| There are many free alternatives to the | | | | |
| Microsoft Office products. This would be | | | | 4) Draw is the graphics powerhouse in the |
| beneficial for college students, the average | | | | suite. It is kind of a cross between |
| user and even small businesses in general. | | | | Microsoft Paint and Microsoft Visio. I have |
| These people often find that they are unable | | | | not had much occasion to use it, but I have |
| to afford the high prices Microsoft charges | | | | tried it and it does deliver good results. |
| for its products. These alternative software | | | | |
| offerings are compatible with Microsoft | | | | Now, no office suite would be complete |
| Office. | | | | without the ability to read PDF files and |
| | | | convert them. Foxit reader is a free PDF |
| The first free office product is actually an | | | | reading and converting software. I have used |
| entire suite. I have used it myself and it is | | | | this software and I find it to be much more |
| awesome. It is called Open Office, and is | | | | productive than Adobe Reader. Of course, |
| available for download so that you can start | | | | Adobe Reader is free for personal use; |
| using it right away. Included in this | | | | however Foxit Reader is free for business |
| complete office suite is: | | | | use, not including the text conversion |
| | | | version. Text conversion is only free for |
| 1) Writer is the software which is the | | | | personal use. |
| equivalent of Microsoft Word. It is very | | | | |
| similar in look and feel. It has the ability | | | | The main reason why I have decided to add |
| to read and write in the Word format up to | | | | Foxit to this list of software is because, |
| Word 2003. It has almost all of the features | | | | Foxit is free, it is small, and it is very |
| of Microsoft Word and those that are not | | | | fast. The one thing that has consistently |
| present will not likely be noticed. | | | | bothered me about Adobe Reader is the speed |
| | | | at which it loads up. This is especially |
| 2) Impress is the equivalent of Microsoft | | | | excruciating when loading PDFs from the |
| PowerPoint. It can be used to create | | | | Internet. |
| beautiful presentations with the look and | | | | |
| feel of Microsoft PowerPoint. It also | | | | There are additional plugins that you can |
| includes a couple of slide templates, but if | | | | purchase which would make Foxit as useful as |
| these do not suit your needs, you have | | | | a full blown version of Adobe Acrobat, but |
| complete control over your work. This | | | | the free version is perhaps all that you will |
| software can also read and write in the | | | | need. The beautiful thing about using Open |
| Microsoft PowerPoint format, which makes it | | | | Office Suite and Foxit together is that Open |
| completely compatible, however Office 2007 is | | | | Office Write can convert documents to PDF. |
| as of yet not supported. | | | | |
| | | | It is with these free software packages that |
| 3) Calc is the spreadsheet software included | | | | you can have all of the tools offered by |
| in the office suite. It is compatible with | | | | Microsoft with zero the cost. That is a huge |
| Microsoft Excel. It has all of the | | | | advantage whether you are just trying to save |
| functionality of the costlier Microsoft | | | | a buck, or trying to keep the bottom line |
| version, but it is free. | | | | down. |