Don't Want to Pay for Microsoft Word - Consider Open Office

[james.hendrickson]

All,

In case you weren't aware - there are free alternatives to Microsoft's suite of office products.

The major free alternative is: Openoffice.org

Its got modules for most of the major uses of MS office:

From their website:

• Writer a word processor you can use for anything from writing a quick letter to producing an entire book.
• Calc a powerful spreadsheet with all the tools you need to calculate, analyze, and present your data in numerical reports or sizzling graphics.
• Impress the fastest, most powerful way to create effective multimedia presentations.
• Draw lets you produce everything from simple diagrams to dynamic 3D illustrations.
• Base lets you manipulate databases seamlessly. Create and modify tables, forms, queries, and reports, all from within Apache OpenOffice.
• Math lets you create mathematical equations with a graphic user interface or by directly typing your formulas into the equation editor.

You can get it here.

Bottom line - if you need to work and you don't have a budget for MS Office, you have options.

[disneysteve]

We’ve use OpenOffice for years. It’s a great free alternative. We use the word processor and I use the spreadsheet a lot for my eBay business.

[james.hendrickson]

Its got to be better than paying for Microsoft every year, so I thought I'd put it out for all the lurkers on the forums.

[Frugal Bugler]

Another alternative is to switch from Windows to Chrome OS. Google offers a similar compatible suite to Office... free!

[disneysteve]

Another alternative is to switch from Windows to Chrome OS. Google offers a similar compatible suite to Office... free!

You do not need to use Chrome in order to use Google docs and their other products. You can do that on any OS.

[ua_guy]

It's still possible to purchase non-subscription based MS Office. I will not pay for an Office subscription, ever, and I have family who work for MS, although nowhere near the Office team(s). But I'm still OK with the one-time purchase for the basic suite (Word, Excel, PPT, OneNote). It was about $100 without any discount, if I recall.

Microsoft also offers discount programs for government, Military, educational, and first responders. It's worth checking into if you're interested.

The one upsell with Microsoft Office is portability with business employers and generally accepted formats, xls* and doc* for sharing and editing. If you just use for personal use and printing to paper, I can see why that would have less value.

[scfr]

I'm a Google Docs fan myself, though I can't say how it compares to Open Office.
James, your bottom line is right: there are options.

[disneysteve]

I'm a Google Docs fan myself, though I can't say how it compares to Open Office.

The big selling point for Google Docs is that it’s web based so you can access your documents anywhere. I rarely have a need for that so Open Office works just fine for me. But my daughter loves Docs and being able to work from anywhere.

[Bozzdivine]

I've heard about this OpenOffice before. Sounds like a worthy thing to try. Will check it out when my MS Office subscription expires

[disneysteve]

It's still possible to purchase non-subscription based MS Office. I will not pay for an Office subscription, ever

Slightly off topic but I hate how the software industry changed from selling software to renting it. I get why they did it as they make far more money this way, but as a customer it completely turned me off from ever using any of their products.

I got Photoshop years ago and still use it. In fact, it’s installed on an old computer that I keep around just for that. I can’t put it in our new computer and the only way to get it now is with a monthly fee. The 10-year-old version works perfectly fine. Why would I spend a fortune to rent the new version?