by Chrystal Mahan

Created on: April 09, 2010

Free Office Software

We all know the high price tag Microsoft Office can carry, no matter what version you need. Often, businesses just cannot or do not want to spend that type of money, especially those businesses just starting out. The good news is you do not have to. Plenty of free programs exist if you just know where to look. 

Going back to Microsoft Office, there is a program called Open Office (openoffice.org). Open Office provides users with totally free software that does exactly what office will do. There is word processing, spreadsheets, graphics, presentations, databases, and offers multiple languages. Best of all, it is compatible with Microsoft Office, meaning if you save in Microsoft Office, you can open and edit it Open Office and visa- versa. 

Need faxes sent to you? eFax.com does offer a free fax service for incoming faxes. There is no cost to you, however the free fax numbers generally are not local numbers and might cost your clients. That might not be a problem for those sending you a fax from out of state or with unlimited long distance. The fax is sent to your email and opened with the eFax software. Other packages are available at cost, including local fax numbers.

Need to send a fax to someone else? faxzero.com offers its users a free way to send faxes. You can send a fax to anyone anywhere in the world. For a free fax the cover page is an advertisement and you are able to fax one file which can not be any more then three pages. You are allowed to send two faxes per day. To send a fax with no ad on the cover page, or you have more then three pages, for $1.99 you can send an ad free fax, up to fifteen pages. Now we know that is not free, but for $1.99 it is almost free! 

Many businesses need a creative outlet, whether it is for advertising, writing, or any other sort of brainstorming, FreeMind (freemind.sourceforge.net) is free mind mapping software available in the Java platform. Use this program to get those ideas flowing, see where they go, what they can do, and how they can get there.

PDF files are everywhere. Although Adobe does offer a free reader, the program file is large and bloated. Foxit.com offers a no bloat PDF reader with a super fast download. With Foxit reader you can view, print and even annotate and document. The program also offers a FireFox add-on. 

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