Office suite
In computing, an office suite, sometimes called an office software suite or productivity suite is a software suite intended to be used by typical clerical worker and knowledge workers. The components are generally distributed together, have a consistent user interface and usually can interact with each other, sometimes in ways that the operating system would not normally allow.
Host Medium _ Platform : offline or online
A distinction should be made between offline (e.g. MS Office and Star Office), hybrid (e.g. Microsoft LIVE and Google Docs read along with Google Gears) and purely online (e.g. Thinkfree, Zoho, and eDeskOnline) versions of office suites.
Typical components
Most office application suites include at least a word processor and a spreadsheet element. In addition to these, the suite may contain a presentation program, database tool, graphics suite and communications tools. An office suite may also include an email client and a personal information manager or groupware package.
Current suites
The currently dominant office suite is Microsoft Office, which is available for Microsoft Windows and the Apple Macintosh. It has become a proprietary de-facto standard in office software.
An alternative is any of the OpenDocument suites, which use the free OpenDocument file format, defined by ISO/IEC 26300. The most prominent of these is OpenOffice.org [citation needed], open-source software that is available for Windows, Linux, Macintosh, and other platforms. StarOffice, KOffice and Kingsoft Office support many of the features of Microsoft Office, as well as most of its file formats, and has spawned several derivatives such as NeoOffice, a port for Mac OS X that integrates into its Aqua interface, and OpenOffice.org.
A new category of "online word processors" allows editing of centrally stored documents using a web browser.
References
- Free Web-based Office alternatives
- a good article on free office suites
- an online office suite
- DMOZ Office Suites