OpenOffice (English Office Suite for free!)

[Pligganease]

If any of you are still using MSOffice in your classrooms, stop.


OpenOffice Suite (http://www.openoffice.org/) is free, open-source, and in English.  I find it slightly simpler but just as effective as MSOffice.  I currently use it for all of my prep and presentations.  Just install it on your school's computer if you need some office software but don't feel like fighting through the Korean Microsoft junk.

[Arsalan]

As a side-note, OpenOffice also has much more powerful tools for creating rich powerpoint presentations.  You can't do the same with Microsoft's substandard tools.

Thanks for the post

[Scott]

Can you run/open files for Microsoft using OpenOffice?  Files like .ppt and .pptx?

[dporter]

Can you run/open files for Microsoft using OpenOffice?  Files like .ppt and .pptx?

Yes.

But to slow down the OOo love fest - Open Office does not always render correctly files created in Microsoft Office. Usually documents with heavy formatting (like manual page breaks, tables, very customized powerpoints, etc) break when being viewed with Open Office.

Just try to open in Open Office one of the popular Jeopardy ppts that were created with Microsoft Office. It will be an EPIC fail.

[incognito84]

I like OpenOffice but its poorly coded. It takes a long time to boot up and crashes often. It can best be described as a Lexus with square tires.

I've also never been able to figure out how to make one element come up on a page at a time instead of just the whole page. In order to do that I've just been copy/pasting pages and adding things each time.

[Awesomo]

I use it with PortableApps: http://esloutpost.com/article/get/1160051136/Tech%20You%20Might%20Like#portableapps

It's great for simple editing jobs when you don't want to use a Korean interface at work.

[Paul]

Be aware that OpenOffice still has some trouble with certain bits of formatting: specifically TABLES. Otherwise its a brilliant piece of software. I'd recommend disabling the auto-load on startup though. It tends to take longer in total if its trying to boot up the same time as your virus scanner, IM software and everything else. OpenOffice is also great because it can save anything in PDF. If you still have Office 03 (the superior Office suite I feel), its almost worth keeping OpenOffice on one machine you use if just for this feature.

OK, so OpenOffice is great buuuuuut, if you like it, heres some really good news. Its merely one of a tonne of high quality free software packages. Bit of backgound: most of these packages are a result of the GNU free-software movement. Basically, a bunch of rich or kindly IT people, mostly in the US, have this goal of making software free and open. Not all packages are as open as others, but there are free high-quality equivalents to most of your favourite programs. Some are even arguably better than the program they mimic (looking at you GIMP and Audacity).

Heres my top 3:

* OpenOffice.org
* GIMP (Raster graphics ala Photoshop or PS Elements)
* Audacity (Audio editing, lets you slow down pop songs! I'm quite willing to make a tutorial for this if anyone asks as its an amazingly useful trick)

Other freebies I use:

Inkscape (vector graphics ala CorelDRAW)
Ubuntu Linux (Free equivalent of Windows, no really! Good for turning an old low-end computer into a slideshow and music box)
Avast (virus scanner, not GNU but they only charge money for the Business version and the Home version is comprehensive.)

[Awesomo]

Out of personal preference, I recommend Microsoft Security Essentials instead of Avast. It's a low-bloat, quick, highly-effective anti-virus and as long as your copy of Windows is "genuine" (not pirated) it's free.

Again, look at Portable Apps mentioned above. You can take all of your bookmarks for your browser with you, you can take English interfaces with you, you can take frequently-used tools with you. It's great. You do have a USB drive, right?

[Paul]

Good call Awesomo.

If choosing Microsoft Security Essentials, be sure to download it, then uninstall the previous scanner entirely before installing it (ideally do this step offline). This goes for any virus scanner change (only 1 scanner per PC at a time), but espcially with MSS Essentials as it interacts horrifically with rival software: I've had some terrible experiences (think Safe Mode plus interfering with the registry) having to untangle it in the past.