This has been mentioned a few times, but I don't think it has received the attention it derserves. Open Office (www.openoffice.org) is a free, open-source office suite. It is comparable to Microsoft Office - pretty much identical in menu layout, features, etc. The software is free, but most importantly, the files are interchangeable with MS Office!! You can open an MS Office file (.doc, .xls, .ppt) in Open Office; you can also save any files created in Open Office with an MS Office extension!! The only program that isn't there is Publisher, but there is another open-source FREE program called Scribus (www.scribus.net) to handle your desktop publishing needs. My only word of caution is that MS Publisher is a strictly proprietary program, so you can't open Publisher files with any program other than Publisher I strongly urge everyone to at least take a look at these free, open-source programs!!

Monica