"What's Up e-Doc?"

Let me introduce you to one of the most interesting pieces of software that I have discovered in years: OpenOffice 1.1. (for Solaris, Linux, and Windows.)
If you're used to using Microsoft Office, the similarity between the two is striking. While I must admit that there are a few nuances that take some getting used to, overall the transition is about as painless as one could hope for.

So what can it do for your business? I'm guessing the concept of a free office suite has carried you this far. So let's move on to understanding the features of OpenOffice, and how it compares, in a real world environment, to Microsoft Office.

The OpenOffice suite consists of four tools: CALC (spreadsheet); WRITER (word processor); DRAW (graphics); and IMPRESS (multimedia presentations). One of the most impressive features of OpenOffice is that not only can you save files in the proprietary OpenOffice format (XML based), but you can also save them as their Microsoft Office counterpart, allowing for total compatibility between you, and any business using Microsoft Office.

As mentioned previously, each of these tools have a similar look and feel to their counterparts in Microsoft Office. However, there are some significant differences.

CALC

Let us begin with CALC. As you can see, the CALC interface is nearly identical to Excel. As one would expect, the features include: sorting, filtering, subtotals, various functions (maths, database, financial, date/time, information,
logical, array, statistical, text), a full range of cell formats (numbers, date, time, scientific, currency) as well as thirteen categories of 2-D and 3-D charts including line, area,column, pie, XY, stock, and net, as well as various other features.

However, I also must mention a few of the shortcomings that I have come across so far. If you are known to push the limits of your software, you might find certain constraints of the current version to be cumbersome...

Currently, CALC only supports 32,000 rows of data whereas Excel can manage approximately 65,000. Also, if you have spreadsheets that utilize Macros, be aware that the VBA macros from Microsoft Office are unable to run in OpenOffice.org; they must first be converted and adapted. However, if you are only modifying the visible content of the document, and not the macros, this can be easily accomplished.

WRITER

If you've written a letter in Word, you can use WRITER. The interface is nearly identical... With the exception of the relocation of a tool bar, and some differing nomenclature (a few quick trips to the "Help" section will probably be in your future), you will be performing all of the same tasks (and more) as you were previously doing with Word, all for a $0 investment.

Did I mention that you can also export your documents to .pdf format? In perhaps my favorite feature, you can quickly and easily export documents in the nearly universally accepted Adobe format, without having to purchase Acrobat.

IMPRESS

As a presentation tool, this portion of the suite lives up to its name. Not only can presentations be exported as pdf's, you can also save slide shows as a Flash animation. This will greatly reduce the size of the file, so if you post your presentations on the web or are worried about slow downloads to your client, this can be a tremendous asset.

That said, you will notice the absence of some of the more refined tools of PowerPoint. Navigation is through a tab selection (as with various worksheets in Excel) and there are a limited numbers of preexisting slide designs. I hope to see this change and the software continues to grow, and more and more of the open source community adds their talents to the project.

DRAW

Unfortunately I have not had time to give DRAW a thorough test, however, I will say that it has some interesting 3-D capabilities, although I don't think I'll be giving up Photoshop any time soon...

Your Business...

So, now that you have a better understanding of OpenOffice, what should your next step be?

I would recommend going to their website, http://www.OpenOffice.org, and taking a good look at their FAQ's and Product Descriptions. If, at this point, you think that OpenOffice might be a viable solution for you, I would strongly recommend downloading a version to just explore at your leisure at home or at work. I would also suggest that you invite some of your more technically proficient employees to join you in the evaluation. This will help you to cultivate employee buy-in, as well as developing an initial "support staff" if you decide to implement enterprise wide.

If you generally transfer reports, presentations, etc., internally, I would advise you to save all of your files in the native OpenOffice formats. When you save files as their Microsoft Office counterpart, there is a small chance that some information can be lost. Of course, if you need to be certain that the information is transferred exactly, you can always save files in the .pdf format.

Test it out for your own... If it works for your organization, you can sit back every time Microsoft releases a new version of Office and smile, smug with the satisfaction of knowing that your office suite has cost you absolutely nothing...

And just in case you might be wondering, yes this document was created in OpenOffice and saved as as Word document, and yes, I thoroughly enjoy the fact that it's one piece of software that I don't have to pay Microsoft for!

Jeff Ahrnsen is a partner at Market Intelligence Group http://www.migsite.com, a company that specializes in Data Warehousing, Database Marketing, and Data Mining. He is also a founding member of CinSUG, the greater Cincinnati SAS® User's Group. Jeff can be reached via email at jeff@migsite.com, if you have any additional questions or comments about this article.

Microsoft Windows, Office, Word,Excel, and PowerPoint are trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Inc.
Linux is a registered trademark of LinusTorvalds.
Sun, StarOffice, and Solaris are trademarks or registered trademarks ofSun Microsystems, Inc.
Apple and MAC OS are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc.
Flash is either a registered trademark or trademark of Macromedia, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries
Portions of this document were sourced from the OpenOffice.org website.