Open Office, free software that works with MS

OpenOffice.org

OpenOffice.org (OO.o or OOo) is an office application suite available for a number of different computer operating systems. It supports the OpenDocument standard for data interchange as its default file format, as well as Microsoft Office '97-2003 formats - among many others.

OpenOffice.org is based on StarOffice, an office suite developed by StarDivision acquired by Sun Microsystems in August 1999. The source code of the suite was released in July 2000 with the aim of reducing the dominant market share of Microsoft Office by providing a free, open and high-quality alternative to users. OpenOffice.org is a free software, available under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL).

The project and software are informally referred to as OpenOffice, but this term is a trademark held by another party requiring the project to adopt OpenOffice.org as its formal name.

Components

OpenOffice.org is a collection of applications that closely work together to provide the features expected from a modern office suite. Many of the components are designed to mirror those available in Microsoft Office. The components available include:

A word processor similar in look and feel to Microsoft Word that offers a comparable range of functions and tools. It also includes the ability to export Portable Document Format (PDF) files with no additional software and can also function as a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor for creating and editing web pages.

Learn more at Image: OOoWriter.svg.