And now a Rave!

OpenOffice

The latest edition of PC Pro in the UK includes a lab test of Office Suites.
Surprisingly, the winner was NOT Microsoft Office 2003!

Instead they chose OpenOffice 1.1.2. AND IT'S <b>FREE!</b>

I have tried out earlier versions and have been pleasantly surprised.
The very latest, version 1.1.3, is even better. I'm using it to type up this entry.
It still doesn't have all of the features of the full Microsoft Office suite but it seems to be highly compatible.

One very useful feature is its HTML Document Editor.
It has the great merit of being an intuitive, straightforward WYSIWYG editor that produces clean and simple HTML code.

It is ideal for pages containing mostly text.
Unlike most specialised web tools, it has a built-in spell-checker.

A slightly disconcerting feature resembles the predictive text found on some mobile phones.
Sometimes, when you start to type a word, a completed version suddenly appears.
If that's what you intended to type, just press the Enter key to go on to the next word otherwise you just can carry on typing as normal.
Apparently, you can turn the feature off (..it just suggested “office”).

Visit www.OpenOffice.org to download a copy for your language and operating system.
Currently supported operating systems are Windows, Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD and Macintosh