Open Office: A Good, Free Alternative to Microsoft Office

The time has come I think, and yes I am sad about it. I have used Microsoft Office for years, but at this point the cost of upgrading it can't be justified any longer. In order to upgrade all the computers in a household of 3 computers with the newest Office (Standard edition only) it will cost over $700! ACK! It's so much easier to upgrade everyone at once, and to be honest even the $239 price for one copy is a bit much. We are cutting our budget back for all sorts of things so there is no way a price tag like that can be justified on software regardless of the fact that we use it on daily basis.

What is Open Office?

OpenOffice.org is the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. It is available in many languages and works on all common computers. It stores all your data in an international open standard format and can also read and write files from other common office software packages. It can be downloaded and used completely free of charge for any purpose.

Sponsored by:

"The OpenOffice.org project is primarily sponsored by Sun Microsystems, which is the primary contributor of code to the Project. Our other major corporate contributors include Novell, RedHat, RedFlag CH2000, IBM, and Google. Additonally over 450,000 people from nearly every curve of the globe have joined this Project with the idea of creating the best possible office suite that all can use. This is the essence of an "open source." community! "

What is Open Source?

Open source is a form of developing software that makes source code (program instructions) free and freely available to anyone interested in using or working with it. The promise of open source is better quality, higher reliability, more flexibility, and a lower cost.

What can you expect to find in Open Office?

- Writer (similar to Microsoft Word)
- Calc (similar to Microsoft Excel)
- Impress (similar to Microsoft PowerPoint)
- Base (similar to Microsoft Access)
- Draw

Open Office History:

OpenOffice.org is both a product and an open-source project. Both have been in existence since October 13, 2000. OpenOffice.org 1.0, the product, was released on April 30, 2002.

OpenOffice.org's Mission Statement is...

"To create, as a community, the leading international office suite that will run on all major platforms and provide access to all functionality and data through open-component based APIs and an XML-based file format."

Free software!

OpenOffice is free software. That means you are free to download it and free to install it on as many computers as you want. You are also free to pass copies to as many people as you want. You may use OpenOffice for any purpose without restriction. That means for private use, educational use, public administration, and commercial use.

Support:

The OpenOffice website offers full documentation for the software so you can find help right away. They also offer community forums, FAQs, tutorials, email lists, and consultants. There is also specific help for schools and Macintosh users. Sun Microsystems, Inc. offers professional support for enterprises including bugfixes and enhancements. For consumers they offer incident based support.

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The Computer Lady has been teaching people about computers, software, and web design since 1994. "I enjoy teaching people how to get the most out of their computer while overcoming their fears about new technology. If a person feels intimidated they won't learn. My job is to create an atmosphere where people feel at ease and in turn, they will learn." Visit my website at thecomputerladyonline.com and my blog at www.thecomputerladyonline.com for more tutorials, product reviews, and general help.