Having a

spreadsheet program

can be extremely handy, which is why it is a staple part of any office suite.

OpenOffice.org

is no exception, as it offers Calc for spreadsheet purposes. In this episode, we'll show you

how to use Calc to create spreadsheets

.

You may have heard of "office suites" before. These are packages of productivity programs and chances are you've used at least one even if you didn't know what an office suite was. Perhaps most popular is Microsoft's Office Suite. These software packages generally come with a

word processor

, a

presentation program

, a

spreadsheet program

and more. They're also usually quite expensive. Here we'll give you an overview of a

free office suite

,

OpenOffice.org

!

With your whole document workflow in one place thanks to Google Docs, it can be handy to star your favorite documents so you can find them at a glance. In this final installment of our

video tutorial on using Google Docs

, Molly McDonald looks at doing just that. She also explores

transferring ownership of a Google Doc

and hiding documents you don't want to see.

Using forms in Google Docs

, you can track RSVPs for a party, get signups for a bake sale, take a vote or whatever else you might think up. Our

video tutorial on using Google Docs

takes a look at quickly and easily creating and sharing forms in Google Docs.

Molly McDonald continues our

video tutorial on using Google Docs

with a look at

creating a PowerPoint style presentation in Google Docs

. Once again showing it can be a viable

free alternative to Microsoft Office

, Google Docs lets you create attractive slideshow presentations.

There are a ton of

templates in Google Docs

and they're free for the taking. In part seven of our

video tutorial on using Google Docs

, Molly McDonald looks at

using templates in Google Docs

. Templates offer attractive layouts, project-specific functions and just generally save a lot of time. Why reinvent the wheel, after all.

Because files can be shared easily and can be edited simultaneously with one or more collaborators, Google's online offering proves it can do some things that other offline office suites simply can't do. In this

video tutorial on using Google Docs

, we look at the comments workflow and how it makes

online document collaboration

easy.

In Google Docs, you can easily link one document to another. You can link a sales write-up to a slideshow presentation for example or just link one text document to another in order to provide context.

It won't take long for your Google Docs home screen to become overrun with all the documents you've created and uploaded. We continue our

video tutorial on using Google Docs

by organizing our documents and spreadsheets using

folders in Google Docs

.

One huge benefit of

cloud computing

is that it's easier than ever to share documents and other files. No more email attachments required. No more version control troubles. Our

video tutorial on using Google Docs

demonstrates the sharing and emailing functions in Google Docs.

Our

video tutorial on using Google Docs

continues with a look at

how to get your documents in the cloud

by

uploading files to Google Docs

. If you're convinced that Google Docs is a viable

free alternative to Microsoft Office

or if you have a bunch of documents on your computer that you want to be able to access from anywhere, this is for you.

Kicking off our 10-part

video tutorial on using Google Docs

, Molly McDonald runs down

how to access Google Docs

and gives a quick tour of the Google Docs interface. Google Docs is a viable

free alternative to Microsoft Office

for basic word processing, spreadsheets and even presentations.

Get your documents into the cloud with any one of these

10 great free online word processors

. These

free online word processors

let you do just about everything you'd do with Microsoft Office without having to pony up. You can share documents without having to worry about version control, get offline access and sync with your docs next time you're online and much more.

Cheryl Poirier, AKA Miss Download, somehow managed to obliterate

Microsoft Office

from her home PC only to discover the

open source equivalent to Office, OpenOffice.org

. Not a moment too soon either; she had an important spreadsheet due in two days' time!

Save the hassle associated with creating your own spreadsheets in Google Docs. There's a good chance someone has already created a template for the spreadsheet you need. In this tutorial, we look at importing and using a family budget using a free Google Docs template.

Google Docs is a great way to manage your online workflow. We look at some of the different ways you can easily import documents and spreadsheets from your computer, your email or from an online source.