OpenOffice Base (until December 2011 known as OpenOffice.org Base) is a database management system that can be found within the OpenOffice office suite along with others such as OpenOffice Writer, or Calc. It is similar to Access, the database management program offered by Windows. The main difference is that it is free and open-source: it will continue to receive updates that improve its features by a selfless community working on it.

This program offers the user everything he needs to control different volumes of information such as, for example, his monthly company reports, income, and expenses derived from his activity, etc.

OpenOffice Base can satisfy both beginners and more advanced and professional users: it provides native drivers for database engines such |as MySQL, Adabas D, PostgreSQL, or Microsoft Access. We can also find in its official blog entries as useful as how to filter by dates, how to change the font formatting in tables, how to import tables from Excel to OpenOffice Base, or how to use aliases in SQL queries with the program. The application also offers different wizards to assist the user as well as design and SQL views that satisfy both beginners and advanced users.

As of version 2.3, Base integrates the report generator in OLAP and XML. In its official blog, you can learn how to take full advantage of this application and start creating databases, adding tables, entering new data, and more useful information.