An alternative to Office

I try to rarely promote commercial products on this blog, but when a good FREE tool presents itself, I like to talk about it.

When I got my new computer awhile back, I really wanted to buy MS Office to go with it (so I could work at home easily) but I just couldn’t afford it. For just a few bucks, I got a basic office suite from Wordperfect included with my computer. Then I discovered Open Office, an open-source office suite that is available for free (legally, I might add). Open Office is backed by Sun Microsystems and is built by programmers all over the world who donate their time. It contains an excellent word processor along with a spreadsheet, database, etc. I basically just use the word processor, and it communicates SO much better with Word than Wordperfect does.
One qualifier: I word process all the time, but I don’t use many advanced features, and I’ve heard that people who do run into more problems with compatibility. But as a basic user, I can email my sermon or lesson to myself when I leave the office and pick it up at home and continue to work on it seamlessly, for the most part.

As for Powerpoint and Publisher, which I also use a frequently but for short periods, Bart Mayo (our church tech guru) showed me a program called LogMeIn which provides me simple remote desktop access for free, so I can sit at home and control my office computer as if I were sitting at my desk at church - and you don’t need Windows XP Professional to do it. It IS a bit slow to run a remote session, but it is definitely workable.

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July 30, 2006 · Filed Under Web, Work

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