Office Suite Software

Office suites consist of a package of applications that are intended to have all the functionality needed for a typical clerical or knowledge worker. Each of the component programs will have a consistent user interface, meaning that they are easier to learn together. The programs will also be fully interactional allowing the free movement of data from one package to another. Typical components of office suites include a word processor and a spreadsheet package. Often the suite will also contain a database program, a presentation application or a graphics package (or any combination of these). Some office suites also incorporate their own email programs (such as Microsoft’s Outlook).

There are three main producers of office suite packages, Microsoft, Apple and Sun Microsystems. By far Microsoft Office has the largest market share, however Apple’s iWork office suite and Sun’s OpenOffice are moving into the frame as stronger contenders. Each of these packages will now be briefly evaluated.

The latest version of Microsoft’s Office package for Windows (MS Office 2007), has many upgrades from previous versions including ‘document themes’ that ensure a consistent look is preserved across spreadsheets, word processed documents, and presentations. The new version of Office also allows documents to be saved in PDF format, preserving the layout and look of the document so that it can be easily shared without loss of formatting. Additionally ‘Outlook’, the email program, now allows attachments to be previewed without the need to be opened increasing security from viruses.

For the last few years, Microsoft Office has also been available for the Macintosh, making it accessible to an even wider market. Mac themselves seem pleased to welcome their competitor, because the reason many people do not make the ‘switch to Mac’ is because they are reliant on using MS Office. This has been a major feature of the ‘Mac vs PC’ advertisements. See microsoft.com/office for more information.

Apple’s offering to the mix is its own ‘iWork suite’ available exclusively for Mac users. The suite contains three main applications, ‘Pages’ a word processor, ‘Keynote’ a presentation application and ‘Numbers’ a spreadsheet package. This is commonly distributed with new Macintosh computers, and when purchased is about ¼ the price of MS Office. This clearly makes the program popular with those already familiar with Mac OS. More information about the iWork suite, and a 15-day trial download are available from apple.com/iwork.

OpenOffice was something of a revolution when first released in 2000, since it was the first freely available open source suite of office programs. The designers say OpenOffice is unique since it was always designed as a suite of applications, rather than bundling separate applications together, aiding ease of use and the consistency of the programs. Another feature of OpenOffice is that amendments to the spell checker in one package will change the dictionary for all other suite packages. In the seven years since its conception, OpenOffice has been downloaded over one-hundred million times, and is utilised in every country in the world. More information about the suite and the specific applications can be found at openoffice.org.