If you've read through Part I and Part II of this tutorial series, you ought to have plenty of templates and clip art for OpenOffice.org (OOo), be typing grammatically-correct papers, and know a few more tips and tricks to ease your transition from Microsoft (MS) Office.

Last month we started a tutorial series covering tips and tricks to help you make the transition from Microsoft (MS) Office to OpenOffice.org (OOo) 2.4 easier. We discovered how to add more templates and clip art to OOo, include grammar checking, and replicate the convenient Split Window feature of MS Office.

Stubbornly, OpenOffice.org continues to ship with only a handful of templates. Despite the efforts of several sub-projects and individuals to change the situation, the standard OpenOffice.org download includes only a couple of slide show presentations and a few templates to accompany the wizards available in the file menu.

When you think about office suites, two names come to mind: Microsoft Office and OpenOffice. Although the vast majority of Linux users depend upon OpenOffice for their office needs, the alternatives should not be overlooked.

Nobody disputes that Microsoft Office is king of the hill in office suites, but if you put marketing and market share aside, how does OpenOffice.org compare?

OpenOffice has hit version 3, and the free alternative to Microsoft Office and other commercial office suites is looking more professional and fully featured than ever before.

Microsoft is set to launch Office 2010 Starter -- a stripped down and ad-supported (but totally free [as in price]) version of Office 2010. Is this Microsoft's response to OpenOffice and Google Apps? Or is this an opportunity to get PC buyers to "try then buy" complete Office suites? Here are some thoughts.

Appearances to the contrary, OpenOffice.org and its various offshoots aren't the only choices available to you in terms of full-scale, cross-platform open source office suites. Although alternatives in this space are few, the KDE Project's KOffice is now coming on quite strong, while GNOME Office and Siag Office keep attracting fans, too.

IBM calls its new office productivity suite, built upon OpenOffice, Lotus Symphony. This disappoints two groups. The first group, fans like me of OpenOffice, wish it kept the OpenOffice name to help further the open cause. The second group wishes the old Lotus Symphony office suite, an early competitor to Microsoft Office, had climbed out of the grave.