Apache OpenOffice

OpenOffice provides a free and open source alternative to the Microsoft Office suite that so many people are familiar with. While some of Microsoft's newer features aren't available here, this is a surprisingly robust office suite platform that should meet most of the expectations of office users. Just keep in mind that while it's mostly a fully modern suite in terms of depth and breadth, it looks a little dated. OpenOffice looks like Microsoft Office did over a decade, but once you get used to it, you'll find the interface is actually very well designed and intuitive to use for users with even a little bit of experience.

So what do you get here? In terms of parallels to Microsoft Office, most of the fundamentals are well rooted here. Write serves as an alternative to Microsoft Word, while Calc helps you put together detailed spreadsheets like what you'd find in Excel. There's even presentation software like Powerpoint in the form of Impress and a full database management system. There's also apps for performing complex math calculations and drawing. In short, anything you'd want from Microsoft Office will be available to you here.

At least that's the case with one notable exception. What OpenOffice doesn't have is an online component. With the launch of Google's cloud-based office suite, more and more users are expecting a way to access and manipulate their files wherever they happen to be and regardless of what device they're using. OpenOffice, unfortunately, doesn't come with any cloud-based features. On the other hand, OpenOffice isn't trying to be that. And as far as free offline office software goes, the rich feature set and comfortable accessibility is among the best here.

New users may be confused by the file formats that are automatically used in OpenOffice. The format used by OpenOffice is proprietary. But while they can get the job done, that does make these file types difficult to use if you want to edit or share files in other software platforms. For those users, OpenOffice also offers support for all the major Windows Office formats as well as some Apple contemporaries. Saving in another format can be handled manually, but you can also just set your defaults so it always saves in your preferred format. And if you have existing office-oriented files that aren't in the Open format, you can be pretty confident that OpenOffice will display them exactly as they're supposed to be displayed.

How well an office suite will work for a single user is important, but this is software that's largely designed to be used in larger offices. Making things easier is the quality of the administrator tools at work here. While OpenOffice might not be terribly equipped for large offices, it's pretty easy to deploy across the entirety of your small- or medium-sized office. The fact that OpenOffice is created by web server company Apache means that it's very easy to get everyone set up and put in place all the restrictions that you need based on the objectives of your company and the demands of your staff.

And while cloud-based services aren't built in here, that doesn't mean that there aren't any options for collaboration at all. The open source nature of OpenOffice ensures that there's a whole wealth of extensions that have been made by the users or developers. While you can't expect seamless functionality with Microsoft or Apple products, but other open source software like Mozilla Thunderbird can be synced up - providing you with the few key functionalities that's missing from this office suite. This is a case where the value of OpenOffice will ultimately come down to what other software you're using. It's also going to be impacted by how much time you're willing to spend tweaking your experience. You also need to keep in mind that the open source nature means that you can't always expect highly polished results when installing both internal extensions and those that provide integration with outside software.

The other main advantage of OpenOffice is that it can work with all of the major operating systems. While the format is designed to resemble the older versions of Microsoft Office, it will work equally as well on Linux or Mac. So Mac users who like Microsoft's design fundamentals or power Linux users can get full functionality. That's an especially huge advantage for offices that might have staff that runs their computers on multiple operating systems.

This might look like a Microsoft clone at a glance, but there are some nice fundamentals going on beneath the surface. This software is fully compatible with MySQL so that you can get far more in-depth with your spreadsheet manipulation and design. It even supports PDA and DocBook file formats.

Apache OpenOffice is arguably the best free alternative to Microsoft Office, and that means it's an obvious choice for individuals who don't like the format of the Google Suite. But it's also a solid choice for offices that might not have the resources to keep up with Microsoft's subscription plans and upgrades. It may be a throwback to the past, but it still manages to be an effective tool for all of your office needs. And with an enthusiastic community of hobbyists, you can count on it to provide you with solid and creative integrations for the foreseeable future.

OpenOffice from Apache is a productivity suite designed as an alternative to the industry standard productivity suite, which is Microsoft Office. The software is reliable, robust, and best of all, it's totally free.

Much like Microsoft Office, Apache OpenOffice is made up of several individual applications, each with a different productive function. The suite includes a spreadsheet program similar to Excel, a word processor similar to Word, a presentation tool like PowerPoint, an art tool similar to Paint, a database editor not unlike Access, and a small editor for formulas.

Each component of OpenOffice provides a set of powerful tools designed for working within the app's general field. Even though this suite is open-source and entirely free, it offers much of the same functionality as Microsoft Office. Some could make the argument that it exceeds Microsoft Office since this suite can work with just about any file format, while Office struggles with unusual filetypes.

Since OpenOffice has been free from the very beginning, it initially lacked some of the flash associated with more popular productivity suites. The old user interface was not nearly as developed as it should have been, but that's mostly due to the fact that the software is developed almost entirely by volunteers. At the time, it was much more important to the creators that the software be functional and not necessarily 'pretty'. However, the most recent version of OpenOffice has seen a huge upgrade to the interface, and it now has much more visually in common with Microsoft Office. OpenOffice has incorporated artistic icons and fully-organized menus for improved usability.

The six primary apps found in the OpenOffice suite are Impress, Calc, Writer, Math, Base, and Draw. You can easily access these apps once they have been installed, and you can take advantage of the improved menus to quickly find the document or tool you need.

Most standard users will find that OpenOffice is just as efficient as Microsoft Office when it comes to editing and creating documents. One feature that puts OpenOffice into a tier of its own is the fact that you can download and install new extensions and templates for the suite. This helps you optimize and personalize each app for your specific workflow.

While some might be wary of relying on open-source software, you shouldn't worry about OpenOffice. It's free only because of this open-source nature, but that doesn't mean the software has to be inferior or susceptible to hacking. In fact, since the software can be altered and upgraded by anyone, the community often releases new extensions, updates, and other improvements that anyone else can use. There's no denying that you'll have more freedom with OpenOffice compared to Microsoft Office. The only thing truly missing for the OpenOffice suite is an email and calendar application.