I've been using Open Office for about 18 months in place of MS Office. I use
it at home and not very extensively, but I have found it equivalent. It does
not automatically spell check e-mail without downloading another free spell
check program (Spell Checker for OE 2.1) that complements Open Office. It
operates automatically in the background. I found it on a web search for
spell checkers. At the time you install Open Office you need to install Java
(free) if you do not already have it installed. I also downloaded a free
program (MS Office Power Point Viewer 2003) from MS to view but not produce
Power Point presentations.

It doesn't cost anything to give it a try to see if it satisfies your needs.
Hope you do good with it.

Tom Mayer

----- Original Message -----
From: "Carroll Grigsby" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, March 30, 2004 8:03 AM
Subject: Re: [PCSOFT] Substitute from MS-office


On Monday 29 March 2004 08:18 pm, Frederick Navarro wrote:
> Does anybody know any free program which could sufficiently substitute
> Microsoft Office?  I heard of something like Openoffice, does anybody have
> any comparative analysis as to what I can expect and what I can't expect
> for open office?  If you could also include other programs, so much the
> better, thanks!!
>
>
>
> "Literature is strewn with the wreckage of men who have minded beyond
> reason the opinions of others."
>

Frederick:
I've been using openoffice.org for several years, and found that it meets my
needs. It imports Word documents and Excel spreadsheets with few problems,
although there may be minor formatting issues. Its biggest shortcoming is
that it will not handle MS documents that contain embedded macros (or so I'm
told; I've never encountered one). Openoffice.org contains all of the
elements (word processor, spreadsheet, drawing, presentations and simple
database) that are included in Microsoft Office. You can learn more about
openoffice.org at their website:
http://www.openoffice.org/

If you need a more advanced database program, then you might consider
StarOffice. It is not free, however. The home office version is available
for
$80 (US). More information can be found at:
http://wwws.sun.com/software/star/staroffice/.

StarOffice and Openoffice.org are based on the same core developed at Sun.
StarOffice includes factory support and additional fonts as well as the
advanced database capability. Incidentally, both suites can be used to
create
Acrobat .pdf and Flash .swf files.

Regards,
Carroll Grigsby

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