Business

Microsoft Office Suite Alternatives

Microsoft Office Suites clearly dominate most organizations but in the freelance world we have many other options available, thankfully. One day the rest of the world will catch up. We have 10 alternatives so you don’t need to shell out the big bucks to meet your Office suite needs.

The new 2007 version of Microsoft Office suite comes with the base programs of Access 2007, Excel 2007, Outlook 2007 w/ Business contact Manager, PowerPoint 2007, Publisher 2007 and Word 2007 (and others depending on the version you purchase). With Microsoft’s hefty $499 price tag ($199 to upgrade), I would like to think most people would stray towards an alternative and save some serious cash. Those alternatives are…

OpenOffice.org is a multiplatform and multilingual office suite and an open-source project. Compatible with all other major office suites, the product is free to download, use, and distribute.

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You can download Star office for $69.95 directly from Sun [linkage] or to save yourself the $69 you can get it free in the Google Pack. Thanks Google!

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You can get it for $39.95, or a 3-user version for $79.95, or a 25-user version for $399.95. That’s far below what it costs to deploy Microsoft Office across many users. The best thing about Software 602’s PC Suite is that the applications are so similar in look and feel to applications such as Microsoft Word and Excel that Microsoft and Software 602 have actually done some wrangling over the years.

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Google Docs

Online. Free for everyone but if you would like more storage space it will set you back $50 a year.

• Create, edit and upload quickly
  Import your existing documents, spreadsheets and presentations, or create new ones from scratch.
• Access and edit from anywhere
  All you need is a Web browser. Your documents are stored securely online.
• this Youtube video explains it all

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ZoHo Office Suite

Zoho is a suite of online applications (services) that you sign up for and access from our Website. The applications are free for individuals and some have a subscription fee for organizations.

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ThinkFree Office can automatically install and upgrade over the Web with features such as Internet-based file sharing and storage, as well as end-to-end security. Built for cross-platform functionality, ThinkFree Office is compatible with Windows, Macintosh, Unix and Linux systems.

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Corel WordPerfect® Office X3 - Standard Edition is your one-stop office suite. Ideal for large organizations and governments as well as business and consumer users with the need for dependable word processing, spreadsheet, presentation and email solutions.

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IBM® Lotus® Symphony™ is a richly-featured set of productivity tools that are intuitive and easy to use and provided at no charge. Lotus Symphony puts you in charge – take control over spiraling upgrade costs, ensure access to documents well into the future with new standard file formats (ODF), get more from your current investments with support for Microsoft® Windows® and Office file types…. even extend your applications with the new Lotus Symphony developer toolkit.

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The Mac-style office application suite is excellent for personal and small-business use, but not ready for the corporate world. $79 for a single user and 99$ for a family pack of 5 users.

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The Ultimate Steal dot com

Is a marketing scheme put out by Microsoft to get students to buy Office Ultimate for $59.99. Which is a great price and it would be cheaper to register for a school, buy office at this rate, and then drop out. A $300 savings!

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