Open office vs. microsoft..?

Question

I recently got a new laptop with only a trial version of microsoft word on it...I am starting college and have to type up english papers and things but cant afford to spend $100 on microsoft office on top of the cost ofcollege books! My brother suggested that I try open office...I was just wondering...are most of the features the same?? Will i be able to do normal school projects (typing papers, making resumes, excel and powerpoints, charts...ect.) and also..if I type a paper in open office and then email it to a teacher that has word...will they be able to open it ok?!? and can I print normally and with normal fonts from open office?? most teachers require us to use size 12 times new roman with double spaces for papers...can I do all that on open office?!

Answer 1

Yes you can and more. Get it here http://www.openoffice.org/

Open source rules man!

Answer 2

Yeah, you can do all of that in OpenOffice. The interface is different than Microsoft Office, but for the stuff you're looking to do, it shouldn't be that hard to figure out. If you make a document in OpenOffice, be sure you save it as a Word document, otherwise Word won't be able to open it. It does, however, have the ability to save something as a PDF file, which virtually anyone in the world should be able to open in the modern age. Hope that helps!

Answer 3

They are both the same thing... Open office is free and microsoft word cost money you choose....  

Answer 4

OpenOffice offers a great deal of the functionality that MS Office does. You'll be able to use the word processor and spreadsheets almost identically to Office. If you want to share them, you'll need to select the .doc format manually, as the default format is ODT.

The part of OpenOffice that will be a bit more difficult will be the Power Point projects, as OpenOffice doesn't have all of the fancy templates that Office has. But you will still be able to create the presentations.