open office essay

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Apache Open Office review: The original Office alternative

Expert's Rating

• Excellent compatibility with Office formats
• Familiar Office-like interface
• No native cloud storage
• Doesn’t support real-time collaboration

Our Verdict

Open Office has the essential features you need to work with Office formats, but its lack of cloud support makes it unsuited for collaboration.

Best Prices Today: Open Office

Open Office was the first legitimate free contender to Microsoft Office, though it has ceded that spotlight in recent years to alternatives like Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides, and its own spinoff product Libre Office. The open source suite includes word processing (Write), spreadsheets (Calc), presentation (Impress), and database management (Base) programs, along with drawing and math apps that don’t have a direct Microsoft corollary.

Open Office works with most Microsoft formats including DOCX, XLS, PPT, and XML. It’s free to use on Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms.

This review is part of our  roundup   of  best Microsoft Office alternatives . Go there for details on competing products and buying advice.

If you still remember how Microsoft Office looked circa 2003, Open Office’s interface will seem eerily familiar. The component programs make no concessions to the trendy ribbon interface, using only old-school menus and toolbars. That’s good news if you’re still sore over Microsoft’s decade-old UI makeover, but it can take some readjusting if you’re now accustomed to tabbing around your document and spreadsheet programs.

Open Office has excellent compatibility with Office formats and can export to PDF from all three apps.

By default, Open Office uses the Open Document standard for native files, but you can change it to save to Microsoft formats, and it can read and write existing Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files. It does so flawlessly most of the time, even with complexly formatted documents like resumes and multi-column newsletters. Occasionally, it will hiccup as when it removed all the embedded images from a Word doc I had open. But those instances usually only require minor tweaks to correct. You can also export files to PDF from all three programs.

Where Open Office diverges from Microsoft’s productivity suite is in collaboration. MS Office’s tight integration with OneDrive and Outlook allows you to easily share and work on files with others without leaving the respective program. Open Office supports document review features like commenting and track-changes, but it has no native cloud storage or email program. It does, however, offer an extension that lets you connect to dozens of third-party cloud storage providers including Box and Google Drive, and the Open Office programs can be configured to work with select open source email clients like Mozilla Thunderbird.

Standout features

• Excellent Microsoft Office compatibility
• Familiar, Microsoft-like interface

Missing features

• Native cloud storage and email support
• Mobile apps

Apache Open Office is best for:

If you just need to work with Microsoft Office formats, and you don’t mind what some would consider a dated interface, Open Office has all the comprehensive formatting and functionality you need. If you need to collaborate with others on those files, though, there are other office alternatives that make it much easier.

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How to Use OpenOffice Writer

Last Updated: April 21, 2023

wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, 13 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time. This article has been viewed 73,925 times. Learn more...

Writer is the word processing feature in OpenOffice. This tutorial explains how to use the “Tips” feature, open a new text document, change paper size, change margins, change the indentation of paragraphs, use icons, Close and Open files, Undo entries, and get help.

• In either case, A text document appears on your screen. (The name of the text document appears at the top of the screen.

• 4 Decide on the paper size that you need.

Use The Ruler To Change The Indentation Of Selected Paragraphs

Icons, Click, Right-click, Insert

The small pictures on the Standard Toolbar and some of the other toolbars are called icons. Click on each icon. (Click means to press and release the button on the left side of the mouse with your index (pointer) finger. Click only one time unless instructed to “double- click”.)

Close And Open Files

Undo Entries

Insert Special Character

• The ☺symbol appears on the page.

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• How to structure an essay: Templates and tips

How to Structure an Essay | Tips & Templates

Published on September 18, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on July 23, 2023.

The basic structure of an essay always consists of an introduction , a body , and a conclusion . But for many students, the most difficult part of structuring an essay is deciding how to organize information within the body.

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Table of contents

The basics of essay structure, chronological structure, compare-and-contrast structure, problems-methods-solutions structure, signposting to clarify your structure, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about essay structure.

There are two main things to keep in mind when working on your essay structure: making sure to include the right information in each part, and deciding how you’ll organize the information within the body.

Parts of an essay

The three parts that make up all essays are described in the table below.

Order of information

You’ll also have to consider how to present information within the body. There are a few general principles that can guide you here.

The first is that your argument should move from the simplest claim to the most complex . The body of a good argumentative essay often begins with simple and widely accepted claims, and then moves towards more complex and contentious ones.

For example, you might begin by describing a generally accepted philosophical concept, and then apply it to a new topic. The grounding in the general concept will allow the reader to understand your unique application of it.

The second principle is that background information should appear towards the beginning of your essay . General background is presented in the introduction. If you have additional background to present, this information will usually come at the start of the body.

The third principle is that everything in your essay should be relevant to the thesis . Ask yourself whether each piece of information advances your argument or provides necessary background. And make sure that the text clearly expresses each piece of information’s relevance.

The sections below present several organizational templates for essays: the chronological approach, the compare-and-contrast approach, and the problems-methods-solutions approach.

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The chronological approach (sometimes called the cause-and-effect approach) is probably the simplest way to structure an essay. It just means discussing events in the order in which they occurred, discussing how they are related (i.e. the cause and effect involved) as you go.

A chronological approach can be useful when your essay is about a series of events. Don’t rule out other approaches, though—even when the chronological approach is the obvious one, you might be able to bring out more with a different structure.

Explore the tabs below to see a general template and a specific example outline from an essay on the invention of the printing press.

• Thesis statement
• Discussion of event/period
• Consequences
• Importance of topic
• Strong closing statement
• Claim that the printing press marks the end of the Middle Ages
• Background on the low levels of literacy before the printing press
• Thesis statement: The invention of the printing press increased circulation of information in Europe, paving the way for the Reformation
• High levels of illiteracy in medieval Europe
• Literacy and thus knowledge and education were mainly the domain of religious and political elites
• Consequence: this discouraged political and religious change
• Invention of the printing press in 1440 by Johannes Gutenberg
• Implications of the new technology for book production
• Consequence: Rapid spread of the technology and the printing of the Gutenberg Bible
• Trend for translating the Bible into vernacular languages during the years following the printing press’s invention
• Luther’s own translation of the Bible during the Reformation
• Consequence: The large-scale effects the Reformation would have on religion and politics
• Summarize the history described
• Stress the significance of the printing press to the events of this period

Essays with two or more main subjects are often structured around comparing and contrasting . For example, a literary analysis essay might compare two different texts, and an argumentative essay might compare the strengths of different arguments.

There are two main ways of structuring a compare-and-contrast essay: the alternating method, and the block method.

Alternating

In the alternating method, each paragraph compares your subjects in terms of a specific point of comparison. These points of comparison are therefore what defines each paragraph.

The tabs below show a general template for this structure, and a specific example for an essay comparing and contrasting distance learning with traditional classroom learning.

• Synthesis of arguments
• Topical relevance of distance learning in lockdown
• Increasing prevalence of distance learning over the last decade
• Thesis statement: While distance learning has certain advantages, it introduces multiple new accessibility issues that must be addressed for it to be as effective as classroom learning
• Classroom learning: Ease of identifying difficulties and privately discussing them
• Distance learning: Difficulty of noticing and unobtrusively helping
• Classroom learning: Difficulties accessing the classroom (disability, distance travelled from home)
• Distance learning: Difficulties with online work (lack of tech literacy, unreliable connection, distractions)
• Classroom learning: Tends to encourage personal engagement among students and with teacher, more relaxed social environment
• Distance learning: Greater ability to reach out to teacher privately
• Sum up, emphasize that distance learning introduces more difficulties than it solves
• Stress the importance of addressing issues with distance learning as it becomes increasingly common
• Distance learning may prove to be the future, but it still has a long way to go

In the block method, each subject is covered all in one go, potentially across multiple paragraphs. For example, you might write two paragraphs about your first subject and then two about your second subject, making comparisons back to the first.

The tabs again show a general template, followed by another essay on distance learning, this time with the body structured in blocks.

• Point 1 (compare)
• Point 2 (compare)
• Point 3 (compare)
• Point 4 (compare)
• Advantages: Flexibility, accessibility
• Disadvantages: Discomfort, challenges for those with poor internet or tech literacy
• Advantages: Potential for teacher to discuss issues with a student in a separate private call
• Disadvantages: Difficulty of identifying struggling students and aiding them unobtrusively, lack of personal interaction among students
• Advantages: More accessible to those with low tech literacy, equality of all sharing one learning environment
• Disadvantages: Students must live close enough to attend, commutes may vary, classrooms not always accessible for disabled students
• Advantages: Ease of picking up on signs a student is struggling, more personal interaction among students
• Disadvantages: May be harder for students to approach teacher privately in person to raise issues

An essay that concerns a specific problem (practical or theoretical) may be structured according to the problems-methods-solutions approach.

This is just what it sounds like: You define the problem, characterize a method or theory that may solve it, and finally analyze the problem, using this method or theory to arrive at a solution. If the problem is theoretical, the solution might be the analysis you present in the essay itself; otherwise, you might just present a proposed solution.

The tabs below show a template for this structure and an example outline for an essay about the problem of fake news.

• Introduce the problem
• Provide background
• Describe your approach to solving it
• Define the problem precisely
• Describe why it’s important
• Indicate previous approaches to the problem
• Present your new approach, and why it’s better
• Apply the new method or theory to the problem
• Indicate the solution you arrive at by doing so
• Assess (potential or actual) effectiveness of solution
• Describe the implications
• Problem: The growth of “fake news” online
• Prevalence of polarized/conspiracy-focused news sources online
• Thesis statement: Rather than attempting to stamp out online fake news through social media moderation, an effective approach to combating it must work with educational institutions to improve media literacy
• Definition: Deliberate disinformation designed to spread virally online
• Popularization of the term, growth of the phenomenon
• Previous approaches: Labeling and moderation on social media platforms
• Critique: This approach feeds conspiracies; the real solution is to improve media literacy so users can better identify fake news
• Greater emphasis should be placed on media literacy education in schools
• This allows people to assess news sources independently, rather than just being told which ones to trust
• This is a long-term solution but could be highly effective
• It would require significant organization and investment, but would equip people to judge news sources more effectively
• Rather than trying to contain the spread of fake news, we must teach the next generation not to fall for it

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Signposting means guiding the reader through your essay with language that describes or hints at the structure of what follows.  It can help you clarify your structure for yourself as well as helping your reader follow your ideas.

The essay overview

In longer essays whose body is split into multiple named sections, the introduction often ends with an overview of the rest of the essay. This gives a brief description of the main idea or argument of each section.

The overview allows the reader to immediately understand what will be covered in the essay and in what order. Though it describes what  comes later in the text, it is generally written in the present tense . The following example is from a literary analysis essay on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein .

Transitions

Transition words and phrases are used throughout all good essays to link together different ideas. They help guide the reader through your text, and an essay that uses them effectively will be much easier to follow.

Various different relationships can be expressed by transition words, as shown in this example.

Because Hitler failed to respond to the British ultimatum, France and the UK declared war on Germany. Although it was an outcome the Allies had hoped to avoid, they were prepared to back up their ultimatum in order to combat the existential threat posed by the Third Reich.

Transition sentences may be included to transition between different paragraphs or sections of an essay. A good transition sentence moves the reader on to the next topic while indicating how it relates to the previous one.

… Distance learning, then, seems to improve accessibility in some ways while representing a step backwards in others.

However , considering the issue of personal interaction among students presents a different picture.

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

• Ad hominem fallacy
• Post hoc fallacy
• Appeal to authority fallacy
• False cause fallacy
• Sunk cost fallacy

College essays

• Choosing Essay Topic
• Write a College Essay
• Write a Diversity Essay
• College Essay Format & Structure
• Comparing and Contrasting in an Essay

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The structure of an essay is divided into an introduction that presents your topic and thesis statement , a body containing your in-depth analysis and arguments, and a conclusion wrapping up your ideas.

The structure of the body is flexible, but you should always spend some time thinking about how you can organize your essay to best serve your ideas.

An essay isn’t just a loose collection of facts and ideas. Instead, it should be centered on an overarching argument (summarized in your thesis statement ) that every part of the essay relates to.

The way you structure your essay is crucial to presenting your argument coherently. A well-structured essay helps your reader follow the logic of your ideas and understand your overall point.

Comparisons in essays are generally structured in one of two ways:

• The alternating method, where you compare your subjects side by side according to one specific aspect at a time.
• The block method, where you cover each subject separately in its entirety.

It’s also possible to combine both methods, for example by writing a full paragraph on each of your topics and then a final paragraph contrasting the two according to a specific metric.

You should try to follow your outline as you write your essay . However, if your ideas change or it becomes clear that your structure could be better, it’s okay to depart from your essay outline . Just make sure you know why you’re doing so.

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MLA Paper Template

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• View (active tab)

Template to lay out an essay in MLA format. College students will find this useful as most professors expect essays in this layout. Middle school and high school students can impress their teachers by using this layout as well.

Features include:

• Automatically inserts your name, your essay title, the date and your instructor's name using fields and the document's properties
• Automatically sets up the proper formatting for headings, the body and works cited
• Custom paragraph styles to eliminate formatting headaches
• Custom page style
• Free software

To Do List:

• Tie into OpenOffice.org's bibliography function to ease inline citation and generation of Works Cited section

Please update to open office 4

I briefly looked over it, and it is looking good. That being said, I believe that the MLA style has been updated, and the book titles are no longer supposed to be underlined but rather italicized. It's something to keep in mind. I don't know if there are any other changes. Thanks for posting this, it should come in handy :-)!

Thanks for adding this, I thought it should have been standard in Open Office (OO means open office, right? I'm new ^_^) but it wasn't so I'm glad that you created this =D. Also, I was just wondering if: a) you needed help in completing the bibliography function (I'm going to school for computer programming and I need some experience =D) and b) if you know when the bibliography update is going to be finished?

Thanks again man/woman! I might as well ask, are you a guy or a girl?

Thanks =D Alex

Useful Free Open Office Templates To Make You More Productive

Open Office 3 is an incredible and diverse productivity tool set. It is an open source program that offers free tools for work processing, presentations, databases, and spreadsheets.

The program can be freely downloaded on PC, Mac, and Linux machines.  The best part?  It can open files from any other program!  Read more about Open Office here and here .

If you need inspiration or want to produce a specific kind of document, never fear!  Their free user-created Open Office templates are awesome, and can save you lots of time and money!

Truly, there is no reason to spend your hard earned cash on expensive software when you can get everything you need right in the Open Office suite.

If you need a word processing program, use OOO's "Write" program; if you need a PowerPoint program, use their "Presentation" software. They even have an Excel-ish program and a database program like Access.

In addition to their powerful tools, they also offer a sweet repository of Open Office templates . You can choose between Business, Education, and Personal templates.  These user created templates are simple to download and simple to use.

This article will highlight some of the most useful templates available in each of the three sections.

The Business section is stuffed full of excellent and resourceful templates.  If you want to publish ANYTHING, you should stop here first.  Open Office offers templates for every make and model of book, magazine, or document.  In addition to the standard letters and reports, you can also find lots of neat extras!

Business Cards

Every person needs to have a business card.  While there are lots of great places to get them made online or in your community, you can use Open Office to create your very own!

This simple template opens and is ready to be completed!  It takes just seconds, and you can use the menu to customize the look to your needs.

Event Posters

To get your business recognized or to announce sales or other groovy events, you might want to use the awesome poster template!

Again, you can change the picture, the background color, the fonts, etc.  Or, if you just need something quick, fill in the blanks and click print!

If you have employees, you need to keep track of the time and pay rates. Open Office hosts a simple template that will allow you to do both!

DVD Inserts

If you provide DVDs to your customers, you might want to include a professional looking DVD insert.  This template is incredibly easy to use!

Finally, you will need to know how to charge your customers, and Invoices are a legal agreement between you and your client.  The template calculates math and has spots for all of the necessary legal information.

Educators will find many of the OOO templates quite handy!  Instead of purchasing expensive software or trying to create a tool on your own, you can instead peruse their repository of templates.

Lesson Plan Templates

There are a few different lesson plan styles, but all of them are fantastic.  They are easy to edit and modify according to your particular needs.  I like this one, but, again, there are others that are just as fabulous!

If you use a rubric for grading or you want to try out a few different types, OOO has the right resources for you!  I like to provide a hard copy of the grading rubric at the start of an assignment, and I like to provide a copy to parents in advance of a lesson.

These various templates are a great starting point for me, and they are off-the-shelf ready for new teachers, too!

Formatted Paper Guidelines, Formatted Paper Templates

If you are in college, you are familiar with the challenge of formatting papers in a particular documentation style (MLA, Chicago, Turabian, IEEE).  OOO has ALL of the formats ready for you to use!  I totally wish they had this kind of template when I was in college.  Be careful, though, and always make sure you use the correct style as instructed by your professor.

If your son is in high school, and it is 11:00pm when he decides to start his math homework, NEVER FEAR!  OOO has printable grid paper for FREE!  No more midnight Walmart runs!

Gradebook Templates

There are several different kinds of gradebook templates, and you can customize each one to your liking.  I love that they are set up to do the math for you!

There are lots of times when you need to make a certain type of document for your kids or for the country club.  Who has time to search all over the web when you can stop by OOO and get what you need for free?

Recipe Cards

Every organization I have ever belonged to has made a recipe book as a fundraiser. Since I don't cook much, I always struggle to remember what a recipe actually looks like.

OOO has a fantastic selection of recipe card templates that make the job of sharing recipes so easy!

March Madness and Sports Grids

A little friendly competition among friends is fun, but it can be such a pain to figure out those charts for Final Four!  OOO comes to the rescue!  Just print these out, and you have instant success.

Shopping List Templates

If you live in a place like Lakeville, you only get to a big grocery store once a month. Instead of just using slips of napkin, we printed out two of OOO's shopping lists and we use one at the Big-Ole Grocer and the other at the Farmer's Market.

It saves us so much time, and I don't have to find those little slips of paper!

Family Budget Planners

There are all sorts of different kinds of budgets and planners to download and print. There are, literally, pages and pages of different ways to organize your cash.  This is just one example, but there are so many more that you might like!

Creative Writing Tools and Templates for Script Writing

Script writing software is expensive.  Comic book layout software is expensive. Generally, most folks that want to write these kinds of ditties don't have the income to afford them.  OOO has a whole host of resources for the aspiring writer.

Need to write a commercial?  Want to write a memoir of your life?  Need to format a screenplay?  OOO has the tools for you!

The Bottom Line

Open Office has awesome templates for every possible situation.  The best part is that these resources are fast to download (on any platform) and are FREE!  Let us know what Open Office templates YOU like.

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Staying Focused in a Noisy Open Office

• Rebecca Knight

How to keep the distractions at bay.

The open office can sometimes be a nightmare — especially when you’re working on something that requires your undivided attention and your colleagues are chatty. For starters, try talking to your team to sync up expectations about how you can all work optimally in the open office. Develop some ground rules. For example, when one colleague is on the phone, the rest will only whisper. Second, invest in some noise-canceling headphones. These drown out unwanted noise and also serve as a visual cue to your colleagues that you’re not to be disturbed. Next, scout out a private, quiet space — an underutilized conference room, say — that will allow you to write and think free of distraction. Finally, if the noise is still a problem, ask your manager about moving desks. Don’t complain about your talkative coworkers. Instead, say that you’ll be more productive in a new space.

Let’s face it: The open office can be a nightmare, especially when you’re working on something that requires your undivided attention. To make matters worse, your colleagues can be distracting — maybe they’re having loud conversations or their cell phones are constantly chirping. How can you make peace with your open office? How should you handle loud coworkers who are disturbing your focus? What’s the best way to cope with the noise and distractions in your office without coming across as antisocial or rude?

• RK Rebecca Knight is a journalist who writes about all things related to the changing nature of careers and the workplace. Her essays and reported stories have been featured in The Boston Globe, Business Insider, The New York Times, BBC, and The Christian Science Monitor. She was shortlisted as a Reuters Institute Fellow at Oxford University in 2023. Earlier in her career, she spent a decade as an editor and reporter at the Financial Times in New York, London, and Boston.

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OpenOffice.org in Microcomputer Applications Research Paper

Introduction, problem statement, why openoffice.org.

OpenOffice.org is software that is used for various applications such as spreadsheet, word, presentation, and graphics among others which is an alternative to Microsoft office. It is called open because, any one can download at no cost and use it for any application. Also, it can be used in any operating system platform, for example Mac, Linux, Unix etc. OpenOffice.org can also be used to read or write on other types of applications. In other words, OpenOffice.org is an open source where any one can make changes to fit without contacting the developer or even distributing it to other people. There are many advantages of using OpenOffice.org which include simplicity of usage, free to acquire, possible to modify to meet users’ purpose, can be used for business purpose or personal use and can be used in any platform. According to Weber (2004), “A completely open development process means that anyone can report bugs, request new features, or enhance the software. The result: does everything you want your office software to do, the way you want it to.”

In the past, there had been no way of accessing someone work or code without contacting the developer and be given authority to do so. This had various limitations because some could not get it due to high cost and one could not improve it or use it at any application. Also the advancement of the software was not possible. But due to open source, it is possible for the user to modify in order to meet his need or market. This paper describes about OpenOffice.org, how to obtain it, features and some of the applications which differentiates it with Microsoft office and how compatible they are.

OpenOffice.org can be obtained by downloading it from the internet at no cost. Therefore, the user is free to run it for any application, learn how it works, distribute it to others, make some improvements and redistribute it at a charge or for free but to some extents, access to code is precondition. To run it means, one can install it for personal or organization use to any type of computer system, do any type of work and purpose without having to make contact with the developer. In this case it depends with the purpose of the user but not the developer. When redistributing, one is free to redistribute it with its code, all versions including modified one and usable form of the software if the language used allows it. Although it is said to be free, commercializing it does not translate to a crime. Haugland (2004) observes that, “It’s free, but is it good? It’s a full fledged office suite, as big as MS Office. It’s got a great set of features—everything you need to do word processing, spreadsheets, and presentation slides. Plus extra programs for drawing that you don’t get with Microsoft Office: OpenOffice.org Draw is like Canvas, with a bit of Visio thrown in.” In this case, open office has given chance to users to modify it for their own benefit unlike in Microsoft office where the user must pay and no modification to fit his purposes.

OpenOffice.org is an open source. This is because it can be used in operating system platform such as windows, Mac, Linux and some of Unix version. Also it matches with all application of Microsoft office applications such as word, spread sheet, presentation and drawings as well as databases.

Open sources have licenses which is copyright. This license allows access of code, which makes it possible for modification without contacting the actual developer. But sometimes, there are restrictions to maintain the name of the developer and a statement to indicate it’s a copyright. Hence open source licenses gives what the user is supposed to fulfill in order to use the software. Some licenses do not offer the privilege to access the code. According to Gurley (2006) “The proliferation of open source licenses is one of the few negatives aspects of the open movement because it is often difficult to understand the legal implications of the differences between licenses.”

Many peoples have adapted to using OpenOffice.org due to its simplicity and free to acquire. As noted by Gurley (2006), “When you’re starting something new, it’s great to know tens of millions of people have been there before you. OpenOffice.org 3 is developed, translated, supported, and promoted by an international community of tens of thousands of enthusiasts. If you have ever waited for ages for paid-for support from a commercial software provider, community support from enthusiastic and knowledgeable volunteers may come as a surprise”. The prediction shows that people will change to OpenOffice.org and less will be left to use other varieties. OpenOffice.org was started by Sun Microsystems but other companies like IBM have joined.

OpenOffice.org provides many features to the user. The user is provided with many shapes which are similar to those of Microsoft’s auto shapes. After placing it on the sheet, the user can modify its size. In case of shapes that are not provided, there are tools for drawing. It also provides various animations that can be used on slides for presentation. This feature resembles that of Microsoft Power point but with slight improvements. It allows PDF export. One is able to open a document in PDF format or save a document as PDF unlike Microsoft office. OpenOffice.org provides tools for database, although not accessible in some of the versions. Those tools allow development of database and its management. It allows sending a mail to many people at once. In this case, guidelines are provided within the interface in Help form. In word processing, recent versions provide a tool for word count, but the older versions do not. It provides a chance to create a table within another table which is not possible in Microsoft. It also allows creating interfaces basing on W3C Xforms. It allows creation of groups, filter data, give differences and percentages instead of values. It is easier to move toolbars by either detaching or attaching it according to the users need. It also have features like digital signature support, Xforms support, word perfect filters, enhance pivot table support, native installers, Native desktop integration, open standards XML file format and viewing of many forms at once. Other features are dictionary spell checker in all languages unlike in Microsoft Office and provide interface to access other forms and reports in which they can be modified. But those are not the only features, as development goes on day after day more features are added according to the need of users. (Gurley, 2006).

OpenOffice.org has an important property of fitting in all platforms. That means, it can be used in many operating systems such as Windows, some of Unix versions, Linux, Mac among others. This property allows it to be used by a variety of people along the world. Also it is compatible to Microsoft office which many people have been using. That means, if a document is developed in Microsoft office and sent to you, then it can be opened using OpenOffice.org and vice versa.

Although OpenOffice.org has many applications, some of them include text document, spread sheet, presentation, drawing, database and reviews. All this applications are similar to those of Microsoft office and they are compatible, which means that any document developed in OpenOffice.org and save as.doc can be opened in Microsoft office. (Finkelstein and Leete, 2005).

Why use OpenOffice.org? As discussed above, OpenOffice.org is free to acquire, easier to use, it is compatible with Microsoft office, one can modify to meet his/her needs, has more applications among other things.

To conclude, OpenOffice.org can be said to be very important software to all people due to its features. Also it is easier to use and free to acquire. The software has many applications as discussed. Therefore, people should move from Microsoft office to OpenOffice.org as it can be modified according to the users need. Also there is a room for improvement due to its open source property. Although it is easier to use, one should avoid making mistakes like when saving a word document, one should save it as.doc to avoid embarrassment when opening it on Microsoft Office because other features like.odt will not be accessible.

G.Leete, E. Finkelstein and M. Leete. Openofficeorg for Dummies. New York: Wiley & Sons, 2005.

Jean Hollis Weber. OpenOffice.org Writer: The Free Alternative to Microsoft Word. London: O’Reilly, 2004.

R. Gabriel Gurley. A Conceptual Guide to Openoffice.org 2.0: standard edition. Washington DC, Concise Concepts, 2006.

Solveig Haugland, Floyd Jones. OpenOffice.org. Helion: WyDaw, 2004.

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IvyPanda. (2021, October 3). OpenOffice.org in Microcomputer Applications. https://ivypanda.com/essays/openofficeorg-in-microcomputer-applications/

"OpenOffice.org in Microcomputer Applications." IvyPanda , 3 Oct. 2021, ivypanda.com/essays/openofficeorg-in-microcomputer-applications/.

IvyPanda . (2021) 'OpenOffice.org in Microcomputer Applications'. 3 October.

IvyPanda . 2021. "OpenOffice.org in Microcomputer Applications." October 3, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/openofficeorg-in-microcomputer-applications/.

1. IvyPanda . "OpenOffice.org in Microcomputer Applications." October 3, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/openofficeorg-in-microcomputer-applications/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "OpenOffice.org in Microcomputer Applications." October 3, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/openofficeorg-in-microcomputer-applications/.

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Why Apache OpenOffice: Easy-to-use

Easy to choose, easy to install, easy to learn - Apache OpenOffice is the easy choice for an office software suite. OpenOffice is suitable for complete beginners, but if you have used any other office software, that’s ok too. OpenOffice will make full use of what you already know - through familiar screens and menus - and also what you have - by reading existing files with no retyping.

Use it immediately

For people used to other office software, Apache OpenOffice is a pleasant surprise. It’s so straightforward! Studies have proved it is easier (and cheaper) to move to OpenOffice from Microsoft Office than it is to upgrade to Microsoft’s Office 2007. Because OpenOffice is one piece of software, everything works consistently between applications. Even the help system is the same. You don’t even have to know which application was used to create a document - OpenOffice will use the correct one. You only need to do a single download from the Internet (or install from one CD) and you’ve got your office suite

No need to retype

We understand that many people already have documents which they have created using other common office software packages. Apache OpenOffice can read these files with a very high degree of accuracy, making migration to OpenOffice very straightforward. In fact, we have reports where OpenOffice has been able to read files which the original software package had said were corrupted and unusable. If your friends or colleagues use different software, you can still swap files with them - but better still, give them a free copy of Apache OpenOffice!

Part of a community

When you’re starting something new, it’s great to know tens of millions of people have been there before you. Apache OpenOffice is developed, translated, supported, and promoted by an international community of tens of thousands of enthusiasts. If you have ever waited for ages for paid-for support from a commercial software provider, community support from enthusiastic and knowledgeable volunteers may come as a surprise. You may even find yourself talking to people who have developed or translated the software you are using. Welcome to the community!

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