Can Open Source Meet Law Office Needs?
I had never considered an open source alternative until a few months ago when a friend told me about NeoOffice. Here’s why I found it particularly intriguing: I have used the Macintosh since the beginning of time and, even though I have always owned the Microsoft Office suite for Mac, my word processor of choice was WordPerfect for Mac. (I know, it hasn’t been updated or even supported for a decade, but I liked it so much I couldn’t give it up.) I kept on using WordPerfect for Mac because it never became “bloated” like MS Word, or later versions of WordPerfect for Windows, and it was extremely easy to use. What’s more, all my long-time files of addresses, forms, pleadings and the like were stored in the WP for Mac format and MS Word wouldn’t let me open those files. Sure enough, when I first launched NeoOffice, I found I could double-click on a WP for Mac file and it would open as a NeoOffice file. It was as easy as that! Now I use it every day and so does my legal assistant. However,
