Thing #18 - Online Productivity Tools

After reading all about OpenOffice, I was very impressed and interested in trying it out. Unfortunately, after trying two times and tieing up my computer for hours on end, I still can't seem to get it to download properly. I'll try to find somebody who knows more about computers than I (i.e. anyone else on this planet)and keep trying. For the record, the features I found appealing include the fact that OpenOffice works off of both Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac platforms, you can transfer existing files from Microsoft Office with little problem, it offers a total package of programs for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics and databases, and it's free, so our students can take it home and work on projects from their own computers without having to invest money for licensing fees. I still don't understand how OpenOffice can offer all this for free. If I were Microsoft, I'd be looking over my shoulder right now!