Today I’m providing an overview of the office productivity tools available to the homeschooler.  This is not a comprehensive overview but just a quick run-down of what’s available.  I’m also not going to cover every product available, I’m just including what I feel are the top-4 products.

The four products I’m covering are: Microsoft Office, Open Office, Google Docs, and Windows Live Office aka MS Office Live.

These products fall into two basic categories: free or paid and cloud-based or client-based.

The free products are: Open Office, Google Docs, and Windows Live Office.  Microsoft Office is the only paid product I’m discussing.

The cloud-based (or those you use on the Internet) are Google Docs and Windows Office Live.  The client-based (or those that have to be installed on your computer) are Open Office and Microsoft Office.

Most people only use about 10% of the features in MS Office so every one of these tools will meet your needs.  It’s really up to you whether or not you want to spend your hard-earned money on MS Office for ease of use and convenience.

That being said, I will go into a feature comparison of the products in upcoming episodes.

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