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Office Applications

Open Office

Open Office is a fully featured suite with word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, drawing etc. You can collaborate on documents and files with MS Office users. It is very powerful and you may find the bewildering array of options and toolbar items daunting. However, much of the functionality is similar to MS Office and help is well documented. We switched to Open Office some time ago and have not felt the need to revert to MS Office since.

Open Office runs on Windows, Mac OSX and Linux and is freely downloadable from www.openoffice.org

Debian users can download/install Open Office by simply entering:

$ sudo aptitude install openoffice.org

Configuration

Before you start using Open Office, it is worth going to Tools > Options and setting the following:

  • OpenOffice.org > Paths - where 'My Documents' are stored
  • Load/Save > General - Always save as 'Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP' (do the same for spreadsheets and presentations)
  • Have a look through the other settings in case you have particular requirements.

References

In addition to the comprehensive help provided with the package, there is online help at: http://support.openoffice.org/

Microsoft Office

Microsoft Office established itself as the office suite of choice through a combination of rich features and aggressive marketing by Microsoft exploiting its monopoly position. Irrespective of prejudices etc. there is no doubt that MSWord has been the target of many viruses, trojans and worms. Apart from the cost, the other disadvantage is that each successive upgrade requires more computer power to run it efficiently. It creates a cycle of planned obsolescence.

References

Comprehensive help is available with the package and there is access to online support at: http://support.microsoft.com/off2003

Debian

In addition to Open Office, Debian users have access to a wide range of packages which together can replace an office suite. The concept of Linux (and Unix, which shares similar characteristics) is that it is modular and Debian's integration of packages is unparalleled. As you become more experienced you will be able to extend and customise your system to make tasks quicker and easier.