by Matthew Adams

Created on: July 22, 2009   Last Updated: October 31, 2009

Microsoft Office and Open Office are two software suites which include a variety of office software. While the software included is fairly similar, there is also some differences.

To begin with, MS Office is a commercial package. The professional suite can be as much as 347 pounds for the 2007 version. In contrast to this, Open Office is a free software suite which is available as freeware. So, in this respect there is no real contest.

MS Office includes a word processor, spreadsheet, database, presentation, desk-top publishing and e-mail (or PIM) application. By title, these are the various versions of Word, Excel, Access, Powerpoint, Access and Outlook. They are popular office software, which provide a good suite of software.

The Open Office Suite, does have a number of comparable applications and also some more original. The software included is the standard word processor, spreadsheet and database. By name these are Writer, Calc and Base. Presentation, drawing and a maths application are also included with Open Office. Overall, this is a reasonably good selection.

As noted, the Open Office suite includes a more original maths application. This is not a spreadsheet, but is available for more advanced formula.

In addition to this, the Open Office drawing application is not really included within the MS Office suite. MS Office includes Publisher, but this is more for desk top publishing.

However, Open Office does not include software like Outlook. Outlook is a good addition to the MS software suite. In addition, more specific desk top publishing software is not really included with Open Office either.

The equivalent software included with Open Office is actually good. For example, Writer includes many of the standard formatting options like bold, italic, underline, font sizes, a variety of fonts, bullet points and more besides. In this respect, it is a good alternative to Word. It may lack some of Word's templates and clip art, but does include some good additional features like the gallery for example.

Equally, the spreadsheet software like Calc is not bad either. Calc has a good range of functions, and formatting options like Excel. However, the range of charts included with Calc are more limited. Overall, Excel probably has slightly more spreadsheet tools.

Aside from this, the compatibility of Open Office with the MS Office suite is another bonus. Files can be saved as Word documents amongst others, and opened with MS software.

So overall, Open Office provides a good value alternative to the MS Office suite. With software like Draw and Math not included by MS Office. However, MS Office does have better publishing software and e-mail. For further details on Open Office, visit the website www.openoffice.org.

Learn more about this author, Matthew Adams.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.