Microsoft Office Alternatives

Maybe it’s time to move away from the Microsoft Office suite.

Much like the online Act-killers out there, those online and off who would take down Microsoft’s behemoth Office have been increasingly successful rooting it out.

So if you need to get work done from home, but aren’t interested in shelling out the hundreds upon hundreds for the Office suite, there all sorts of other options out there, (check these search results if you really want to wade through them).

I’ve chosen three to share with you.

OpenOffice.org

[rate 5]

I’m surprised at the number of sales professionals who still haven’t heard of this. It’s your typical, download-and-install software package. Free but powerful.

By no means is OpenOffice new, so you shouldn’t be worried about whether it’s lacking features. It’s a huge download — 93MB. OpenOffice offers its own version of Excel (called “Calc”, Word (called “Writer”), Powerpoint (“Impress”), Access (“Base”), and a couple other valuable applications. The standard Office replacements will even open and save Office-formatted files.

I’ve bumped around a bit in both the Calc and Writer applications and they do the standard job just fine, with no problems. All of the standard and nearly all advanced formatting features are included are relatively simple to use, with no real learning curve if you’re comfortable with MS Office.

There’s an even a portable version of OpenOffice that you can save to and run from a USB flash drive, meaning it doesn’t even need to be installed on your computer or laptop. I highly recommend looking into this.

ThinkFree Office

[rate 5]

This is a hybrid application. It provides a free, online alternative to MS Office, and/or a $49.95, desktop version. Both include Excel, Word, and Powerpoint replacements.

The free, online version also gives you 1GB of online storage, allows you to collaborate with others on documents, provides a variety of free templates (and gives you a forum to share your creations).

I have to admit I’ve only briefly tested this system out, and it’s not the fastest by any means — relying on a Java applet to load before you can begin editing a document. But it does offer extensive features, especially considering it’s an online application. For example, the Word alternative looks and feels like Word, with a clean page view, all the standard and a few advanced formatting features, spellchecking, save to PDF, and more. You can save files as .doc, .rtf, .pdf, and .xml.

The Excel alternative looks and feels like Excel, with loads of the typical Excel features (functions/formulas, sorting, multiple tabs, charts, etc.) This is solid stuff.

The Powerpoint alternative is the most advanced online Powerpoint alternative I’ve found, with all the features you’ve come to know and love and hate with Powerpoint (backgrounds, animations, transitions, bullet points, numbering, etc.). If you’re ready to take the plunge and move it all online, ThinkFree’s online office is very powerful and useful. (I’ve not yet tested the desktop version.)

Google Docs & Spreadsheets

[rate 3]

You should have heard by now that Google has been offering online versions of Word and Excel. Soon, they’ll launch an online Powerpoint alternative.

The Word and Excel alternatives do the basics just fine, nothing special, as long as you don’t expect to upload your company’s advanced, multi-tab expense report and start using it with no problems. All the standard formatting tools are supported in the Word replacement; and multiple functions/formulas and formatting options are supported in the spreadsheet tool. They’re both capable of the basics.

I’ve found the speed of using both to be pretty slow, even with my fast broadband connection, and I’ve not gotten the printouts to look like those done in the original Excel application.

If you just need to create or share a document for review or group editing periodically, these will do the job fine. Just keep your expectations low as far as advanced formatting and features.