Brothers and Sisters,
I was recently very surprised to find that Open Office 2.1.0 is out. For those who have used it several years, you should know that they move pretty slowly and carefully with OUTSTANDING FREE SOFTWARE that takes the place of Microsoft Office and is compatible with output to and from Microsoft Office.
I don't have very much experience with the new version yet, but I jumped from 2.0.4 to 2.1.0 in one move because I had no idea they were moving so fast.
Take a visit to:
http://www.openoffice.org/and take a look around. You are going to be surprised with the huge number of FREE extras and add-ons that are now available. I'm talking about templates and examples for just about everything that sure does make new projects a lot easier. I must assume that support from around the world by programmers and users has mushroomed because of the rapid improvements and growth of available helps. I must also say that if you can dream of it for an office suite, they have it.
Open Office has now made it possible for all churches, charities, and organizations without money to have a first class office suite. There is now no reason at all for your church to spend $500 for Microsoft Office. Open Office does it all, and it's FREE.
I think that I started using Open Office at version .99, and it was outstanding then. I even got brave and used a beta version at 1.99, and I've been using 2.0 to 2.04 since they came out. I honestly think that Open Office will become the standard and replace Microsoft Completely. It still does all of the Microsoft formats in the entire suite, but it actually has a much more efficient format called open document format. The file sizes are much smaller - have just as many features - and they are not as prone to security concerns as Microsoft. I must also say that the help system and manuals are excellent. Everything is FIRST CLASS.
I think that one of the reasons why Open Office is moving so quickly is Sun Microsystems supporting the projects. For those of you who don't know that name, think "JAVA". Sun's Version of the software is called Star Office, but they aren't free except for certain categories of users. I think that Star is free for churches, charities, and public school teachers. However, I really don't know if there is any difference. As an individual, I actually think that Open Office is more stable, user friendly, and feature rich than Microsoft Office. I have also experienced many fewer problems with Open Office than I did with Microsoft Office.
In short, I'm telling you to keep your money in your pocket and try Open Office. This is also an outstanding way to cut the budget at church or one of your local charities. I'm not aware of a single reason to keep spending big bucks for office suites. Please keep in mind that I'm talking about an entire suite - not just a word processor (i.e. spread sheet, database, draw, power point, etc.). I'll just add one more thing - the programs are small in comparison to Microsoft. If you need to know about use of system resources and other details, look on the Open Office Home Page.http://www.openoffice.org/Look under downloads for the main programs and projects for the extras and add-ons. Try it and I know you will like it.
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