An Alternative to Microsoft Office
Many new computers do not come with Microsoft Office software.
Some come with Office's very junior relative, Microsoft Works and
perhaps Microsoft Word, which is just one element of Microsoft Office.
While Works does have a Word Processing program and a Spreadsheet
program it is not capable of opening Microsoft Word documents, the full
range of Excel worksheets or any Powerpoint programs. Since so
many people send information in one of these formats, you can be stuck
unless you pony up the money for Microsoft Office. I had a friend
recently who had a new computer and could not open several things which
people had sent her in Word and Powerpoint formats. While Microsoft's
programs are excellent you should be aware that there is a less
expensive (in fact, free)
alternative which will do much of what most people need or want from
Microsoft Office. If you are a full time RVer and watch your
spending closely, at least it is worth checking out Open Office.
This is open source software which is available for free on the
internet. Click here to go to the Open Office Web Site
and you can get it and try it out. (This is a big program, so it is
best to do this when you have a high speed connection such as WiFi or
you should start your download on a dial up when you will not be
needing your computer for a while.) It will not do everything exactly
the same as the Microsoft programs, but it will open microsoft files
and it can save what you work on in a format that Microsoft programs
can open. I had tried the earlier versions of Open Office and was
not particularly happy, but the 2.0 version seems excellent.
For a more detailed comparison of these two, prepared for non profit organizations, take a look at this site. Comparison of Microsoft Office and Open Office.
Another thought on this - Google now has free on line word
processing and spreadsheet programs. This can be handy if you don't
want to fool with having to load a word processing or spreadsheet
program on your computer. Also, you can set it up, so they say, so
others with permission can get on line and edit the same document you
are working on. Could be really handy if you are working with someone
elsewhere in the country (or world) on a document. Google
If
you don't want to work with Google, another site which has free on line
word processing and spreadsheets is thinkfree. I haven't tried it yet,
but you might want to take a look. It also has presentation software
on line. They say they give 1 Gig of on line storage for documents. Thinkfree.com
Return to Home Page