OpenOffice and Microsoft Office have been competing for some time now. OpenOffice is primarily meant to be a free substitute or replacement for Microsoft’s proprietary office suite. As the name implies, it is an open source software application — which means anyone can freely view the source code, study it, make modifications to it and enhance the software.

If you’re looking for an office application suite, OpenOffice may be a good option. However, you may ask yourself — which is the better option of the two? This question cannot be easily answered. The answer will depend on your requirements. Both the office suites have their own advantages and disadvantages.

Microsoft made drastic changes to the interface in the recent editions. Many people who are used to the earlier interface find it difficult to adjust to the new one. OpenOffice still retains the older look. Additionally, OpenOffice also comes with some other innovative features such as auto complete which is a very good feature.

Microsoft Office is that it is used everywhere due to Microsoft’s powerful marketing muscle. Almost all businesses use Microsoft Office. Many people are forced to use it because everyone is using it. That said, even the latest editions of Microsoft Office have certain disadvantages. One of the major minus points of the software is that you need higher system requirements. If your organization is using older hardware, you may have to search for alternative options.

Overall, both OpenOffice and Microsoft Office have their own advantages and disadvantages. In other words, we cannot conclusively say that OpenOffice is better than Microsoft Office. However, it does have its own advantages — it is free, runs fast on older hardware, supports more number of platforms [Linux] and gets the job done.

Microsoft Office is very simple to use. The learning curve is not very steep. In fact, you can learn all the basic functions of the software without even consulting the help file. All you have to do is prod around and you will know all the basic functions very easily. However, you will need some training and additional practice to become proficient with the other advanced feature that MS Office offers.

The best way to learn MS Office is to buy a book. The software comes with an extensive help file which contains information about almost all the doubts that might arise. However, the help file is just that — a help file. It is not a tutorial and doesn’t include step-by-step instructions to learn all the functions of the software. If you have prior experience with the software and want to learn something new, the help file will usually be enough.

They are also several websites on the Internet which provide exhaustive information on MS office. You can start with Microsoft.com. However, just like the included help file, many of these websites provide information on discrete topics. You should start with websites that have tutorials on MS Office. This way you can efficiently the software step-by-step.

Another alternative way to learn MS Office is by watching video tutorials. Several tutorial companies are developing video tutorials for almost all major software applications. The main advantage of using video tutorials is that you can know everything visually. It is also much faster to learn by using video tutorials because these are usually well organized.

You can also consider joining a short course on MS office. There are several private tutor services or computer institutes which provide training on the offic suite. They can be a little costly but they are worth the investment because you will learn the basics thoroughly and will also have a good learning experience.

Microsoft Office 2010 Beta Free Download

Microsoft Office 2010 is the latest version of the office suite from Microsoft. It comes with a number of new features and improvements. Some of these new features include:

* Refined Ribbon interface and Backstage View across all applications
* Background Removal Tool
* Letter Styling
* New SmartArt templates
* New text and image editing effects
* Screen Capturing and Clipping tools
* Live collaboration functions
* Jumplists in Windows 7

A Mac OS X version of Office 2010 will also be released later in 2010. Office 2010 for Mac will include more robust enterprise support and greater feature parity with the Windows edition. An all-new version of Outlook with full Exchange support will return to the Mac for the first time since 2001 and replace Entourage. A public beta for the Mac version is not available to download.

[Download Microsoft Office 2010 Beta]

This tutorial will show you how to set up Microsoft Outlook to work with your e-mail account. These directions focus on setting up Microsoft Outlook 2003, but these settings are similar in other versions of Microsoft Outlook.

1. Select Tools > E-mail Accounts from Microsoft Outlook
2. Select “Add a new e-mail account” from the Email Accounts wizard window, and click Next.
3. Select “POP3″ for your server type and and click Next
4. Enter your information as follows on the Internet E-mail Settings (POP3) window
5. Click “More Settings”
6. Select the “Outgoing Server” tab on the Internet E-mail Settings window
7. Select “My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication.”
8. Select the “Advanced” tab and change the “Outgoing server (SMTP)” port to 80 or 3535
9. Select OK
10. Click Next
11. Click Finish