While Microsoft Office is the
industry standard in terms of , integrated applications for word processing,
spreadsheets, presentations, database management, email and desktop publishing.
It is important for
small business owners to
know that these types of office applications are also available free on the
internet and open source office productivity
applications. You can download them from the web or can order them; they will
send that to you by post at your home address and will charge only for
shipping.
Open
source office software has
come a long way in recent years, so choosing free software over expensive
proprietary software doesn't mean you'll lose features and support. Today's
open source office productivity software is feature-rich and provides sample
access to online documentation and large communities of users and developers.
Apache
OpenOffice: The free, open productivity suite
It is one of
the best-known open source applications in this category. It provides tools for
word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics and databases. Apache
OpenOffice lets you save documents in the OpenDocument format, read Microsoft
Word documents and save your work in Microsoft Word format.
It is released under the Apache License, Version 2.0 and can be downloaded and used entirely free of any license fees. The current version, Apache OpenOffice 3.4.1 supports the Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux and Mac OS X operating systems.
It is released under the Apache License, Version 2.0 and can be downloaded and used entirely free of any license fees. The current version, Apache OpenOffice 3.4.1 supports the Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux and Mac OS X operating systems.
LibreOffice:
A powerful open source productivity suite
Developed by the Document Foundation, the LibreOffice
application is just for name open Source mean the source code is
the same, but the software has gone in a different development direction.
(LibreOffice was created in 2010 by OpenOffice developers worried about what
Oracle, which had acquired Sun Microsystems, the original developers of
OpenOffice.org, would do with the code base.)
It has the same six applications as Apache OpenOffice-Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Base and Math-but the two suites differ in terms of applications. It is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) 3.0. The current version of LibreOffice, v3.5.6, supports Windows, Macintosh and GNU/Linux systems.
It has the same six applications as Apache OpenOffice-Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Base and Math-but the two suites differ in terms of applications. It is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) 3.0. The current version of LibreOffice, v3.5.6, supports Windows, Macintosh and GNU/Linux systems.
NeoOffice:
Office applications for Mac OS X
It is an also just for name open source. It was created before OpenOffice and LibreOffice
supported Mac OS. It has all of
the features found in OpenOffice.org but, in focusing on the unique needs of
Mac users, offers a Mac-like installation process and better support for Mac
features, including integration into the OS X interface and use of Mac OS X
fonts and printing services.
The newest version of
NeoOffice, v3.3, supports high-resolution text drawing on Retina displays,
compatibility with Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion and Gatekeeper, and native Mac
OS X text highlighting.
Google
Docs: Create, share and collaborate online
It is an office productivity application that lets anyone with a Google
account create, share and collaborate on the Web. Google offers tools for
documents, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings and forms, all centrally
stored and accessed via the cloud-based storage service Google Drive.
Google Docs integrates with a number of other Google services, Like Gmail, GChat, Google+, Google Calendar and Google Drive, and can be accessed from any device with a browser and Internet connection.
Google Docs integrates with a number of other Google services, Like Gmail, GChat, Google+, Google Calendar and Google Drive, and can be accessed from any device with a browser and Internet connection.
KOffice:
The integrated office suite
It offers
the three main tools of any office Application: a word processor, a spreadsheet
and a presentation application.
·
KWord is the word processing and desktop
publishing application. You can include images, charts and shapes within your
documents and resize and rotate this content easily. KWord features styles,
word count, page count, easy zooming and print preview.
·
The KCells calculation and spreadsheet tool can
be used to create business-related spreadsheets listing, for example, income
and expenditure or employee working hours. The application features automatic
economic or scientific formula creation.
·
Showcase is a presentation application that supports
elements such as graphics, text, charts and images. Features include support
for layouts, transitions and notes. A plug-in makes all KOffice content
elements available in the Showcase application.
It is open source and licensed under the
LGPL 2.0. It is available for Windows, Linux, FreeBSD and Mac OS X systems. The
latest release is KOffice 2.3.3.