Being able to collaborate and share data online makes tracking and simplifying workflow so much easier. I am able to track revisions made by other people, access files from anywhere and comment on documents for others to review.
Here’s a few of my favourite apps that are both open-source and fairly good alternatives to handle your day-to-day work:
I have this program installed on another Windows XP computer and my portable USB drive as an alternative to the Microsoft Office. This suite includes replacement for:
Microsoft Word = OpenOffice.org Writer
Microsoft Excel = OpenOffice.org Calc
Microsoft PowerPoint = OpenOffice.org Impress
Using GMail Apps for our domain, we generally upload any document attachments to our Google Docs. Similar to the tight integration of Microsoft’s email client, Outlook, with its Word and Excel, Google’s spreadsheet and presentation tool works great with GMail.
Microsoft Word = Document in Google Docs
Microsoft Excel = Spreadsheet in Google Docs
Microsoft PowerPoint = Presentation in Google Docs
As a graphic designer, Adobe products are what our industry tends to rely on. With the whole acquisition of Macromedia by Adobe, even the web programs work seamlessly with Photoshop and Illustrator.
Now with the recent announcement of Acrobat.com, online document handling and collaborating makes it easier for any company to track and add comments to files using Adobe’s ConnectNow, a part of Acrobat.com.
Microsoft Word = Adobe Buzzword
Note-worthy Alternatives
Microsoft Office = thinkfree.com
Microsoft Word with Microsoft Projects = solodox.com
Microsoft Excel = editgrid.com
Microsoft PowerPoint = 280slides.com
All of the above online and offline applications have been personally tested by me on Windows XP, Apple OS X Tiger, Microsoft Internet Explorer 7, and Firefox 2.
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