Tuesday, 13 August 2019

Free Office software - no strings attached


Vintage typewriter and desk

This is the first in an occasional series of posts about computer software which you can download and use at absolutely no cost to yourself.  I’ll kick off with one of my own personal favourites, Apache OpenOffice.

Family historians use office software, such as spreadsheets for organising ancestral information, or creating lists or research logs to work with.  Word processing packages are infinitely useful for any form of written work, ranging from basic letters to full-scale biographies.  And if you are sharing your know-how with your fellow genealogists, a presentation package can help get your message across to a group.  You may be familiar with Microsoft's Office programs like Excel, Word, and PowerPoint.

OpenOffice is a suite of programs much like Microsoft Office.  However, unlike its Microsoft counterpart, OpenOffice is an open source product, which means it has been made freely available for anyone to use as they wish.  There will never be any cost involved in downloading or using any element of the package.  It contains word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, database, and drawing software, plus a maths function creator (you probably didn’t know you needed one!).  It also runs on computers using all the main operating systems, including Macs.

I used it for several years before acquiring Microsoft Office 365 as a student, and may yet go back to it again.  The look and function of OpenOffice is quite similar to Microsoft, although there are differences, for example in the way you go about formatting word processing documents.  But it’s pretty straightforward and like any technology you're new to, it takes a little time to adapt to.  There are occasional glitches, which is true of any software package!  

If all this technical stuff is making you switch off, just take it from me: try OpenOffice before you shell out megabucks for a big-brand product that you might only use half of.  You can check out more information about the package here.

Another very similar open source product, which I haven’t used, is LibreOffice.  What’s the difference between this one and OpenOffice?  Read this journalist’s take on it.

Wishing you happy free downloading 😃

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