Well kinda

Version 3 of the free alternate office suite called OpenOffice has just been released.
I’ve used OpenOffice for both Windows and now for Mac since it’s early days of version 1. We’re only talking about a few years in this time and currently I’ve found this free office suite can do just about anything you’re currently doing with the Microsoft Office suite. The download from http://www.openoffice.org is around the 160M mark depending on your operating system and installs in a flash.

You’ll find you’ve just installed six applications that include: the Writer word processor, Calc spreadsheet, Impress presentations program, Base database program, Math equation editor, and Draw graphics program.

OpenOffice.org is the most formidable challenge to Microsoft's desktop-productivity headlock, even more than Corel's excellent WordPerfect Office. It offers impressive (if not quite perfect) loading, saving, and sharing of files with colleagues using Word, Excel, and PowerPoint; a tolerably short transition or learning curve for all you Office converts. You’re free to distribute it as you like and free for programmers to poke around with the source code.

What's Under The Hood

The most immediately visible change to OpenOffice.org 3.0 is the new "Start Centre" , new fresh-looking icons, and a new zoom control in the status bar. Other highlights include notable Calc (spreadsheet) improvements, including a new solver component. Writer (think Word here) has an improved notes feature and displays of multiple pages while editing.

‘Spreadsheet Collaboration Through Workbook Sharing’ allows collaborating on spreadsheets with multiple users. By sharing a spreadsheet; other users can easily add their data to the spreadsheet. The spreadsheet owner can then easily integrate the new data with a few clicks. The new collaboration feature also helps avoid editing conflicts.

One innocuous (though important) feature is the support for the upcoming Version 1.2 of the Open Document Format for Office Applications, or ODF - essentially future proofing your documents against the ever changing and isolating file format standards which Microsoft have imposed.

Mac OS X users will be pleased with 3.0 too because support for OS X is even more robust. OpenOffice.org 3.0 works right out of the box with minimal fuss. Another bonus for OS X users: features that were dropped from the Mac version of Microsoft Office such as the spreadsheet Solver and VBA support are included in the Mac version of OpenOffice.

There’s also support for ‘extensions’ which allow you to tweak the software as you see fit. Visit the Open Office Extension Repository for everything from dictionaries to templates to file import wizards to code formatting tools.

MS Office - what's the scoop?

In addition to read and write support for the Microsoft Office binary file formats (.doc; .xls, .ppt, etc.), the new OpenOffice.org 3.0 is now capable of opening files created with Microsoft Office 2007 or Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac OS X (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx, etc.). So users can interact with others still using Microsoft Office. The various filters for the Microsoft Office file formats also make mixed environments possible, so that some users stay on Microsoft Office while others use OpenOffice. Be aware that with importing any data into any other program, formatting is likely to be changed - the same can be said for OpenOffice. It’s always wise to check importation using any software.

Microsoft Office still holds the lead in grammar and image manipulation. But, OpenOffice has come through once again with additional tools not found in the commercial giant, like PDF import.

Cost Savings?

Well, it’s free - so whatever you’re paying now, you’ll save ☺

For setting up for a new office, you’d really be wanting to have a look at OpenOffice for your business computers. Having a zero dollar cost as well as a minimal learning curve will make a positive impact on the bottom line. I know some firms who have run quite old versions of Microsoft Office and transitioned to earlier versions of OpenOffice in a heartbeat. The new and improved features in v3 make it a more compelling reason to look at switching.

Test Before You Jump

The beauty of free products is you can easily evaluate before making any decision to migrate an entire corporate across to another piece of software. OpenOffice, like anything, won’t suit all situations - though it may well accommodate a partial deployment too. Accounting firms that make extremely heavy use of Excel could find the functionality not to their liking or the learning curve outside their HR boundaries.

Download it at home first and give it a try.