Now that prices on some fine basic desktop PCs have dropped
to the US$300-500 range, isn’t it a shame to have to
pay another US$150-250 for the cheapest version of Office,
the Student and Teacher edition? That’s a 50 percent
price increase. Pricing for the 2007 Office software, to be
released at the end of this year, is expected to be comparable.
There are some very good alternatives to the Microsoft Office
programs. The most widely used alternative to Office
is a program called OpenOffice, which is sponsored by Sun
Microsystems. OpenOffice tries to match all the major features
of Microsoft’s programs. In addition, there are a variety
of Web-based programs that can replace all or parts of the
Office programs, including ThinkFree Office Online, the word
processor Writely, the spreadsheet NumSum, and the e-mail
program Thunderbird. All of this software is significantly
less expensive than Microsoft Office — it’s absolutely
free!
OpenOffice can read files created in Microsoft Office, and
it can create new files that Office can open. So, ideally,
you could take home spreadsheets created at work using Excel,
and work on them on your home computer without having to buy
Office. And the latest version, OpenOffice 2.0,
released in September, looks a lot like Word on your computer
screen, so it feels very familiar.
But there are some small, nagging differences between the
very expensive software package and the free one.
It’s those little things — paired with a lack
of consumer awareness — that keep OpenOffice from approaching
Office’s popularity. While 61 million people have downloaded
OpenOffice or a similar, paid product called StarOffice, 400
million own its Microsoft counterpart.
A file transferred from OpenOffice to Microsoft Office, or
vice versa, might not always look exactly the same, especially
if you create complex documents.
Web-based Office alternatives offer the advantage of allowing
users to log in and access their files from any computer with
a browser. That could be attractive for folks who are on the
move a lot, but could prove annoying if your Internet service
goes down and you need to access the files or programs.
For those who are unsure if they’d like using OpenOffice
or another alternative — see below for a list of programs
— there’s no harm in trying. These programs are
easy to download and install, although at 75 to 90 megabytes
it’s a long download on a slow connection.
For those who don’t own Office now and think they might
want to buy the new 2007 Office when it’s released at
the end of this year, OpenOffice is a good stopgap measure.
Some will find that after using OpenOffice for a few months,
they have no need to buy any other product.
These programs are all alternatives to components of Microsoft
Windows:
OpenOffice - www.openoffice.org – includes a word
processor, spreadsheet, presentation software and a database.
ThinkFree Office Online - www.thinkfree.com –
a Web-based word processor, spreadsheet and presentation software.
Thunderbird - www.mozilla.com/thunderbird - e-mail program.
Writely - www.writely.com - Web-based word processor.
NumSum - www.numsum.com - Web-based spreadsheet creator.
This just in: The look, feel, and functionality of Microsoft
Word, in a completely web-based application. Try AjaxWrite
www.ajaxwrite.com/ today, and experience it first-hand.
HOWEVER, you currently can only use the Firefox 1.5 or higher
browser with it! (www.getfirefox.com/)
