If you don’t want to spend many hundreds of dollars for a Word Processor, Spreadsheet, and other essential programs we suggest that you take a look at Open Office.

This is a free suite of programs that are compatible with Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc. You can exchange documents with users of Microsoft programs, and everyone will be able to read and write the documents that are created.

Version 1.1 of these programs has recently been released. More info at OpenOffice.org

(*** Save hours of downloading if you are on a modem. The October 2003 edition of Australian Personal computer contains the Open Office suite on CD ROM. There are also many other useful programs and upgrades on the disks. )