Enterprise Nation

When starting a new business, you'll probably factor in a cost for some sort of office suite; word documents, spreadsheet, a drawing application and perhaps a database. But with this advice from Scott Pashley, you can factor on getting all this for free.

Introducing OpenOffice

The alternative to expensive proprietary office software is OpenOffice.org (or just OpenOffice as it's usually called)  - it’s an office suite, much like Microsoft Office, and includes all of the things you'll need. But the best part, it's free!

At this point you may be thinking there's got to be some kind of catch, you get what you pay for and free must mean it's really bad. Actually it's not. Like most Open Source software, big corporations use it in all sorts of places, as do many governments including those in Birmingham, Berlin, Prague, Bristol, Munich and many more.

What OpenOffice offers

Firstly, there's a Word Processor called Writer (rather obvious really!) and it is fully compatible with Microsoft Office. This means all of your existing documents will work in OpenOffice, and anything you create in it will open in Microsoft Office.

You can then add extra features – also for free! One great feature is the ability to create PDF's from your documents. Some companies charge high fees for plug-ins that will allow Microsoft Office to create PDF's but not with OpenOffice. The PDFs can be protected which is handy if you need to send samples or proofs to a client.

Other parts of the suite include:

• OpenOffice Calc - equivalent of Excel and allows you all of the functionality of Excel, including charts and graphs.
• Impress - equivalent to PowerPoint complete with gallery of slide templates, clip art and other assets that can be used in your presentations.

I urge you to give OpenOffice a try – there’s certainly nothing to lose! 

• Scott Pashley, Open Future
• OpenOffice

If you do try OpenOffice, let us know how you get by commenting here or in the forum.