

If you need to collaborate with others on those files, though, there are other office alternatives that make it much easier. Our all-volunteer board oversees more than 350 leading Open Source projects, including Apache HTTP Server - the worlds most popular Web server software. If you just need to work with Microsoft Office formats, and you don’t mind what some would consider a dated interface, Open Office has all the comprehensive formatting and functionality you need. Established in 1999, the ASF is a US 501 (c) (3) charitable organization, funded by individual donations and corporate sponsors.

Where Open Office diverges from Microsoft’s productivity suite is in collaboration. You can also export files to PDF from all three programs. But those instances usually only require minor tweaks to correct. Occasionally, it will hiccup as when it removed all the embedded images from a Word doc I had open. It does so flawlessly most of the time, even with complexly formatted documents like resumes and multi-column newsletters. In addition to word processing, the program also offers spreadsheets. Open Office has excellent compatibility with Office formats and can export to PDF from all three apps.īy default, Open Office uses the Open Document standard for native files, but you can change it to save to Microsoft formats, and it can read and write existing Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files. Take advantage of OpenOffice’s free Office.
