10 Things You Should Know About MS Office Alternatives

Believe it or not, there are many choices available to IT managers considering switching from Microsoft Office to an alternative office productivity suite. A simple Google search will prove just how many competing suites are in the marketplace. StarOffice

Since the average customer will have to shell out $500 for Office Professional 2007 (and $329.95 for the upgrade), the potential for savings can be enormous with a different office productivity suite. For instance, StarOffice 8 sells directly for $69.95,

One of the main reasons Microsoft Office continues to dominate the office productivity arena is the formatting issues companies inevitably face when transitioning to an alternative office solution. Be prepared to tackle any number of file conversion fidel

Microsofts e-mail client, Outlook, has also given the company tremendous dominance over the office productivity market. But lots of options exist for alternative suites. Corel WordPerfect Office X3 offers an e-mail client, while other suites require IT m

A perennial feather in Microsofts cap is its macros tool, which allows users to save time by condensing a sequence of intricate actions into a shorter action by recording that series of steps as a macro. Macros created in one suite, however, typically wo

Features such as Microsoft Words popular Track Changes may not be supported in an alternative office suite. For instance, ThinkFree Office doesnt yet support this function, which can be a troublesome fact for office workers who regularly collaborate. Ma

Cross-platform support is another persuasive reason to move away from Office. Web-based programs, such as Google Docs and Spreadsheets, will work on any platform with a browser. Other suites, such as ThinkFree Office and OpenOffice, run on Windows, Linux,

One huge consideration is how much training switching to an alternative office suite might take. On the plus side, most alternative office suites have created a user interface that is similar to the look and feel of Office, but IT managers should still be

Several alternatives to Microsoft Office offer a better array of export options. For example, OpenOffice.org 2.3, the most recent version of the free office suite, lets users export files to PDF and the MediaWiki format (MediaWiki is free server-based sof

Obviously, the Web has become an integral part of life and the enterprise, and wondering what people would do without it is akin to asking how one would survive without water. However, IT managers need to consider the security and reliability risks of mov

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