OpenOffice

OpenOffice is one of the most popular free office software suites. It is released according to the rules of Open Source. It is available in over sixty languages. It offers all the most necessary functions that can be found in its main competitor, Microsoft Office. Also, this software does not fall much behind its famous rival, which is why it still gains the popularity among users. The main tools that can be found in this office software suite are:

- OpenOffice Writer – this is an advanced word processor, which can easily stand the comparison with the famous Microsoft Word. It allows for inserting charts, graphics, tables, and many other elements. It also handles the mail merge;
- OpenOffice Calc – this is a spreadsheet, equivalent to Microsoft Excel. It offers many formulas, which make it easier to work on data;
- OpenOffice Impress – this is a tool for creating graphic presentations. It is equivalent to Microsoft PowerPoint;
- OpenOffice Draw – this is a tool for creating and editing vector graphics. It cooperates with the other components and allows us to decorate other documents with some graphics. It also supports OpenGL;
- OpenOffice Math – this tool allows us to create complicated mathematical formulas;
- OpenOffice Base – this tool is for relational databases, and is equivalent to Microsoft Access;
- A visual HTML editor, which allows for designing web pages;
- A macro editor for automation of complex tasks.

OpenOffice offers also various dictionaries – spelling dictionary, dictionary of synonyms, grammar check – available in many language versions. We can also install some add-ons if we want to expand its functionality. This office software suite supports also some of the Microsoft Office formats (DOC, XLS, PPT, RTF), as well as MS Office 2007 (XDOC – from ver. 3.0). Finally, it also allows us to export documents as PDF and LaTeX files. This suite is constantly expanded. All those features make OpenOffice really reliable and highly functional software of this kind. Enough to say that OpenOffice is frequently used alongside – or as a replacement for – its commercial competitors. The whole package takes about 250MB of the disk space.