Open Office

We are all pretty familiar with Microsoft, right? Microsoft Office, Powerpoint, Word, Excel, Windows XP and a myriad of other programs have become common names. There is no wonder how Bill Gates got to be the richest man in the world for a long time (he recently got passed by Carlos Slim Helu). Those programs are expensive to purchase. Have you ever priced Microsoft Office?

Well there is another program in town, and its free. It is called Open Office and its an open source program. That basically means some people created it and made it available to everyone. Sounds better than paying $400 for almost the same thing, doesn't it? Some reviewers even rate OO higher than Microsoft Office. So, for those of you who don't have a computer that is loaded with Microsoft Programs and would like OO, click here to begin downloading.

Here are a few ways you can use it for my class:

1. Open Office Impress- This is a program very similar to Microsoft's PowerPoint, but more powerful in some regards. You can create slide shows. Slide shows allow you to use graphics, videos, screen captures, pictures, and words to make a presentation. I will accept slideshows for just about any project in any of my classes.

2. Open Office Writer- As the name implies, this is a writing/word processing program. It has some desktop publishing capabilities too, but you would mostly use this program much like you would use Microsoft Word. This program will give you the tools to complete your projects in a more traditional manner.

3. Open Office Draw- This is a graphics program for those of you that are artistically and digitally inclined. You can create many types of graphic based projects using this program.

When you are ready to begin using OO, click on the tutorial below to get started.