How to Use Free Office Software on a Mac

Computer Work

There are many free or inexpensive software suites that offer essentially the same functionality as the expensive brand. They have word processing, spreadsheets and presentation applications. In this article you'll learn about one specifically for the Mac called NeoOffice.

Things You'll Need

• Internet connection
• Mac OS X

Instructions

1. NeoOffice includes word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, drawing, and database programs. It is based on the OpenOffice Suite. See Resources below for a link to my article: "How to Find Free Alternatives to Installing Microsoft Office Applications."

2. NeoOffice is compatible with Microsoft Office. You can exchange documents with anyone using Microsoft Office software and things will work in both apps.

3. Although NeoOffice is based on the open source software OpenOffice, it has a number of features that are specifically meant to improve performance and usefulness on Mac OS X. Some users say it works faster as a result.

4. You can download it and find free support and help at the site (see Resources).

5. Before you download, be sure you have:

   • Mac OS X 10.3 or higher
   • 512 MB of memory
   • 400 MB of free disk space

   After downloading, simply double-click the install package and the software will automatically install into your Applications folder.

Tips & Warnings

• Be sure to check out all the features of this software. You can do things like import images from scanners and cameras, as well as other helpful things.

• Although the software is free to download, the team keeping it running for you would appreciate any donation you can make to help fund their work.

• Immediately after installing the software, return to the site to obtain the latest bug fixes and patches (see Resources for link).

Resources

• NeoOffice
• NeoOffice Features page
• NeoOffice Patch Download
• Find Free Alternatives to Installing Microsoft Office Applications