Free and/or less expensive Options to Microsoft Office 12 Suite

Microsoft has plans to release a brand new office suite (considerably more expensive) 12 in the second half of nest year. The "upgrade" promises to be most dramatic change since Windows 95. With free or low cost document processing mimicking Microsoft's office, Microsoft has been working to differentiate its product from others and maximize its profits.

So what can a small business operator do to maintain its independence from Microsoft; particularly before the release of Microsoft Office 12? He/she can use other products that will continue to mimic Microsoft.

One alternative , Open Office version 2.0, and is available at no cost (donations accepted) at www.openoffice.org for free download. Open office features programs that immolate Microsoft Office, Microsoft Access and Microsoft Presentation. These files can be read, edited and sent on as Microsoft compatible formats. Open Office 2.0 can also load and display Microsoft documents, presentations and Excel sheets. Open Office 2.0 also provides a drawing program and an intriguing math program which allows you to work with various mathematical formulas and algebra expressions.

Star Office an inexpensive alternative ($70 US) developed by Sun, has been around for some time and was one of the first "alternate" programs available on the Internet. You can try it for 90 days before you have to pay. Star Office 8.0 can be downloaded at http://www.sun.com/software/star/staroffice/index.jsp. StarOffice 8 has a Microsoft compatible word processer(Writer), a spreadsheet (Calc), presentation (Impress) and database (Base) functions. Lab testing indicated good results opening and creating Microsoft Office-formatted documents with StarOffice. The three main features are Writer (a compatible office document), spreadsheet (Calc), presentation (Impress) and data base (Base). There is a "wizard" provided to convert Visual Basic programing Macro from Microsoft to StarOffice basic language. Star office's biggest feature is its cross platform ability to run on other operating systems as well as Windows.

A third alternate solution to Microsoft Word, Excel and Presentation is an "online solution' at www.thinkfree.com which cost $50 US and provides 30 Megs of online storage. The office suite is then available anywhere and at anytime with a computer that has access to the Internet.