Every computer user needs access to an office suite of some kind to write letters, create spreadsheets, and do other things that come up in day to day life. Professionals especially need access to these software programs, but financially they may be unable to afford them. Luckily there are several cheap and even free alternatives that will help you keep your money in your wallet where it belongs.
Microsoft Office costs quite a bit of money for most people, so many people have gone on to try programs such as the free OpenOffice Suite as an alternative. OpenOffice works and feels very similar to Microsoft Office, including several applications in the suite such as Writer (similar to Microsoft Word), Calc (similar to Excel), and Impress (similar to PowerPoint). The best thing is that OpenOffice opens and saves all Microsoft file formats, allowing you to use Word at your place of business while using OpenOffice at home for free.
The controls and features in OpenOffice are very similar to their MS Office counterparts. All the important features are there, including clip art support, spell checking, and hyperlinking between documents. OpenOffice even includes a fully functional database system (ala Microsoft Access) that is built on the highly stable SQL database engine. One caveat to this is that OpenOffice does not open MS Access database files.
Despite the benefits of being able to open and save most Microsoft Office files for free, OpenOffice is not without its drawbacks. Foremost among these is the lack of support and useful help files. OpenOffice is an open-source application, written and maintained by private individuals. As such the developers have worked very hard to improve the software, but not necessarily the help files. Personal support is relegated to online forums and staffed by other users. Also, despite a loyal following and significant improvements, OpenOffice is not as highly polished as Office is. There are not bouncing paperclips or eye catching animations, just a solid, useful, and free office suite for consumers to use. OpenOffice is available for free download at http://www.OpenOffice.org
