Rating and comments for OpenOffice Draw

I was looking for an alternative to Microsoft Publisher which I have been using for years and cannot liv without. Draw is good and it shows great promise but it lacks the refinement and features that Publisher has. Perhaps someone new to graphics would grow with the product but coming from commercial applications to it is not viable.

This is not a good alternative to Visio. I expect a Visio alternative to have a list of UML shapes that I can drag and drop onto the document. OpenOffice Draw did not have this central feature.

This is the worst diagraming software you can use. It is no match for visio. Its like Visio version 0.00001. It is very frustrating to use. The user interface sucks! You will actually puke when you see the UI. You will fall sick when you try to use it. Pathetic piece of mess that you should NOT try even if you have no money to buy Visio and in which case you should draw your diagrams on paper, scan them using a scanner and paint them in photoshop. Jesus Christ! This software is a mess! Don't use it.

Embedding an OO Draw file in an OO Impress, saved as a .ppt file, just doesn't work, if that file has to be opened by someone with a recent MS suite. Converting the OO Draw file to a PDF and then embedding in the .ppt works, but leaves the person with whom you are sharing the .ppt file with no ability to modify [sometimes OK, but not when you are trying to work together on a presentation] and makes a sort of muddy image when reproduced on the final .ppt. This problem really prevents OO Draw from becoming a replacement for Visio when having to collaborate w/an MS suite user. Sad to say, I'm going to have to buy a copy of Visio to work w/my colleagues. If I didn't have this need, OO Draw works very nicely for my purposes.

Not bad as a general purpose diagramming tool. But may be difficult to use for users that are very used to Visio. Also you will not find as many predefined shapes as Visio. But then again not everyone use all the features in Visio.

If compare the cost vs features of OO Draw and MS Visio, Draw is better. It has enough features to let me draw 80% of the diagrams I create. For the other 20% I'll look for a specific tool for the that type, e.g. UML.

Is it possible to open an open office draw doc, in MS Visio