Don’t want to buy the expensive Microsoft Office suite? A nice alternative is OpenOffice, but what is even nicer is version 3 which is due to come out in the very near future.

Currently, version 2.4 is out now, but the new version of OpenOffice has been released for evaluation by the general public. The latest release 3.0 supports the OpenDocument format as standard and will work with files from the most relevant applications.

The beta release has a new refreshed look, presenting a new ‘start centre’ and ‘stylish fresh-looking’ icons. It also comes with better support for spreadsheet collaboration, workbook sharing, and new features in the Draw and Impress applications.

And for the Mac users out there, for the first time OpenOffice 3.0 will be able to run on Mac OS X without X11.

If you are brave enough, you can get the beta version from the OpenOffice website (145 MB for Windows).

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