I expect that quite a few folk will be getting a computer (or an updated one) at Christmas. If you haven’t bought a bundle, lets look at one of the most common uses for the computer.

Yup, an Office suite. Now these come in various flavours. If you bought a bundle, you might end up with a version of Word. This is the Microsoft offering and is very good, one main drawback is that it is also the most expensive. Office for the P.C. runs into the hundreds of pounds and , unless, you are very well off , or really need to use Office, is also the one you are least likely to end up with.

With the current drop in P.C. prices, it is also highly unlikely that the bundle you get will include Office. Some were offering Lotus Smart Suite and it is another highly useful offering. Again, though, it is a commercial product and does tend to take those little pieces of crinkly paper from your grasp.

So, we’re slowly narrowing down the options here. As I said, P.C. bundle sellers have been trying to cut their costs and the chances nowadays are that you will get another Office type package, namely Star Office. Star Office used to be free but has now made its way into the realms of paying software. Star Office is also good , but lacks some of the features of the other packages mentioned.

So, unless you did get a bundle , or had a previous Office package, you’ll need a decent package that doesn’t cost too much.

Step forward the successor (in the free stakes) to Star Office…………Open Office!

Open Office, as I said, is free and you can download it or get Open Office.org distributors to send you the CD.This, of course, does cost money, so I won’t go too far with that option. Downloading it may be a problem for those still on narrowband (yup, they’ve even given us poor souls that have been left behind by BT a name). The download comes in at over 50mb, so a good download manager is needed if you are on a modem and have timed cutoffs.

I managed to download the file and it installed easily enough. One thing I did notice was that it insisted I didn’t have Java installed, although all my browsers say I do….go figure. Lets have a little break from the monotony and show you some grabs of the install process.

Anyone who has installed software before won’t have any problems with this.

Everything is explained as you are taken through the install.

And it is issued under the GNU GPL as well as others.

Give it a few details………

How much space??? Just because it is free, don’t expect a small program J

Tell it where to go…………

Its really polite, it even asks if it ok to make its directory.

Lets rock!

It will take in a large variety of files and Office being the most used format for businesses, it takes them quite happily.

Strange…………now where did I put that pesky Java……..

As it installs , it comes up with a blurb showing things it can do.

Whoo…………finished!

Right, just a quick look at what's in the package.

Firstly, there's the word processor. This is called Writer ( a highly imaginative name, I’m sure you’ll agree).

A quick look at how your start menu items will look…….

We have Draw, which allows you to modify or create graphics, the HTML editor, Writer, of course and Impress, which is a Powerpoint equivialent.There is also Calc, which is the spreadsheet module.

This is one serious piece of kit and you may find yourself looking at quite a steep learning curve depending on how knowledgeable you are about the various programs. Open Office does come with a very extensive help system, so you can browse through this to help find how to do what you want with this.

Starting from global, you will see something resembling below. The entire view is customizable, one of its many good points.

Its does look different from the standard view in Word, but isn’t so really daunting once you actually take time to look closely at the menus.

You are really spoilt for choice, when it comes to backgrounds, etc. since it is open source, loads of people have been writing for this package and the variety is virtually endless. The download has lots of textures, frames etc in with the zip file and you can explore these at your leisure.

The writer program (which is the only one I’ve used so far), exports quite happily as Word, RTF, Starwriter etc.

It is a joy to use and once you get to grips with it, is a lovely piece of software.

The distribution is also available for other OS’es apart from Windows, and can be used under Linux and Mac as well. I don’t think there's an Amiga version, but it may well be ported or getting ported.

Everything in Open Office is based around XML, which leads into everything having roots back to one another, i.e. the spreadsheet or graphic embedded into the document.

Give it a try anyway, and see how you get on with it. It will take some time before you even discover half the menus , but it is definitely worth the trouble.

Not only that, but it will be continually updated and improved.