How to Choose a Spreadsheet Program

Video Transcript

"Chances are if you are working in a corporate world, you deal a lot with spreadsheets. Hi, I am Charles Stewart Jr. and I am going to help you choose which spreadsheet program to use. Again, if you are in an office environment, you're more than likely using Microsoft Excel. It is pretty much the standard when it comes to spreadsheets. You know if you are dealing with anything spreadsheet related, that is the program that you are going to need to use. And, most computers when you buy them, will have like from a HP or Dell, they usually have either a trial or a full, at least Microsoft Word and Excel in it already for you to have. If you build your own computer, you usually don't have those things and if you are in an office environment, I suggest that you go out and buy the Office package because you probably want to use it a lot for work. But, if you don't have the money and you are limited on funds, there is another alternative and it is called Openoffice.org. And basically Openoffice.org is designed by developers and it is an open source project, which means developers all around the world come together to help make this software. And, it is free, because they have to keep their source code available and free for others to improve upon. Openoffice.org pretty much has a, it is almost like an exact replica of the Microsoft Office Suite. The only difference is that it probably doesn't have all the bells and whistles and it may not be as easy to use as a Microsoft product. But, you know, once it is installed, I don't have Excel installed, but I do have Openoffice. Once you opened it up it looks pretty much just like a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. It has most of the basic functions on there and, again it is free. So, those are pretty much your two options. There are other things like Staroffice which is based upon Openoffice, and other spreadsheets out there. But, if you are going to be working a lot in an office environment I highly suggest that you use Microsoft Excel. And again, the good thing about Openoffice is that it makes Excel files. So, you can work on your computer, save it as an Excel file, and take it to work or what not. So, both good choices. Just the Excel has a bit more bells and whistles. That is choosing a spreadsheet software."