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If you're about to buy a new computer, you'll be expected to choose an "office suite" to go with it. Well, the world's most-used suite is Microsoft Office, which comes in various versions that run from a few hundred to several hundred dollars. Nowadays, however, you can have all the functionality of MSOffice for free. The OpenOffice suite has been around for a while, as have Google Docs and AbiWord, a free alternative to MSWord. Now IBM has joined the giveaway group with its Lotus Symphony suite.Back to buying a new PC — you won't be told about these gratis alternatives to MSOffice, WordPerfect Office — or even MSWorks — because salespeople make no commissions on free software. You may even be told that your new computer comes bundled with a suite included at no extra charge. Not so — it's been figured into the price of the bundle. Be prepared to say you'll go somewhere else if they try to hustle you into buying, when free alternatives are available. As for what's actually included in OpenOffice, Google Docs, and Lotus Symphony, here's a breakdown: OpenOffice comes with Writer, an MSWord-compatible word processor, Calc, an Excel-compatible spreadsheet app, and Impress, a PowerPoint-compatible presentation program. IBM's versions of the above are called Lotus Symphony Documents, Lotus Symphony Spreadsheets, and Lotus Symphony Presentations. Google calls their comparable MS-compatible programs Google Docs, Google Spreadsheets, and Google Presentations. In addition to the tools listed above, OpenOffice contains a Vector Drawing utility, a Mathematical Function Creator, and a Database program. Lotus Symphony and OpenOffice can also output documents as Adobe Acrobat Reader-compatible PDF files. The programs also come with spell-checking, thesaurus, and auto-correct capabilities. The main difference between Google's suite and the others is that Google's applications reside online, rather than on your hard drive. The chief advantage of online computing is collaboration, meaning programs can be easily accessed by multiple users, thus avoiding the need for sending copies of documents around to various people who may be working on them. Another advantage to online applications is that they don't use up valuable hard drive space, although the files you create can be copied to your PC. The major DISadvantage to online programs is that they are only viable as long as you are connected to the WWW. If your Internet connection goes down (as happens to everyone from time to time) you're dead in the water until you get reconnected. However, with today's massive hard drives, storage space tends to be a relatively minor issue — especially when you consider how easy and inexpensive it is to install USB-connected external hard drives and/or flash memory devices. For those who are technically inclined, you can even avoid buying Windows XP or Vista with free or low-cost "Linux" alternatives. However, Linux is not ready for prime time with the average home or small business user — yet. I haven't had time to test all functions of all the various products, but I have found that I like Open Office Writer a whole lot better than MSWord 2007 or Lotus Symphony Documents. Writer is definitely faster than the others and, IMHO, more intuitive and user-friendly all the way around.
In addition to the free items listed above, the OpenOffice.org suite contains a Vector Drawing program, a Mathematical Function Creator, and a Database program. The Lotus Symphony and OpenOffice programs can also output documents as PDF files compatible with Adobe Acrobat Reader. All programs come with a spell-checker and a variety of clipart drawings that can be inserted into documents. And they all mean you can get along very nicely without MSWord, Excel, and PowerPoint. The various programs can be downloaded from the following sites:
The main difference between Google's programs and the others is that Google's applications reside online, rather than on your hard drive. The chief advantage of online programs is collaboration. This means that the programs can be accessed by multiple users at the same time, thus avoiding the need for sending copies of documents around to the various people who may be working on them. Another advantage to online apps is that they do not use up valuable hard drive space on your computer, although the files created with the programs can be copied to your PC. The major disadvantage to online programs is that they are only viable as long as you can connect to the Internet. If your Internet connection goes down (as happens to just about everyone from time to time) you're dead in the water until you can get reconnected. However, with today's massive hard drives, storage space tends to be a relatively minor problem — especially when you consider how easy and inexpensive it is to install USB-connected external hard drives and/or flash memory devices. If you own multiple PCs you can save even more money by not having to buy licenses from Microsoft to install MSOffice all the various machines. There is no limit to how many copies of OpenOffice or Lotus Symphony you can install on your equipment. © Donald Ray Edrington — All Rights Reserved |
