6.2.1 What is Productivity Software?

6.2.1 What is Productivity Software? We all want to get more done in less time. Before productivity software became common, people had to write reports on a typewriter and make spreadsheets using graph paper and a calculator. Companies used to have typing pools, groups of people whose only job was to type out what the bosses said. In the current business climate, most company executives type up their own reports. Electronic documents and productivity software save everyone time and effort. Commercial Software A good example of productivity software is the programs in the Microsoft Office suite. The Office suite has Microsoft Word for creating documents and Excel for creating spreadsheets. It also includes tools like PowerPoint for presentations and Outlook for email. To stay competitive, Microsoft introduced online versions of their software as well. They gave them similar designs and layouts, so there's not much of a learning curve—they're easy to pick up if you've used the desktop apps.Apple also has its own productivity software, free but only for Mac users. It includes Apple Pages for documents, Numbers for spreadsheets, and Keynote for presentations. Free Software Google has a suite, too. Google's is similar to its online competitor's, Microsoft Office, with free versions of word processing and spreadsheet tools. One of the best features of the Google suite is the ability to work together on a single document as a team. You can create and then share the document with others, and they can edit it while you see their changes. This back-and-forth collaboration can go on until the document is just right.There are also free software packages from companies that make open-source software. Two of the most popular ones are OpenOffice and LibreOffice. These have a similar feel to Microsoft programs, which makes it easy to switch over. You can visit their websites and download them if you want to try them out—they work on Windows, Apple macOS, and Linux.