Free (no fee) Spreadsheet Solutions

The following is a section from the eBook that I am writing on data analysis with spreadsheets and database software.

Free Desktop and Cloud-Based Spreadsheet Software Solutions

You can anticipate that the basic spreadsheet features available in Microsoft Excel and Apple iWork Numbers are also available in the free (no fee) spreadsheet solutions.  If you are not ready to purchase commercial software, but need to work with spreadsheets without being connected to the Internet, consider trying one or more of the free desktop office software packages.

Free Desktop Software Solutions

There is a growing choice of free desktop office software, which includes spreadsheet capabilities.  Table 1 below provides examples.  

Desktop Software Name	Web Address
Apache OpenOffice.org	http://www.openoffice.org
IBM Lotus Symphony	http://www-03.ibm.com/software/lotus/symphony/home.nsf/home
Kingsoft Office	http://www.kingsoftstore.com/kingsoft-office-freeware.html
LibreOffice	http://www.libreoffice.org/
OxygenOffice	http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/ooop/wiki
SoftMaker FreeOffice	http://freeoffice.com/

Table 1 Free Desktop Spreadsheet Software Solutions

Cloud Based Spreadsheet Software Solutions

Spreadsheet software is also available using the cloud (table 2).  In other words, the software resides on the Internet, rather than a personal computer.  The table below shows four examples of cloud-based spreadsheets.  All require a login and password to use. 

Desktop Software Name	Web Address
Google Drive Spreadsheet	http://drive.google.com/
Sheetster	http://sheetster.com/index.jsp
SkyDrive	http://skydrive.live.com
Zoho	http://www.zoho.com/

Table 2 Cloud-Based Spreadsheet Software Solutions