Most of us at one point in time have used Microsoft Office, but most are not aware that there is a great free alternative – OpenOffice.

So if you think MS Office is too expensive, or you just want an excellent alternative, then go and download this product now. It does pretty much everything that MS Office does: word processing, spreadsheets, databases, presentations and more.

Most of the interfaces are pretty similar to MS Office, so you won’t have any problems immediately using this product. The files created in OpenOffice can also be opened in MS Office and vice versa.

Download OpenOffice

Once you have OpenOffice installed, here is a cool little trick you can do to increase productivity with macros.

Create a Macro and add it to the toolbar

You can really increase productivity by creating macros for your repetitive tasks. Once you have created a macro(s), it can be added as a keyboard shortcut or even added to the toolbar for even easier access.

1) Create the macro. For this example I am just going to insert a basic table with 2 rows and a heading.
2) From the menu click Tools -> Macros -> Record Macro
3) Now perform the action you want as the macro. For my example I just went to insert table.
4) Click “Stop Recording” on the Record Macro dialog box. In the next dialog box, give your macro a name and click on “Save”

5) Now we can add the macro to the toolbar
6) Click Tools -> Customize, then click on the “Toolbars” tab

7) Click on the “Add” button
8) From the left menu browse to the macro you created, then click “Add”
9) You now have a cool macro in your toolbar

You can also add the macro as a keyboard shortcut using the exact same process.

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