Office Productivity Applications
These are the core workhorse applications of the typical office setting such as word processors, spreadsheets, and presentation tools. In addition to helping you run the day to day business of your classroom, your students can use these applications to create the documents for most of their assignments.
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| OpenOffice.org Writer |
| Part of the OpenOffice.org suite of applications (also called NeoOffice on Mac OS X), Writer is a full-featured word processing program. It is as robust as commercial word processors and it can natively load and save Microsoft Word files. It can also directly export documents as PDF files. Writer's interface is similar to Word's, but it emphasizes good word processing habits such as using styles rather than marking up individual text. |
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| AbiWord |
| AbiWord is similar to OpenOffice.org Writer, but it is a smaller, more streamlined application. Although it lacks some of the more complex features of other word processors, it is robust enough to meet the needs of all but the most demanding users. AbiWord performs well even on older computers and is perfect for most student writing tasks. It also reads and writes Microsoft Word files. |
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| OpenOffice.org Calc |
| Another component of the OpenOffice.org suite, Calc is a robust spreadsheet application. It can read and write Microsoft Excel files. It has advanced features such as DataPilot technology that allows you to import complex raw data from other sources. At the same time, Calc offers features that appeal to casual spreadsheet users such as natural language formulas that allow you to use words instead of cell references to perform calculations. |
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| OpenOffice.org Impress |
| Impress is the OpenOffice.org suite's presentation component. It can read and write Microsoft Powerpoint files in addition to standard OpenDocument XML files that can be read by other non-Microsoft applications. Impress has an especially robust set of drawing tools and a master page template system. Impress also features animation and transition tools and there is a robust collection of community-generated templates that you can download as a starting point for your own presentations. |
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| OpenOffice.org Base |
| Unlike the standard version of Microsoft Office that many schools purchase, the OpenOffice.org includes a database application in its office suite. Base is a powerful database program based on a full HSQL engine. It also serves as a front-end for other engines such as Microsoft Access, MySQL, and any standard ODBC database. In addition to these more complex features, Base is able to create simple databases for use in other OpenOffice.org applications using wizards that appeal to novice database users. |
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