Open Office…a great alternative to MS Office

The prices of desktop and laptop computers continue to be very affordable.  There are laptops and net books available for about $250 and desktops loaded with features for not too much more.  Once you make the purchase you are often in for a big surprise.  The cost of the necessary software can be as much or more than the hardware.  While operating systems like Windows 7 come bundled with even the most inexpensive computers, the software required to actually do something productive with your machine costs extra.

Even a basic suite of programs like Microsoft  Office (Student Version) which contains MS Word, a word processor, Excel, a spreadsheet program, and Power Point, a presentation program, costs about $150.  If you want the deluxe edition for business use the price can go well over $400.  While Microsoft does offer Office 365 with an annual fee beginning at about $100, you have to renew every year.

You do have a free option and unlike many “free” offers, this one is free and it does work.  No, they are not pirated versions of Microsoft programs.  If you download them you need not worry about seeing a black SUV coming up your driveway complete with a contingent of FBI agents.

One of the leading free packages is Open Office, a suite of programs that has been developed by some very smart volunteer programmers spread throughout the world.  In fact, the code for these programs, rather than being a guarded corporate secret, is available to anyone who wants to make improvements to the programs.  As of this writing there have been more than 150 million downloads of the Open Office software.

The basic package available at the Open Office website contains a word processor, spreadsheet program, presentation program, database program and a neat drawing program.  All of them are compatible with MS Office. You can read and write files in Open Office and use those files in MS Office and visa versa.  Open Office looks and feels much like Microsoft Office.  You will find many of the same conventions, icons and tools.  If you have used MS Word or Excel, you will need little or no training on Open Office.

Getting Open Office is a snap.  Just set your browser to www.openoffice.org and follow the downloading directions.  It will take about 20 minutes to download the programs and set them up on your computer.  They do ask that you consider a donation but that is totally optional.

Open Office has been around since the late 1990s and is used by people all over the world.  Since the development is ongoing there are new features and improvements offered through the Open Office website all the time.

Open Office is great for home or small business applications.  Larger companies or power users may wish to go with a traditional package like MS Office since it does offer support and several cloud based features not available with Open Office.  Before you order that new version of MS Office, you may wish to give Open Office a try.  What have you got to lose?  You can’t beat the price.