If you have been using a computer for very long, you are well aware of Microsoft Office's big stranglehold on business productivity software.

After all, what kind of communication, mailing or other business document ISN'T created by typing in Microsoft Word, adding and subtracting in Microsoft Excel or publishing a presentation in Powerpoint?

Microsoft Office has become the de facto standard in office productivity software (except for some places in the legal profession, where Corel's Word Perfect is still considered standard) all across the world. Most businesses would come to a screeching halt if their copy of MS Office were to disappear from their machine.

While a business owner can be extremely productive with MS Office, that productivity does come at a price. Right now, that price is hovering around $370.00 for ONE copy of Office. Not bad if you are a solo entrepreneur, but what if you have 10-50 employees? $370.00 here and there and pretty soon you're talking some real money...

There is a new player on the scene now and it's called OpenOffice.org. It is a spinoff from software originally written by Sun Microsystems and is designed to be a replacement for MS Office (Word, Excel and Powerpoint).

What's the difference between MS Office and Open Office?

Well, one costs $370.00 and one costs $0.00.

Can you guess which is which?

One of the two releases upgrades every few years and charges you full price for them. The other also releases upgrades every few years and gives them away.

Which one sounds better to you?

If you are a business owner responsible for outfitting 5-10 or 20 computers with productivity software for wordprocessing and spreadsheet work, you can't afford NOT to take a look at OpenOffice.org for your business.

Apart from the price benefit, here are some other huge benefits to using Open Office:

• PDFs are a cinch. Right now, MS Office can't turn your documents into PDFs without the help of third party software. Perhaps the next upgrade (and YOUR next $370.00) will provide this functionality, but right now you're out of luck. In Open Office, creating a PDF is as simple as clicking one button.

• Your data will NEVER be locked or rendered obsolete, waiting for you to purchase the next upgrade to software you've already paid for once.

• Open Office is available for EVERY type of computer and operating system under the sun. It comes in flavors for Windows, Linux, Mac and a whole lot more...

• Open Office is OPEN. That means it is customizable by you for you. If you run a business and need a certain function to be added, it is as simple as hiring a programmer and telling them what you want changed. The whole thing is under your control.

• Open Office isn't going anywhere. Backed by a community of thousands upon thousands of users and developers, Open Office is quickly becoming THE standard outside of the US, where Microsoft's marketing department seems to dominate the airwaves.

So what if you own a Mac? How do you get your hands on a copy of Open Office? Open Office is available for you in a slightly different flavor called NeoOffice. You can download it here:

http://www.neooffice.org

And now, the answer to the big question you are probably asking...

Can I open Word documents and Excel spreadsheets with Open Office?

YES YOU CAN! With all but a very few exceptions, all versions of MS Word and Excel and Powerpoint documents will open without incident in Open Office. If you are in a highly specialized industry and use a lot of Word macros and advanced layout features, just do a quick test. Most likely, things will be fine...

So where do you get Openoffice.org?

The name says it all...

http://www.openoffice.org

Get your copy today!