MS Office vs. Open Office

Just like the MS Office suite, Open Office is also a productivity collection that is mainly used for applications. Both MS and Open Office can be compared in various ways. Open Office as well as MS Office can execute assignments of the three big applications. Such as:

• Presentations
• Word Processing
• Spreadsheets

The suit of Open Office, unlike MS Office, does not come up with any price tags. Or it can be said that Open Office charges zero cost for downloading and for its utilization for business and personal requirements.

The Resemblances

As an answer to MS Office suite programs, Microsoft Power Point, Impress plays the role in Open Office. Alike the Microsoft Power Point, Impress produces the similar type of slide shows that are assisted by the slide transitions, customs animations, sound and movies. Even the toolbars and the main menus in Impress have the similar features as is found in MS Office. To make it clearer, let us set an example where the user is trying to save a file. For this they need to follow certain procedure:

• First choose the option ‘File’ from the menu bar.
• Then select the tab ‘Save’.

Or the user may choose the keyboard shortcut keys ‘CTRL S’ for saving a file.

The Dissimilarities

In Open Office you can export a document as a PDF format. But in MS Office you can use this option only when you had an add-on with your Power Point program.

When for the first time you are opening your Open Office programs in your Windows XP operating system or some other operating systems, you will be showed a Presentation Wizard in your computer screen. Steer your way in the course of the three various steps for creating the presentation that comprises background, templates, slide transitions, and other presentation options

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You can change or add all these options during the course of your presentation in Open Office.

The Open Office suite program, Impress, is divided into three divisions. Such are:

• The workspace
• The slides pane
• The tasks pane

Various visions of the workspace can be accessed via the tabs of navigation which you can find at the top of the window.

• Normal
• Outline
• Notes
• Handout
• Slide Sorter

In Impress, adding up of the custom animations has several similarities with the MS Office program, Microsoft Power Point. Various similar effects can be found in each of the applications. Whereas you can add a custom animation to a chart in Impress but the ability of making chart categories or series appearing one at a time is only possible in MS Office suite.

One can add various types of sound files in the Open Office suite program, Impress, but attaching any narrations is only possible in MS Power Point.

Though quite a number of differences exist in Impress, this Open Office program is a powerful application that can produce presentations for home use and business. Whatever     be your operating system, Windows XP or Windows Vista choose MS Office or Open Office according to your requirement.