Microsoft Office is a powerful tool that allows you to create documents that look professional and save in a format that is used by most offices and schools around us. There are times though, when the extra money to pay for this software might not just be lying around somewhere. Sure you could go with an older version of Office and save a little money that way; but why skimp on new features just to have the Microsoft logo? If you switch to one of those awful free productivity.software suites will you be embarrassed when none of your classmates or coworkers can read anything you send them. Probably not, heres why:

 

Apache OpenOffice- These guys started the movement and this is probably the most well known Office software alternative. Six programs headline the open source productivity suite Writer, Calc, Draw, Impress, Base and Math. While honestly I’m not sure what some of those do I know Writer is a fantastic alternative to Word and Calc does a fine job toe-to-toe with Excel as well. I don’t know if the free part is unattractive to you, I kind of think thats the best part. You get all the power and capability of $100 or more program for free! Right on the interwebs!

  www.openoffice.org

LiberOffice- Started by The Document Foundation, this program can save in any of its major competitors file formats. It has replacements for programs like Word, Excel and Powerpoint that are rich with features. The software is open source and the best part about it is that its free. The transition is not as drastic as you might think. Free software is certainly not a bad thing, I recommend it actually! I can’t say enough about how this program helped me and quite a lot of my friends through school when money was tight. If you are able to, they do accept donations for their work and they would be well deserved. Liber Office is thought to be updated more than any other open source office alternative.

www.liberoffice.org  

NeoOffice- Designed almost identically to OpenOffice, this program differs in that is geared primarily toward the Mac user. This program integrates with OSX (including Mountain Lion) to utilize Mac Font selection as well as printer services native to Mac. If you are looking for a free alternative to Office for Mac or even Apple’s productivity software suite, look no further. It also has a feature to send NeoOffice files securely!

Google Docs and Google Drive- If you own a business, go to school, live a busy life, live a quiet life, need to be more organized or want to have less clutter, you need to try Google Docs. Imagine being able to create and access important documents and files on the go anywhere with an internet connection. In this day and age you can just about get online anywhere, hitching a ride on free public wi-fi isn’t too difficult. Once you’ve signed in with an easy-to-setup gmail account you can begin creating a vast treasure chest of fireproof, bulletproof, waterproof everything but Google meltdown proof documents and files. It’s cloud storage, pretty nifty stuff.