Do you know what is an Office Suite? In wikipedia article regarding office suites, it is defined as
“In computing an office suite, sometimes called an office software suite or productivity suite, is a collection of productivity programs intended to be used by knowledge workers. The components are generally distributed together, have a consistent user interface and usually can interact with each other, sometimes in ways that the operating system would not normally allow”.
In this article, I would like to list 5 most widely used open source office suites. Here I will briefly describe about following office suites.
LibreOffice
LibreOffice is a powerful, free and open source office suite, developed by TheDocument Foundation. Initially, it was forked from OpenOffice.org in 2010, which was an open-sourced version of StarOffice. LibreOffice is default office suite in popular GNU/Linux distributions like Ubuntu, Fedora, OpenSuse..etc
LibreOffice has a good collection of essential office software such as word processor, spread sheet, presentation software, drawing software and more. Following section is dedicated for a brief description on different components of LibreOffice.
- Writer : Writer is word processing tool in LibreOffice suite. It has all the features that we expect from a modern desktop publishing tool. It is simple but is also powerful.
- Calc : Calc is spread sheet tool in LibreOffice suite. It is easy to use and learn. Even newbies can find their way on go. It can also be used for complex tasks like data mining, data analysis..etc
- Impress : Impress is a tool in LibreOffce for creating effective presentations.
- Draw : Vector drawing tool
- Base : A powerful database managing tool
- Math : A tool that can used independently or with other tools for creating complex mathematical and scientific formula.
- Chart : A tool used with other tools for creating useful charts using given information.
LibreOffice also a provide a large number of templates, from which we can choose to match with our requirements.
Apache OpenOffice
Apache OpenOffice is an open-source office productivity suite. It was derived from the project openoffice.org which was an open sourced version of StarOffice. It is similar to other popular open source office projects like LibreOffice and NeoOffice. Following are different tools included in Apache OpenOffice.
- Writer : a word processor with flexible functionality ranging from quick letter writing to producing an entire book.
- Calc : a powerful spreadsheet with all the tools to calculate, analyze, and present data in numerical reports or sizzling graphics.
- Impress : the fastest, most powerful way to create effective multimedia presentations.
- Draw : lets us to produce vector diagrams ranging from simple diagrams to dynamic 3D illustrations.
- Base : let us to manage databases. It provides functions like Create and modify tables, forms, queries, and reports, all from within Apache OpenOffice.
- Math : let us to create complex mathematical and scientific formula using graphical user interface.
Apache OpenOffice has support for different platforms like windows, Mac OS X and GNU/Linux.
Calligra Office
Calligra suite is more than a traditional office suite. In additions to common office tools it also provides graphics tools and project management tools. Initially it was forked from KOffice in 2010. Calligra is the default office suite used with KDE environment. Following tools are available in Calligra suite.
- Words : A multipurpose word processor aimed at academic, business and personal use.
- Stage : A powerful and easy to use multimedia presentation that will let us to create attractive and professional presentations easily.
- Sheets : A fully featured spread sheet application which can be used to quickly create spreadsheets with formulas and charts, to calculate and organize data in neat manner.
- Flow : A tool used to make diagrams and flow charts. It can be used to make network diagrams, organization charts, flowcharts and much more.
- Kexi : A visual database creator. It can be used for designing database applications, inserting and editing data, performing queries, and processing data.
- Krita : A sketching and painting program which offers an end to end solutions for creating digital painting files from scratch by masters.
- Plan : A project management program which is geared towards projects with multiple resources. Plan offers different types of task dependencies and timing constraints.
- Braindump : A tool to dump and organize the content in our brain like ideas, drawing, images, texts .. etc
- Karbon : A vector drawing application with an user interface that is easy to use, highly customizable and extensible.
Calligra Suite also supports different platforms like Windows, GNU/Linux and Mac OS X.
NeoOffice
NeoOffice is a Mac OS X fork of openoffice.org . It was implemented when there was no OpenOffice support for Mac OS X. It implements almost all functions of OpenOffice using Cocoa frame work. It is using aqua theme of Mac OS X and is closely integrated with Mac OS X.
Feng Office Community Edition
All 4 office suites that I have listed so far was Desktop suites. Feng Office is a web based office suite. Feng Office Community Edition which was earlier known as OpenGoo is an open source collaboration platform developed and supported by Feng Office and OpenGoo community. It is fully featured online office suite. It can be either used as a paid service on official service or can be installed on our server.
No comments:
Post a Comment