Week 8 - Online Applications and Tools

Online applications or freeware applications have been growing in popularity for several years. I have some experience using OpenOffice as an alternative to the Microsoft or Corel Office Suites. Like OpenOffice, the online applications are free and provide many of the same functionalities of the costly software. The user must have Internet access and no installation, updates, patches, or downloads are necessary to use. This is a big plus if you have an older computer without the capacity to run newer software, or just don't want to spend money for the software. The creators of these products have designed them using similar terminology and icons so that users who are familiar with the Microsoft products can fairly easily adapt to these new tools. One feature that I particularly like is the ability to create pdf files without the installation and expense of adobe acrobat writer.