Microsoft Office Alternatives That Won’t Cost You a Cent
By Joy Stapleton
The Standard edition of Microsoft Office 2007 includes Excel, PowerPoint, Word, and Outlook, and sells for $399.99. In addition to that, and for another $100.00, the MS Office 2007 Professional edition includes Access and Publisher in the packaging, and sells for $499.99.
OpenOffice.org 3.2 is an open source (free) office suite that will allow you to Open and Save files in the Microsoft Office formats for Word documents (.doc), Excel spreadsheets (.xls), and PowerPoint presentations (.ppt) by using the following components:
Writer is a powerful Word Processor that’s compatible with MS Word, and it can export your documents in PDF format. Calc is a spreadsheet program that’s compatible with MS Excel, and Impress is a slideshow presentation program that’s compatible with MS PowerPoint.
Additional components in OpenOffice 3.2 include Base, which is a database program similar to MS Access, Draw, which is a tool for drawing diagrams, flowcharts, and graphics, and Math, for creating mathematical formulas that can be inserted in other documents.
OpenOffice 3.2 is available for the following primary operating systems: Microsoft Windows, Linux, Macintosh, and the Solaris platform. A more extensive list of specifications is available on their Web site.
Before downloading and installing this software it is highly recommended that you click on the System Requirements link in the right-hand column on the Downloads page at http://download.openoffice.org and read the detailed requirements.
More information is available on their home page at http://www.openoffice.org/
Google Docs is a free Web service with extensive features allowing you to share and collaborate on your word processing documents, spreadsheets, and slideshow presentations. In addition to that, you can use the Google Drawings application to create flowcharts, diagrams, and organizational charts.
Your files will not be shared without your explicit permission, and you can easily select who has access to your files from the Share dialog box.
Google Docs also gives you the ability to access your files from any computer or smart phone by simply logging into your Google account. Google provides you with a gigabyte of free storage space, but if you require additional storage, it’s available for purchase (starting at 20 GB for $5.00 a year).
Only files that have been converted to Google Docs can be edited online. On the Upload Page, if you wish to convert your files, the option to do so is selected by default.
If you wish to store your uploaded files without converting them you’ll have to deselect the checkbox option to convert them on the Upload Page.
The following file formats can be converted and edited online:
Microsoft Word (.doc, .docx), OpenDocument text (.odt), StarOffice text (.sxw), Rich text (.rtf), Plain text (.txt), and HTML (.htm, .html). Microsoft PowerPoint (.ppt, .pps).
Microsoft Excel (.xls, .xlsx) files, OpenDocument spreadsheets (.ods), and Comma-separated values (.csv).
You can Download Google Docs in Word, Text, RTF, PDF, OpenOffice, and HTML formats.
Download Google Spreadsheets in Excel, Text, PDF, OpenOffice, CSV, and HTML formats.
Download Google Presentations in PowerPoint, Text, and PDF formats.
You can also share your files as email attachments in any of these formats.
System and Browser Requirements:
[Windows XP, NT, and Vista - Firefox 3.0, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer 7 and 8]
[MAC OS X - Firefox 3.0, Safari 3 and 4] [Linux (Ubuntu) - Firefox 3.0].
Signup for a free Google Docs account at http://docs.google.com/
Joy Stapleton started out as a mainframe Programmer/Analyst in 1985. In 1992 she became a PC software developer and PC technician. As a private consultant, Joy provides PC technical services and develops Web sites.