OpenOffice is a free office suite that allows us to create and edit text documents, spreadsheets, databases, and presentations.

Office tools are helpful on any computer. Either on the PC or the office computer. Having a text editor and spreadsheets software is something essential. Without a doubt, Microsoft is the highest exponent in Office tools Microsoft Office. For many years, MS Office has been the unique office software installed on many PCs. Thanks to free software, this situation has changed, and there are different programs with which we can perform all the functions that can be done with MS Office.

OpenOffice emerges as an alternative to MS Office. This software has all the standard tools for an office suite.

Writer

This program is the equivalent of MS Word. It is a full-featured text editor with a multitude of features. We can apply the typical styles to documents: bold, underline, italics, ordered lists, bleeding, underline, text alignment, font color, background color, etc. In addition to text, we will be able to insert: hyperlinks, images, tables, comments, bookmarks, video, sound, indexes, etc. The editor has a spell checker highlighting the spelling errors we write. We can add other languages dictionaries, which is very useful if we want to review and correct texts in other languages. We can open the files in .odt format and MS Word (.doc and .docx).

Calc

It is the program that allows us to create and edit spreadsheets. We can perform everyday operations on a worksheet: create formulas, open .csv files, sort the columns, use sums, create multiple sheets, etc. We will be able to password-protect the document or any of the sheets. The program can open spreadsheets in .ods and MS Excel format (.xls and .xlt).

Impress

This program allows us to create presentations quickly and easily. It is the equivalent of MS PowerPoint.We can create presentations from pre-existing templates, for example, a presentation of a novelty or the recommendation of a strategy. These templates accelerate the creation process because we only have to write the desired text on the slides of the template. Those that know how to use PowerPoint will find it very easy to use this program. We can open the files in .odp format and PowerPoint format (.ppt, .pps, .pot).

Draw

This program allows the creation of diagrams, mind maps, 3D illustrations, etc. In general, we can create any drawing that figures, text, and shapes will form. Each document can consist of several pages, and we can insert external images. The type of file that can be opened with this program is the .odg.

Base

With this program, we can create databases and manipulate them. The creation of databases will be made using forms, and we will be able to create new tables using the wizard that provides several predefined tables (contact, employees, orders, payments, products, suppliers, etc.) that we will be able to import and modify in our project.

The format supported by this program is the .odb. If we want to open a database in MS Access, we must use the wizard. Also, we can open any database that uses the ODBC or JDBC driver. In addition, we will be able to open dBase and MySQL databases.

Math

It lets us create graphically mathematical equations thanks to the user interface. This way, we can create mathematical formulas by clicking on the figures that will be part of the formula. The supported formats are .odf and .mml (MathML).

As we can see, this program includes all the necessary tools to meet our office needs. We can launch each program separately or use a launcher to let us choose the program we will use. The launcher also displays the last open document so we can directly access those documents.

We can download and use this suite free of charge, both for a particular use, such as for business use.