Q&A About Open Office

Open source version of Microsoft Office products is free and becoming popular

SALINE, MICHIGAN  JULY 8, 2004

There has begun to be some buzz about the free products available at www.openoffice.org.  In that light, here's an overview of what it is, and some other answers to common questions:

- What is it?  It is a free, open source, version of the products you'll find in most major desktop application suites, most particularly Microsoft's Office products.  The applications provide a lot of the functionality found in the MS Office.

- Can it be run on my PC or laptop?  Very likely.  There is a Mac version available and it runs on the major Windows desktops (I'm running it on XP).

- Can I convert MS formatted documents such as Word docs, into the OpenOffice format?  And vice versa?  Yes, but when converting back in forth between the products I've found some issues with formatting.  Especially when converting between PowerPoint and the OpenOffice presentation building product.

- How does it look?  The user look and feel is definitely not as slick as Microsoft's Office suite.

- Why is it free?  Who cares.  Over 16 million people have downloaded it and continue to every day.

- Why would I use this instead of Microsoft?  Well, for one, it is free.  For two - it is free.  If you run a small company this may be the way to go to avoid the fee for the office suite.

- My advice?  Well, check back in to openoffice.org occasionally and take a look for yourself.  Since the product is open source, developers are constantly working to improve it.  It is not as slick as MS Office right now, but one day it may get there.