Office Automation Tools Unit-1 Office Automation

Office Suite Tools The main office suites are:
OpenOffice (freeware)
Microsoft Office
Libre Office
AppleWorks
Corel WordPerfect
IBM/Lotus SmartSuite
Sun StarOffice<br>

Benefits of Office Automation Data management offers advantages such as simplifying the management of stored data and information. Program schedulers, reminder systems, and task management allow businesses to monitor and control office projects and activities.
Data storage includes confidential and important office records and documents. An office automation system would include data applications which are used to create and edit spreadsheets, documents and files or images.<br>

Benefits of Office Automation 3. Data exchange of stored or manipulated data and information makes it easier for one or more members of an organization to send files and exchange data and information in real-time with an electronic transfer application or network connection, which enhances productivity.
4. Accuracy is greatly improved as programs and applications assist staff in getting 100% accuracy in day-to-day business processes.<br>

Benefits of Office Automation 5. Saves time and resources by simplifying and automating complex tasks. Digital storage eliminates the need for hard copies, which not only saves money and office space, but it helps the planet too.
6. Reduces costs by not investing too much on hiring new resources to take care of tasks which can be easily executed by an office automation system.<br>

Open Source Software & Proprietary Software Open-source refers to the software whose source code is available for anybody to access and modify.
i.e. Open-source software (OSS) is a type of computer software in which source code is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to study, change, and distribute the software to anyone and for any purpose.
E.g. Apace Open Office, Libre Office etc.<br>

Open Source Software & Proprietary Software Proprietary software is software that is solely owned by the individual or the organization that developed it. 
The owner of is the exclusive copyright holder of the software and only he has the rights to modify or add features to the program’s source code. He is the sole owner of the program who can sell it under some concrete conditions which should be followed by the users in order to avoid any legal disputes.
E.g. Microsoft Office.<br>

Open Office Open Office is an open-source office productivity software suite. 
As an open-source product, OpenOffice is free of purchase or licensing fees and it can be installed on any suitable computer.
Open Office’s native file format is OpenDocument. This produces several new file extensions including .odt for documents, .ods for spreadsheets and .odp for presentations.
Open Office can also open and save documents in many other formats, including those used by several versions of Microsoft Office.<br>

Components of Open Office Writer:
It’s a word processor.
Writer is a feature-rich tool for creating letters, books, reports, newsletters, brochures and other documents.
You can insert graphics and objects from other components into Writer documents.
Writer can export files to HTML, XHTML, XML, Adobe’s Portable Document Format (PDF) and several versions of Microsoft Word files.<br>

Components of Open Office 2. Calc:
It’s a spreadsheet program.
Calc has all of the advanced analysis, charting and decision-making features expected from a high-end spreadsheet.
It includes over 300 functions for financial, statistical and mathematical operations among others.<br>

Components of Open Office 3. Impress:
It’s a presentation software.
Impress provides all the common multimedia presentation tools such as special effects, animation and drawing tools.
It is integrated with the advanced graphics capabilities of Open Office’s Draw and Math components.<br>

Components of Open Office 4. Draw :
Draw is a vector drawing tool that can produce everything from simple diagrams of flowcharts to 3-D artwork.
Draw can be used to create drawings for use in any of Open Office’s other components.
Draw can import from many other formats and save them in over 20 formats including PNG, HTML, PDF and Flash.<br>

Components of Open Office 5. Base (database)
Base provides tools for day-to-day database work within a simple interface.
It can create and edit forms, reports, queries, tables, views, and relations .
Base provides many new features such as the ability to analyze and edit relationships from a diagram view.
Base incorporates HSQLDB (Hyper SQL Database) as its default relational database engine.
It can also use dBASE, Microsoft Access, MySQL, or Oracle or any ODBC(Open Database Connectivity)- or JDBC(Java Database Connectivity)- compliant database.<br>

Components of Open Office 6. Math (formula editor)
Math is Open office’s formula or equation editor.
You can use it to create complex equations that include symbols or characters not available in standard font sets.
While it is most commonly used to create formulas in other documents such as Writer and Impress files, Math can also work as a stand-alone tool.
You can save formulas in the standard Mathematical Markup Language (MathML) format for inclusion in webpages and other documents not created by Open Office.<br>

Advantages of Open Office No licensing fees
Open Source
Cross-Platform: Open Office runs on several hardware architectures and under multiple operating systems.
Extensive Language Support: Open Office user interface is available in several languages. It also provides support for both Complex Text Layout (CTL) and Right to Left (RTL) layout languages (such as Hindi, Hebrew and Arabic)<br>

Advantages of Open Office 5. Consistent User Interface: All the components have a similar “look and feel”, making them easy to use and master.
6. Integration: The components of Open Office are well integrated with one another.
7. File Compatibility: In addition to its native OpenDocument formats, it includes PDF and Flash export capabilities as well as support for opening and viewing files in many common formats including Microsoft Office, HTML, XML, WordPerfect etc.<br>

Advantages of Open Office 8. No Vendor Lock-in: Open Office uses Open Document, an XML (eXtensible Markup Language) file format developed as an industry standard by OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards). These files can easily be unzipped and read by any text editor and their framework is open and published.<br>

Libre Office The LibreOffice software suite is a derivative of OpenOffice.org that contains applications for word processing, spreadsheet, presentations, database management, and graphics editing. It is compatible with other similar software suites, like Microsoft Office, and works on several platforms, including Microsoft Windows, macOS X, and Linux.<br>

Libre Office It is the default office suite of most popular Linux distributions.
It is the most actively developed free and open-source office suite, with approximately 50 times the development activity of Apache Open office, the other major descendant of OpenOffice.org.
LibreOffice was first released on September 28, 2010 by "The Document Foundation" as a beta version based on the OpenOffice.org 3.3 beta version.<br>

Libre Office The software suite includes:
Writer (word processor, compatible with Microsoft Word)
Calc (spreadsheet editor, compatible with Microsoft Excel)
Impress (presentation software, compatible with Microsoft PowerPoint)
Base (database management, compatible with Microsoft Access)
Draw (vector graphics editor)
Math (mathematical formula creation and editing)<br>

Microsoft Office Microsoft Office is a suite of desktop productivity applications that is designed specifically to be used for office or business use.
It is a proprietary product of Microsoft Corporation and was first released in 1990.
Microsoft Office is available in 35 different languages and is supported by Windows, Mac and most Linux variants.
It mainly consists of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, OneNote, Outlook and Publisher applications.<br>

Microsoft Office Microsoft Office was primarily created to automate the manual office work with a collection of purpose-built applications.
Each of the applications in Microsoft Office serves as specific knowledge or office domain such as:
Microsoft Word: Helps users in creating text documents.
Microsoft Excel: Creates simple to complex data/numerical spreadsheets.
Microsoft PowerPoint: Stand-alone application for creating professional multimedia presentations.
Microsoft Access: Database management application.
Microsoft Publisher: Introductory application for creating and publishing marketing materials.
Microsoft OneNote: Alternate to a paper notebook, it enables an user to neatly organize their notes.<br>