OpenOffice 4.1.0 is fully compatible and free software substitution of MS Office. Actually, it supports all its shareware competitor's file formats and can be used as a default application for them. The software suite includes the following applications - Writer – an MS Word analogue, Calc – an MS Excel analogue, Impress – a MS Power Point analogue, Math – an Equation Editor analogue, Base – an MS Access analogue. It is probably the best free alternative for any office, home or business user, who needs an open-source free replacement of Microsoft products.

Features

• DOC/DOCX file support

• XLS/XLSX file support

• Presentations

• Spreadsheets

• Extended text editor

• Open-sourced

• Free

OpenOffice supports all MS Office formats like DOCS, XLSX, PPTX, etc. Like its competitor, it comes with full help and language support. It enables you to export PDF files as well as sending them via e-mail clients as OpenOffice, MS Office, PDF or HTML documents. You are also able to draw in 2D or 3D according to your drawing experience of course. It doesn't have many built-in templates, but you can easily download a lot from the web.

Interface

OpenOffice interface is really well-organized. In some aspects, it reminds of an old version of MS Office, which is a good thing. Thus you get familiar user experience. Actually, it looks very simple without any unnecessary elements. There is a tooltip menu, which is there for you in order to get familiar with all apps within the office suite much quicker. Most available functions are only a click away. Besides the visual differences wtih MS Office and OpenOffice, you will get almost the same user experience with both.

Basic Operations

Working with all available utilities within OpenOffice's suite seems to be very easy. Similarly to other application, which work with text, formulas, data or drawings, this office suite also enables you to complete your tasks quickly. Most things you can achieve with MS Office can be done with OpenOffice. All sub-applications can be accessed from the major app easily.

Conclusion

Apache OpenOffice is probably the most popular alternative of MS Office. It is not just free of charge, but also provides you with most common functionality as well as similar user experience. Thanks to its extensive language support, it is a great international office suite solution.