Choosing other options for Office Productivity: Or outsourcing your Word Documents Part 1

Do you ever get fed up with Microsoft? They seem to have a strangle hold on the word processing world. I have heard multiple complaints from teachers about how difficult Word can be. I have already upgraded to Office 2007, but it doesn’t play well with other formats. Several parents have emailed me to request help in opening documents created in 2007 because they were not able to access it with Office 2003 (what we are running in most cases on XP operating systems). Well, there is good news. No longer is Microsoft the only reliable source for productivity needs. I will let you in on a little secret that scares Microsoft (and hope they don’t find me too threatening).

First off Sun Systems offers a free download at http://openoffice.org. The Open Office program is a simple program that I first heard about in 2005. The beauty of Open Office is that it is compatible with Microsoft products (meaning you can open, edit, and save in formats accessible by Microsoft Office). In fact, you can access Office 2007 documents via Open Office, which is something Microsoft users suffer from unless they are regularly updating their software. Open Office 3.1 allows the user to open documents in a simple format, make changes, and resave as a Word document (.doc), a Word 2007) document (.docx), or an open source document (there are other choices, but we’ll KISS). The bells and whistles are missing, but the program is a free download, so it is worth the trade off. Considering a copy of Microsoft Office for Teachers and Students runs around $130 on sale, this is a viable alternative for our students who do not have the software already. Open Office also offers presentation software comparable to Powerpoint, spreadsheet software comparable to Excel, and a database system similar to a program (I don’t recall the name) available through Microsoft. There are other options, available, but the only piece that I am truly experienced with is the word processing. Again, it isn’t the same as Microsoft, but for free, it offers a lot of potential. Give it a try the next time you are looking to save a few dollars.

Downloading instructions:

1. Go to http://openoffice.org
2. Click on “I want to download Openoffice.org”.
3. Click on “Download Now”.
4. Save the program on your computer.
5. Run the program.
6. Once installation is complete, the program will be available on through the start menu and the desktop (if you choose to make a link available).
7. Good luck!!

Saving in Open Office:

1. When you choose to save a document, follow the traditional rules.

a. File

b. Save As

c. Choose a name fitting of your document

2. Here is where the trick comes in. Below the area where you name your document, you are given the choices of what type of format to save your work as. If you want to access the work later in a Microsoft program, and for greatest compatibility, save the document in one of the following formats:

a. Text documents—Name.doc (Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP)

b. Presentation—Name.ppt (Microsoft Powerpoint 97/2000/XP)

c. Spreadsheet—Name.xls (Microsoft Excel 97/2000/XP)

This is the wave of the future, so enjoy.