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Hack 84 Open and Create Microsoft Documents without Microsoft Office

When it comes to word processing and
spreadsheets, it's an all-Microsoft world. But you
don't have to pay hundreds of dollars for Office to
create and read Microsoft files; you can instead download a free
office suite.

For better or
worse, the Windows world has settled on Word and Excel as the word
processing and spreadsheet standards. But as anyone who has recently
bought a new computer can tell you, buying an office suite that
includes them can push up the cost of your computer by several
hundred dollars.

If you want to play well with others, you need to be able to create
and read Word and Excel files. That doesn't mean,
however, that you need to buy Microsoft Office. In fact, you can
download a free office suite that includes a Word-compatible word
processor, an Excel-compatible spreadsheet, as well as image-editing
and photo album software. It's called the 602Pro PC
SUITE, and it is available from 602 Software (http://www.software602.com).

The word processor, 602Text, reads Word documents, including all
formatting, and can format and save Word documents as well. The
spreadsheet, 602Tab, reads and writes Excel files. You
won't get a number of Office extras, such as being
able to use macros, but at least one feature of the program is
superior to Word. When you open or save a document,
you're shown file thumbnails that have the first
several lines of the document, as shown in Figure 9-7. Look closely, and you'll see
a small magnifying glass in the lower right of each document. Click
on it, and you'll see even more of the text.
It's a great way to preview information in files so
that you know you'll be opening the right file.

Figure 9-7. Opening a file with 602Pro PC SUITE

9.6.1 See Also

The OpenOffice.org office suite (http://www.openoffice.org) is a free, open
source software suite that includes a word processor, spreadsheet,
drawing program, equation editor, and presentation software. It opens
and saves Microsoft Office formats as well as many other formats.
Versions are available for Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and Solaris.