A free and open productivity source
After downloading a free e-book template from http://ezebooktemplates.com I needed to open the template but had a problem with it since it had an .odt extension … something I had never come across before.
Looking for a software that could open the template for me I came across http://openoffice.org.
After downloading the software I realized that it could not only open the e-book template with the .odt extension but also export it to an PDF-file which would enable me to upload my book (after writing it of course) to my server.
But OpenOffice does a lot more and the best part is … it is an Open Source software which means that anyone can download it for free and then add the evergrowing extensions (plugins) for it.
Here is a part of the info given on their “About“-site:
OpenOffice.org is both a product and an open-source project. Both have been in existence since October 13, 2000. OpenOffice.org 1.0, the product, was released on April 30, 2002.
OpenOffice.org’s Mission Statement is…
To create, as a community, the leading international office suite that will run on all major platforms and provide access to all functionality and data through open-component based APIs and an XML-based file format.
The OpenOffice.org project is primarily sponsored by Sun Microsystems, which is the primary contributor of code to the Project. Our other major corporate contributors include Novell, RedHat, RedFlag CH2000, IBM, and Google.
Additonally over 450,000 people from nearly every curve of the globe have joined this Project with the idea of creating the best possible office suite that all can use. This is the essence of an “open source.” community!
“Open source” means that you can contribute to make the product (and Project) better by joining the community. The remainder of this page should tell you a lot more about the organization of OpenOffice.org and how you can get involved!
So … go ahead and check it out.
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