really like MS Office 2007 precisely because the UI is so much better than it's been. Maybe I'm just partial because I'm an inveterate keyboarder, and 2007's way of dealing with keyboard hotkeys is one of the most natural I've ever seen in any program. It still has the annoying quirks that Office tends to have, but at least I like the way it looks.

Anyhow, you're probably better off, as others have said, looking at another of the open-source word processors:

AbiWord {screenshot}
KOffice {screenshot - sorry, it's in the background...}
NeoOffice {screenshots}
posted by koeselitz at 5:26 PM on March 7

If money is no object, you can get a copy of Windows XP and Office 2007 and run them on your Mac via Boot Camp, a feature of OS X. Even better, you could get Windows XP + Office 2007 + VMware Fusion and run Office 2007 on top of OS X. I do this (for VPN work and for work I do with Windows-only apps like Access 2007 and Adobe Captivate), and it works beautifully.

On the cheap, CrossOver Mac supports Office 2007, but I don't have any experience with it.
posted by wheat at 8:17 PM on March 7