StarOffice Writer

Infobox software
name = StarOffice Writer



caption = StarOffice Writer 8 running on Solaris
developer = Sun Microsystems, community
latest_release_version = 8 Update 11
latest_release_date = release date|2008|06|06
operating_system = Windows, Linux, Solariscite web | url = http://www.sun.com/software/star/staroffice/specs.jsp | title = StarOffice 8 - System Requirements | accessdate = 2007-09-20 | author = Sun Microsystems, Inc. ]
genre = Word processor
license = Proprietary
website = [http://www.sun.com/star/ sun.com/star]

StarOffice Writer is the word processor component of the StarOffice software package. It was formerly known as StarWriter. Writer is based on OpenOffice.org Writer and is similar to Microsoft Word and Corel's WordPerfect.

Writer can be used across a Microsoft Windows, Linux, Solaris.

Features

Writer is capable of opening and saving documents in a variety of formats, including the OASIS Open Document Format (its default format since version 8.0), Microsoft Word's DOC, RTF and XHTML.

Writer provides a number of features not present in its main competitor, Word, including the ability to export to the PDF format natively. It also includes a word completion mechanism for predictive writing that is not available in Microsoft Word as of June, 2008.

Unlike OpenOffice.org Writer, StarOffice Writer includes a converter for VBA macros.

Features include:
* AutoCorrect
* AutoComplete
* Styles and Formatting
* Text Frames and Linking
* Tables of Contents
* Indexing
* Bibliographical References
* Illustrations
* Tables

Criticism

Writer lacks a normal view editing mode, in which borders and spaces between pages are hidden in order to make extended editing more efficient. [cite web |url = http://qa.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=4914 |title = Issue 4914 - "normal" view option needed |date=2002-05-15 |publisher = OpenOffice.org |accessdate = 2007-07-16] This feature is available in Microsoft Word.

Other users complain about the lack a "Reveal Codes" type screen where formatting information, such as boldface and italics' beginning and ending points are shown alongside text, a function that existed in WordPerfect 5.1 in the early 1990s.

Though StarOffice Writer has a spell checker, it lacks a grammar checker, unlike AbiWord, Microsoft Word, WordPerfect, and some other word processors, although a grammar checker is available as an extension.

Pricing

StarOffice Writer can be downloaded free of charge as part of Google Pack.

See also

* List of word processors
* Comparison of word processors
* Comparison of office suites

References

External links

* [http://www.sun.com/software/star/staroffice/index.xml StarOffice homepage]
* [http://pack.google.com/ Google Pack]