Put OpenOffice to Work in Your Home Office

by Michelle Dively - Apr. 07, 2008Comments (5)

Small business owners and freelancers typically have a need for word processing, spreadsheet, or presentation software -- and sometimes all three. Commercial software collections like Microsoft Office and Apple iWork are useful but pricey. Fortunately, OpenOffice.org is a great, and free, alternative.

Once you begin using OO.o, you'll find there's lots of things this handy suite of apps can do besides just create a letter. Let's have a look at how to make OpenOffice work for you.

  • Make cool letterhead with this detailed tutorial from LXer. Sure, you can use a ready-made template, but adding a unique look to your stationery is a great way to brand your business with whateer artwork you choose or create.
  • Need business cards? OpenOffice has a business card template built right into it's word processing app. All you need is some card stock and a printer.
  • When you're ready to add more functionality to OpenOffice, you'll find a whole host of extensions that let you do everything from create educational flash cards to manage clip art.
  • If you still can't decide whether to make the switch to OpenOffice, be sure to read what power user Solveig Haugland has to say. She offers dozens of reasons why OpenOffice is the best word processing suite available and also how to tweak the settings to make the apps work best for you. If you're a long-time MS Office user making the switch, CNet's Dennis O'Reilly has some great tips for a smooth transition.
  • If you're already using OpenOffice, be sure you have the latest version: OpenOffice.org 2.4. It features improvements to the chart module, adds 3D slide transitions to Impress, enhances PDF functionality, and more.

Tell us about how you use OpenOffice.org in your home office.

 

 


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5 Comments
 

It has come a long way over the last couple of releases. Great job from the people developing OpenOffice.

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I like OpenOffice a lot. For people interested primarily in open source word processing, AbiWord is really good:

http://ostatic.com/158800-blog/new-version-of-abiword-a-free-robust-word...

For a whole suite that competes with MS Office very closely--although it's not open source and costs a tiny amount--Software 602 is worth a look:

http://webworkerdaily.com/2008/03/20/a-near-free-great-alternative-to-mi...

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I love Open Office! Great program and great article!

As the above poster mentioned.. Abi word is a great word processor. I liked it a lot because of the speed of it. It started very fast compared to Open Office. But one day, it started to crash on me. I couldn't diagnose it or anything because the crashes would be so random. I would just be mid-way typing an essay and it would just crash. I'd lose work and everything. I don't know if that'll happen with who ever downloads it now.. but let me tell you.. When I was using Abi Word and it crashed for the first time.. I was depressed for about a week.. lol

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Agreed that OpenOffice rocks though I really wish someone would make an extension to add live word count.

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I just lost 2 hours of homework in Open Office. Why? Because the god damn auto-save and recovery features DO NOT WORK.


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