Word processing has filled a valuable niche on computers. Text documents used to be the most popular method of creating documents, and more advanced documents used various programs that were difficult to use. In response, various word processors were created to allow the selection of fonts, images and other elements. While there were previously a number of options, Microsoft's Office suite became the de facto standard. In response, the open source community has worked to create a free alternative: OpenOffice.

OpenOffice began its life in the 1980s as StarOffice. StarOffice was a proprietary program, but it never captured much of the market. In 1999, part of StarOffice's codebase was released with an open source license. As a result, the free software community began adding features and improving the codebase.

Today, OpenOffice is capable of performing a number of tasks that formerly required Microsoft Office. OpenOffice Writer is regarded as a top-notch word processor comparable to Microsoft Word. The Calc program is used to replicate much of the functionality of Microsoft Excel. OpenOffice's answer to PowerPoint is Impress, and its analog of Microsoft Access is called Base. OpenOffice also contains a simple program for creating graphics called Draw and an equation editor called Math.

While Microsoft Office still dominates the business world, some companies have successfully transitioned to OpenOffice. In particular, new companies are strongly considering saving the expensive price of Office and instead opting for the free OpenOffice. Further, students are increasingly turning to OpenOffice to create documents for their classes as Writer competes admirably with Microsoft Word.

Recently, OpenOffice has split into several different versions, so businesses will want to examine the differences between the official OpenOffice and its new variant based on the same code called LibreOffice.