“Fortunately in my work there's always a choice: I can choose to do it willingly or unwillingly” Ashleigh Brilliant

For the past two days I have written about word processing for Macs so what about the larger percentage of people out there? Is there a good piece of software for word processing? Yes it is called OpenOffice. Below is a list of all that is comes with. Many people and business are turning to it because of two reasons. The price is free and it works. Give it a try.

• Writer – a word processor you can use for anything from writing a quick letter to producing an entire book.
• Calc – a powerful spreadsheet with all the tools you need to calculate, analyze, and present your data in numerical reports or sizzling graphics.
• Impress – the fastest, most powerful way to create effective multimedia presentations.
• Draw – lets you produce everything from simple diagrams to dynamic 3D illustrations.
• Base – lets you manipulate databases seamlessly. Create and modify tables, forms, queries, and reports, all from within OpenOffice.org
• Math – lets you create mathematical equations with a graphic user interface or by directly typing your formulas into the equation editor.

“Space is the breath of art.” Frank Lloyd Wright

Many times I am using Microsoft Excel and I have text that does not seem to fit in one cell. There are many different ways to approach this. You could stretch the column so that it will fit more but this is not always the best solution. I usually click on the format menu and choose cells and the click on the tab alignment to get all my choices. Sometimes I use the orientation feature to change the angle of my text. This is decent to really give your spreadsheet an eye catching look. Also on the left there are many options to that alter where the text sits in your cell. However to deal with this particular problem I usually use my favorite wrap text to solve space issues. Now understand that you will be sacrificing some of the vertical space to correct the horizontal problem but that usually is not a concern. Give it a try.

Google's Docs and Spreadsheets

Google just recently put up some great free tools. If you, like most people, do not use every tool that is available with Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel then Google’s new programs are great. They are a set of free tools that are online and are free. You do need to be connected to the net to continue working on them. Essentially you can type up a message and print it or save like usual on your computer or leave it online. Two features I really like are the collaboration feature that allows at least two people anywhere to work on the same document at the same time. You also can save your work as a PDF that anyone can open. New tools are coming soon. Take the tour before you signup. Remember the signup is free and once you have an ID then you can use the other tools I may mention here. There are other online tools like this but this combines Google’s search engine with an easy to use interface.