An Introduction to Business & Productivity Software.

The area of Business & Productivity software includes tools designed to help maximize efficiency and productivity for individuals, small businesses, and corporations. Programs range from the Office add-ins that extend the functionality of popular MS Office programs such as Excel and Word to free open-source alternatives such as OpenOffice.org. They include e-commerce applications to help set up online stores, online auction tools, tax-preparation software, and personal information managers (PIMs) for calendar scheduling, address-book management, and other administrative tasks.

In the realm of business software, the Microsoft Office programs Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel are the industry standards. Although Office handles an incredibly wide array of tasks, shareware developers create add-ins so Office can offer even more functionality. The Microsoft Office Add-Ins center includes very useful softaware for supercharging Office to meet your custom needs. Specific types of add-ins are spam filters, formatting tools for Excel, and encryption tools to help keep your e-mail secure.

Whatever tax time means for you, the Taxes category includes tools such as TurboTax Basic 2005 to help minimize the stress and headache of tax preparation. Auction tools , such as Auction Sentry and eBay Auction Sniper and Auto Search, help manage online auctions at sites such as eBay.

If you're running a small business, the Business Finance category has tools for invoicing and managing budgets, and the E-commerce category has software to help you set up and run your own online business.