Technology Designed for Your Needs

Word Processing, Spreadsheets and Presentations may not be the most exciting computer topics, but they are the meat and potatoes.   Microsoft clearly owns the market among the business community. A Forrester survey revealed 80% of users launch Microsoft Office when needing to write a letter, crunch some numbers or build a slide presentation. The usage is so wide-spread, that users often use the terms, “Word Document,” “Excel Spreadsheet” or “PowerPoint” to describe their work.

While Microsoft Office is a great product, most people use less than 20% of its features. Free software, containing similar functionality as its pricey rival, is a good alternative for many.

Downloadable Options: The major player in free Office Suites is OpenOffice owned by Oracle. It contains a Word Processor, Spreadsheet, Presentation software, a Drawing program and a Database application that can be used to create and store contact lists, recipe files or other important information. Because the code is freely available to any programmer wanting to be creative, OpenOffice has several spin-offs that are also worth considering.

For polish, IBM Lotus Symphony takes first prize. Although it does not contain a Database, the Word Processing, Spreadsheet and Presentation components have a more modern look and feel than other OpenOffice competitors. Help is easy to find and links to templates and add-ins are available on the front page. On the down-side, it runs a bit slow. Other OpenOffice-based products worth a look include LibreOffice and Go-oo. For a good Word Processor, consider AbiWord. All of these products allow users to save documents in Microsoft compatible format for sharing with Microsoft Office users.

Online Options: Downloading software is not the only way to enjoy the benefits of free Office Software. Several companies offer the ability to create and view documents online, save them locally and even share them with other online users. The two largest players are Google and ironically, Microsoft. Since applications are online, it is possible to work from anywhere and any computer connected to the Internet. Simply login to the appropriate website and get to work.

Online or off, it is easy to take advantage of free software for most of your office needs. To locate the software mentioned in this article use your favorite search engine or find direct links in the Freebies section.

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