OpenOffice 3.0 - Your New Office Suite

OpenOffice, an open source package of productivity, has been around since 2000. Sun is very involved with it, and the culmination of version 3.0, recently released, finds a suite to be reckoned with, and it's free. It contains software that can read and be read by Microsoft Office 2007, as well as more obscure file formats. The new features in 3.0 are well documented and a welcome upgrade. In fact, the only criticism of OpenOffice I've ever read is that they're interface was boring - the new icons really jazz things up!

The programs you get are word processing (with html & xml capabilities), spreadsheet, database, presentation software (Impress) and draw. There are also extensions you can download and add to your Office. The index appears thorough, and there is help for the many different phases of tasks you will want to perform.

OpenOffice.org is also available for the Mac OS X - you might want to check out Computerworld's article, it provides links for the Mac and more information about Intel machines vs. older machines.

"In Pictures" is a web site that teaches by pictures of the screens, and offers Writer, Calc, Base and Impress tutorials for free - I went through the Base one and learned my way around. While these tutorials are for version 2.x, there's that old adage, "the more things change, the more they remain the same". I bet you can find your way around, and they should come out with version 3 soon. Also available at this site are Microsoft Office programs, both 2003 & 2007.

For further reading, try "PC & Network Support Services Limited" blog, and check out "The Tech's Blog".

I'm enthusiastic about OpenOffice.org version 3.0 and look forward to working with it. A database without the "Access" price!