There are many free alternatives to the Microsoft Office products. This would be beneficial for college students, the average user, and even small businesses in general. These people often find that they are unable to afford the high prices Microsoft charges for its products. These alternative software offerings are compatible with Microsoft Office.
The first free office product are actually an entire suite. I have used it myself and it is awesome. It is called Open Office, and is available for download so that you can start using it right away. Included in this complete office suite is:
1) Writer is the software which is the equivalent of Microsoft Word. It is very similar in look and feel. It has the ability to read and write in the Word format up to Word 2003. It has almost all of the features of Microsoft Word and those that are not present will not likely be noticed.
2) Impress is the equivalent of Microsoft PowerPoint. It can be used to create beautiful presentations with the look and feel of Microsoft PowerPoint. It also includes a couple of slide templates, but if these do not suit your needs, you have complete control over your work. This software can also read and write in the Microsoft PowerPoint format, which makes it completely compatible, however Office 2007 is as of yet not supported.
3) Calc is the spreadsheet software included in the office suite. It is compatible with Microsoft Excel. It has all of the functionality of the costlier Microsoft version, but it is free.
4) Draw is the graphics powerhouse in the suite. It is kind of a cross between Microsoft Paint and Microsoft Visio. I have not had much occasion to use it, but I have tried it and it does deliver good results.
Now, no office suite would be complete without the ability to read PDF files and convert them. Foxit reader is a free PDF reading and converting software. I have used this software and I find it to be much more productive than Adobe Reader. Of course, Adobe Reader is free for personal use; however Foxit Reader is free for business use, not including the text conversion version. Text conversion is only free for personal use.
The main reason why I have decided to add Foxit to this list of software is because, Foxit is free, it is small, and it is very fast. The one thing that has consistently bothered me about Adobe Reader is the speed at which it loads up. This is especially excruciating when loading PDFs from the Internet. There are additional plugins that you can purchase which would make Foxit as useful as a full blown version of Adobe Acrobat, but the free version is perhaps all that you will need. The beautiful thing about using Open Office Suite and Foxit together is that Open Office Write can convert documents to PDF.
It is with these free software packages that you can have all of the tools offered by Microsoft with zero the cost. That is a huge advantage whether you are just trying to save a buck, or trying to keep the bottom line down.
Links
http://www.openoffice.org/
http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php
