I am writing this article using Writer, part of the slick new OpenOffice.org suite, which by the way is free and now rivals Microsoft Office in terms of features.

Microsoft charges about $499 list for its product suite, which includes Word, Exel, PowerPoint, FrontPage, and Access if you buy the professional version.

OpenOffice.org works just as well, has more or less the same abilities, and can both read and save to Microsoft formats. This latter point is important for those who want to run it side by side with the Microsoft versions, who want to switch without having to ditch their archives,or who need to share documents with others.

OOo is free under an open source licence, which allows individuals and businesses to use it without fear of breaking any patent licensing. It is an example of the fine work produced by hundreds of individuals collaborating over the Internet on the project, just for the fun of breaking Microsoft?s dominance. While OpenOffice has been around for a few years, the recently release of the second version takes it into the competitive space. Ooo, as it is sometimes written, is no clunky amateur effort.

Each application works smoothly and is rich in features. Writer, the program I am using, is OpenOffice.org?s word processor. It is easy to use if you know how to use Word. If not, a detailed manual is available at the OOo site (www.OpenOffice.org) along with an imbedded help file, as for all the other programs.

Calc is a spreadsheet that looks pretty much like Exel, with all the tools to calculate, analyse,summarise, and present data in numerical reports. It can pull in external data, sort it, filter it and produce subtotals and statistical analyses. It also has 13 categories of 2-D and 3-D charts including line, area, column, pie, XY, stock and net templates.

The Impress program works like PowerPoint to create multimedia presentations. The Draw program can be used to produce a range of diagrams. Base is a new addition in Version 2, allowing users to manipulate database data to create and modify tables, forms, queries, and reports.

OOo?s roots lie in Sun Microsystems? 1999 acquisition of Star Division, a German company that built an office suite called StarOffice. Sun later released the product as the open-source OpenOffice.org project.The open source licence also allows resellers to provide commercial copies, right now available for about $29, if you feel more comfortable going that route rather than downloading the 76MB installation file from the OpenOffice.org site.

Versions are available for Windows; Linux, Mac and Unix platforms. Give it a spin. If you already use Microsoft Office, you can run both side by side. It can open all Microsoft Office documents and it also saves back into that format. It also comes with a built feature to convert documents into PDF format,which works really well. This gets rid of the need to buy Adobe Acrobat?s commercial version if you only need to convert from a word processor. You should note that OOo does not support Word macros or Excel pivot tables.

In November last year Microsoft said it would offer Word, Excel and PowerPoint document formats as open standards.

Technology is transforming the workforce, which may be more mobile than you think. A global study by the Yankee Group shows where the possibilities lie.

According to this year study about 40 percent of today?s workforce can be classified as ?mobile?, withnumbers increasing by 10 percent over the past four years.

The increased mobility can be attributed to new technologies in telephony and wireless communications,changing demographics (older workers turn family oriented), globalisation, and increased functionalityfor mobile devices. Mobile workers are defined as workers who spend 20 percent or more of their time away from their primary workspace.

?As a result of increased workforce mobility, global companies are being forced to accommodate the changing workforce dynamics with delivery technologies, applications and IT strategies specifically targeted to accommodate the rapidly changing mobility requirements of their employees,? says the market researcher.

One-third of companies surveyed suggested they would deploy some form of enterprise applications over a mobile device within the next three years.

So how do you make sure you keep in touch? Its survey of best practices found that companies must build their information technology and deliver enterprise applications, services and productivity tools to cater for the mobile workforce. Wireless e-mail access remains the driving application. Web browsing on the move is growing in importance.

?These two factors-combined with the fact that application vendors are beginning to deliver mobile capabilities in some form or factor-are starting to pique the interest of enterprises,? the Yankee Group stated. You can read the rest of the advice at www.yankeegroup.com.