Open Office

Don't want to pay outrageous prices for Microsoft Office? Don't want to use online tools like Google docs because you need to be able to work even when you aren't connected (like maybe lounging in the yard or at the beach)? There is an alternative! Its Open Office available at OpenOffice.org. Its a FREE - yes FREE - office suite that is compatible with MS Office. It has a word processor that reads and writes .doc documents just like Word. It has a spreadsheet program that reads and writes .xls documents just like Excel. It has a presentation program that reads and writes .ppt files just like Powerpoint and it has a database program that can connect to many popular database formats like JDBC, ODBC, MySQL - even the Mac OSX address book! PLUS it has a drawing program - something MS Office doesn't include!

 

There are versions available for Mac, Windows and Linux. Yours for the taking. Save yourself a couple hundred bucks and join the ranks of open source fans.