As a small company owner I’m constantly pursuing the “bottom line” ;.It’s a straightforward formula, really. Just increase sales while decreasing expenses, right? Easier said than done I’m afraid. The truth is that most production costs like fuel, rent, access to the internet, insurance, etc, continue to go up and don’t show signs of slowing any time soon. That means I’ve got to be downright cagey in conserving every dime I will, where I can.

So, when I upgraded to a brand new computer I went most abundant in performance for the lowest cost. That meant no frills, especially where software is concerned. Manufacturers want a supply and a leg to pre-install software bundles on your new machine. Even when you’re a bit more technologically savvy and purchase and install software yourself, Microsoft Office Standard is similar to four hundred bucks, and you still have anti-virus and other vital software to shell out for. What’s an entrepreneur to do?

I’m fortunate enough to know some people who work in the tech sector and are much more knowledgeable WPS Office than myself about them of personal computing. When I told certainly one of my tech-head friends I was looking for a less expensive software solution he said to see Open Office software.

He sent me to this site where they’ve an Open Office software suite designed for download, bundled with a totally free anti-virus suite! I used it out and I’ve been very impressed with what I obtained for my dollar. The open office programs have all the same features as their Microsoft counterparts, as well as a couple of advantages unique to Open Office.

The bundle includes a phrase processor, a spreadsheet program, a database, a course for creating multi-media presentations, and a drawing program.

I haven’t got to spend a whole lot of time with the presentation program, Impress, nonetheless it interfaces nicely and seems to have the ability to create anything I will be needing for a good sales presentation. Draw, the graphics program, is very good and creates artwork in bitmap, GIF, JPEG, and a couple other formats I’ve never even heard of. Most critical in my experience though have been the phrase processor, called Write, and the spreadsheet, Calc.

Write has all of the features, there’s nothing missing. It also offers a unique helpful options like auto correct and auto complete, and it can make documents in open document format, a file format developed by an industry consortium to be the newest standard in compatibility. In addition it may read and edit my old Word documents, as well as create new ones. Additionally, it may create .pdf files.

Calc shares the same virtues as its word processing counterpart, with the abilities to read and write existing Excel docs. This really is huge for me because almost all of my payroll, invoicing, and expense tracking are kept on custom made spreadsheets I built myself, and the capacity to keep the information I have and continue my book keeping without starting over is crucial. I also love the natural language formula feature. It allows the creation of formulas using actual words like “sales-costs” ;.It’s really slick and saves me a lot of time.

Now if you’ve done your homework or have a background in computers you realize that Open Office software is open source code software, meaning essentially that it’s free. So just why purchase software that can be gotten for nothing? Well the clear answer is based on the extra features, bonus software and support provided in this Open Office suite. At under $50 dollars for the entire Open Office software bundle, the anti-virus suite alone makes it worth the cost. Also included is one whole year of free tech support team, that is important for the less technically inclined, such as me.