When my computer crashed, I was spent a very long week scrambling together the means to continue my various sorts of work. Both my public jobs had microsoft office programs, but at home I was left with a linux box which had Open Office.
Open Office will recognize Microsoft documents and open them, but the reverse is not true. It is, in many ways, a fairly versatile suite of programs. Although OpenOffice.org requests donations of time or cash, the program can be downloaded for free. This is a definite advantage in a week when the world seems to be full of unexpected expenses!
While it is a little clunky when compared to Microsoft, the Open Office suite offers a viable alternative for the budgetarily challenged user. I found very little difference when using the text editor; the spreadsheet was quite reasonable-except for a couple of sort features. The database program seemed to me about as comprehensible as any database program. (Not my personal area of expertise-maybe someday...) The presentation software proved easy t o use, quite versatile. Open Office Math is completely beyond my personal comprehension. I squeaked through my college math classes, and breathed a sigh of relief when I put them behind me. It looks really interesting though-lots of equation-type stuff. Very nice.
I was delighted with the drawing tool. For years, I have put up with Paint (better than nothing), and various budget photo editors. Of those, JASC was probably the best; but when my trial down-load (and the class I was taking) ended, the funds weren't available for the full edition.
Open Office also offers the ability to export files as pdf.
In short, Open Office is a fairly versatile suite of editing and presentation tools. It is a viable alternative to more expensive programs suitable for keeping home office records, writing essays and a variety of other tasks.
