Drop, charge, and lose the cords
Entered CNET Catalog: 09/20/2007
SKU: CNETIBMLotusSymphony
Manufacturer: IBM
User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
User Rating: 
8/10
Works well and looks great!...
Pros: It looks really nice. The interface is very clean and seemless to navigate through it.
Cons: When you install this program it makes a folder in you're home folder (For me in Windows 7) called IBM where it saves all it's settings there. I personally find that annoying. Why doesn't IBM create it in the AppData folder?
User Rating: 
1/10
:( Very disapointed
Pros: 3 programs are tightly intergrated
Cons: Everything: my PowerPoint was destroyed because the program wouldn't open it. Started over 3 times. Why the hell are the formatting controls on the right side???
User Rating: 
3/10
Not usable as everyday word processor
Pros: Pretty interface
Cons: In Writer, you can not change the default page setup - margins, paper size, i.e. set a custom default template so that all new documents open the way you want. This is unacceptable as a mainstream product.
Still using the OpenOffice 1.x codebase.
User Rating: 
7/10
VERY USEFUL...A MUST FOR STUDENTS
Pros: INTUITIVE and Easy on the Eyes
Cons: Limited functionality, but may be by design
Overall, I would give this a try...and if you don't like it I would probably leave it installed because future add-ons should make it possible to personalize it to your needs. The program is somewhat slow, slower than openoffice, but it is much more intuitive and polished aesthetically. Oo also has more features and will open more file formats....hopefully this will change.
Anywho, for anyone that has ever realized they trashed their copy of ms word the night before a paper is due, I highly recommend giving this a try. For anyone who is forced to use wordperfect at work, download Open Office to.
User Rating: 
5/10
Still needs some work...
Pros: It works for simple tasks and has reasonable MSOffice compatibility for many users.
Cons: Does not fully support MSOffice formats -- OpenOffice is better in this regard. Try opening documents with complicated formatting and charts from Excel and you will be quickly disappointed. Equation handling is also less sophisticated than Excel.
The general problem with all the MSOffice alternatives out there is that even though they do a lot of the same things, and in some cases do them better (yes, some things are more convenient, such as not emptying the spreadsheet clipboard when you click 'save'), they just don't have the compatibility that is required to be a viable replacement. Sure this free software, but personally, I think it's worth $400 not to be annoyed on daily basis. When you spend more time wrangling with the software than getting actual work done, you will quickly realize why MSOffice continues to be so expensive -- it doesn't have a total competitor (yet).
User Rating: 
9/10
Better than MS would like you to think
Pros: Cost and Features
Cons: UI not perfect
User Rating: 8/10
Nice interface, capable app
Pros: Free!
Better interface than OOo
Cons: Why an integrated web browser? Wouldn't email client/calendar have made more sense?
For some reason, IBM decided to include a browser in Symphony. The browser works fine but does not seem to be configurable, nor does it have any extensions; use it and you might leave yourself open to web nasties. I think a calendar/email client would have made more sense.
If IBM keeps developing Symphony, I'll find it preferable to OOo (especially since there's some worry about Sun's commitment to OOo).
User Rating: 8/10
Good feature set, well designed, user friendly
Pros: Good feature set, well designed, user friendly
Cons: No envelope printing, mail merge, or Access compatible database manager
The application programs have well designed, user friendly interfaces and are generally easy to use. This is in contrast with Microsoft Office 2007 which has become so complex as to be almost unusable.
The overall feature set is good.
A major deficiency is that "Documents" doesn't have a routine for printing envelopes.
Additional important but missing features include the ability to output documents in Office 2007 doc format, a mail merge routine and an Access compatible database manager.
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