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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