OpenOffice programs

OPEN OFFICE

OpenOffice is part of the Open Source initiative, an initiative to freely distribute

software for computers. OpenOffice includes 6 programs; Writer, Calc, Impress, Base, Draw and Math, with similar characteristics to those of Microsoft Office.

1. - WRITER- A word processor very similar to Microsoft Word, with which you can even export PDF files with no additional software. You can save documehts in DOC. format, as well as DOCX., RTF. and XHTML. formats.

2.- IMPRESS- It is a presentation program similar to Power Point. It can export files in flash format, and it can read Power Point's ppt. format. However, while Power Point gives you pre-made templates, Impress does not.

3.- CALC- This program is similar to Microsoft Excel. Apart from having the same features as Excel, it has other tools that Mocrosoft's version doesn't have, such as a system that automatically defines series for graphing. It can also export files in PDF format.


4.BASE- It is a database managemet program similar to Microsoft Access. It can be used to format JET, ODBC and MySQL formats. However, it is the least used and downloaded OpenOffice program.

5. DRAW- It is a program similar to Micrososft Visio with which you can draw objects, connect vectors and you can even make flowcharts and many other diagrams. You can export files in .PDF format.

6. MATH- It is a program similar to Microsoft Equation Editor. You have the ability to create mathematical formulas and insert them into other documents in WRITER, for example. It can also export in PDF format.

In general, and although OpenOffice is a very good option, I personally prefer Microsoft Office, because I am more used to using it, it has more features and you are sure that the formats are going to be comatible.

Open Source

OPEN SOURCE

The Open Source Initiative is a great database of free programs for everyone to use freely. The basic idea of Open Source is to freely give a product with similar chacracteristics to others which centralized companies make.

Open Source includes a variety of programs and software, such as Free BSD and Linux, which are operating systems, Tomcat Web Server and Apache, which are web servers, and Mozzila Firefox, a web browser. Apart from these, the most widely spread one is Open Office, which is very much like Office but without having to pay. Even a web page we all know and use, Wikipedia, is run by Mediawiki, an Open Source web server. And Moodle, a platform for course managing, which is now widely used, is, in its base, an Open Source program.

Open Source goes much beyond what we think. There are Open Source programs for finances, such as "Mifos", for 3-D modelling, for statistics, microscope image processing, geography, video editing ("Cinelerra"), flash animation, firewall and even enkryptioning programs, such as "Seahorse"!

However, the Open Source idea has existed long before technology, in agriculture, markets and health and medicines.

It is very clear that today, Open Source programs and software are a very good alternative to the traditional, costworthy applications which have a very similar quality to the Open Source ones.