'Q: How do you take back control over your office software while trimming over $500/seat from your technology budget?

A: By daring to be different, and joining OpenOffice.org

Now available for Windows, Linux and Solaris, the free OpenOffice.org office software suite is more than just a multi-lingual replacement for overpriced and overpeddled packages from indicted megacorporate monopoly producers, it\'s more than just complete compatibility with the mainstream products and freedom from oppressive licenses.

OpenOffice.org is a way of looking at your software as a community thing, something we build ourselves, for our own needs and to our own specifications.

But what does it do?

Feature lists are misleading; lists of features don\'t say how we prepare presentations or trade revisions of manuscripts with our publishers and technical editors, or how we create our project budget sheets, yet those are the bottom line of office software. What is even harder to quantify is exactly how the OpenOffice.org way of doing all these things is different from the mainstream proprietary office products; yes, it\'s open standards, open interfaces, etc etc, but that doesn\'t really capture the flow.

Everyone we\'ve turned on to OpenOffice has never gone back.

All that said, here are some of the bulletpoint features:

• import many different types of documents and templates
  
• export to a huge range of formats from HTML to MS Office XP
  
• import address book from Mozilla/ Netscape 6.x or LDAP
  
• unicode support allows more than 15 local language versions.
  
• autopilot guides you through creating complex document.
  

WRITER

• Direct connection with external email software to seamlessly send your documents worldwide.
  
• The Stylist allows you to change the entire look of your document instantly.
  
• Form-letter management to send letters to addresses in a database.
  
• Compare changes and work collaboratively.
  
• AutoCorrect word completion.
  
• Indexing and Bibliographic functions.
  
• Sophisticated layout manager.
  

CALC

• Create StarBASIC macros or sophisticated Add-In functions in Java or C/C++ using the OpenOffice.org API.
  
• Import and manipulate information from external sources (such as ODBC or JDBC databases) or other OpenOffice.org programs using DataPilot.
  
• Natural language formulas.
  
• Combine the contents of cells from several sheets with data consolidation.
  
• Scenario manager to perform what-if-when analysis.
  
• Charting tools to visualise data in 2D or 3D.
  

DRAW

• Quick and easy creation of complex 3D shapes.
  

IMPRESS

• AutoPilot helps you get your ideas down just how you want them.
  
• AutoLayout makes sure your presentations look professional.
  

Did I mention it was free?

Well, okay, not totally 100% free: True, it won\'t cost you anything and no money will change hands, but to get the full benefit from OpenOffice.org, you should be prepared to participate by contributing your feedback, and submitting corrections, new templates, expanded guides and manuals and just generally help improve the suite for future editions.

This is our software, and it\'s only as good as we make it.

So, you may ask, what\'s in it for us? Why are we promoting free downloads of free software? First off, we\'re happy fans: TCI uses only OpenOffice.org for our office software, and no, we don\'t get any sort of direct financial return promoting OpenOffice.org (we spent money offering our server space to distribute the initial release!). What we get is less tangible but no less important: We get a better office suite. When you join in the OpenOffice.org, every little bit that you give back makes the whole project just a little bit better, and contributions summed over the entire community makes our office technology better -- to maximize the value of our office systems, it is in our own selfish interests to make the community pool as large as possible.

You can download the free install package from openoffice.org but be forwarned that it\'s about 70Mb; do your friends a favour, if you do download a copy, cut a CD-R and share it.

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