OpenOffice

http://www.openoffice.org/

OpenOffice has been apart of my life since I started college. It has almost all the same features as Microsoft Office. The open source office suite is bloated but a lot less than Microsoft's Office-suite. One feature that OpenOffice doesn't do well is grammar checking though you can add it on later it isn't as thorough as Microsoft's Office built-in grammar checker. Some of open office's features are spreadsheet, word processing, and you can view or make presentations like PowerPoint. (Scott Gilbertson 2010 p.7) Microsoft does come with more evolved features like its dictionary which includes a thesaurus. OpenOffice is more basic and allows for more add-on that may not work as well as Microsoft's. I do like Open-office because its free mainly and does what I need it to. I do think that maybe with more research I could find add-ons that would work just as well as Microsoft's already built in tools. Another thing about OpenOffice is that is doesn't update that often from my experience with it but I will say when it does there are improvements like less crashing and the ability to recover a document.

Another thing I found interesting in the article given is the predication that document tools will be mainly based online. An example given was Google docs. My thoughts is that maybe years from now that might be true but as of right I don't see it happening. (Scott Gilbertson 2010 p.13)Cloud storage would have to become more mainstream than it is now and extremely secure. Its frightening to think that your personal documents could be online on the other hand more and more people pay bills online so work documents on a cloud storage site maybe not be as far away.


Gilbertson, Scott. "OpenOffice 3.2 - now with less Microsoft envy • The Channel."The Channel: Computer Trade News for the World. N.p., 13 Feb. 2010. Web. 22 Oct. 2012. <http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2010/02/13/openoffice_review/