Thing # 18 Online Productivity Tools

I chose to explore OpenOffice.org. After reading information about OpenOffice and Google Docs I see there is a big difference between the two. OpenOffice is a free Open Source Software (OSS) product and you need to download it onto your computer in order to use it. Whereas, Google Docs is done on-line and the document itself can be saved on your desktop, but you would need internet access to work with it. In my case, there had been several times my internet connection went down but I could still work on a Microsoft document. Same scenario would go with OpenOffice, but not Google Docs. The last ATT person to look at my internet dedicated one line straight to the computer and luckily I have not had any problems since. But after viewing the introduction to Google Docs, I see where it can be useful in collecting data from co-workers. All things have their pros and cons.

OpenOffice was not hard to figure out. Not all keys work exactly the same, I tried the F4 command and it did not do the same as it does in Microsoft. I can see how for economic reasons, OpenOffice is a wonderful product. People who could not afford Microsoft Office could get OpenOffice. It is updated constantly and they receive feedback from users on how to improve functions. If I did not have access to Microsoft, I would most definitely use OpenOffice.