Microsoft Office Alternatives

[LazyDog]

This morning I was trying to write a Word Document and fount out that my old subscription as expired.

I very seldom used the software any more so any alternatives for light users like me.

 

[I<3oil]

OpenOffice
LibreOffice
Google Docs

 

[Elkins45]

Open Office or Libre Office will allow you to work offline, if that’s important to you. I’m not sure you can do anything in Google Docs unless you’re connected.

 

[Ed_Flecko]

You didn't mention if you're working on a PC, Mac, etc., but I have used LibreOffice for the last couple of years and found it to do everything I want an office software suite to do. I don't miss Microsoft Office at all, and I get it for free since I work for an educational organization.

I'm confident you will be very happy with LibreOffice. It's a short learning curve to transition from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice,

Ed

 

[mrsilv04]

On my work laptops, I always get the best from Microsoft... of course.

On my personal laptop, I have LibreOffice. On my last personal laptop, I had OpenOffice.
For personal use, either one is just fine. I went back to school and got my latest degree using OpenOffice.
Funny thing was, we were told NOT to shell out the money for Office, unless we really wanted to.

 

[dogememe]

LibreOffice is the gold standard. Or you can use the online versions of Office for free as long as you have a Microsoft account.

 

[Leo99]

I use Libre at home. The Word equivalent works fine. I find the Excel equivalent to be ok for very basic stuff but too different from Excel for more complicated spreadsheets causing a steeper learning curve. Excel is difficult enough to learn. I don't want to learn another spreadsheet app.

 

[LazyDog]

Thank for all the great ideas, I very seldom used any office product any more. The Google doc work good enough to create the document this morning.

 

[97prizm]

This morning I was trying to write a Word Document and fount out that my old subscription as expired.

I very seldom used the software any more so any alternatives for light users like me.

Libreoffice

 

[barryh]

I'm still using office 2003 and actually prefer it to the new versions which seemed to adopt a toy town look. It has a smaller footprint, loads faster and does everything I want. Also I have a macro that failed to work on a newer version. You can get converters that allow 2003 to work with later file types. I have the original media but looking around the web it appears you can find free downloads of older office versions.

The trouble with Office and especially recent versions is it's so sophisticated that only a tiny percentage of users actually utilise it's capability. The other 99% of users would make faster progress with something simpler.

 

[zzyzzx]

LibreOffice

 

[Bill7]

This morning I was trying to write a Word Document and fount out that my old subscription as expired.

I very seldom used the software any more so any alternatives for light users like me.

You may wish to conisder LibreOfice (it's available for all operating systems). It's totally free of charge and since it's open source, it has no hidden privacy concerns. Micorosft Office came out with an update a few months ago that totally took away the privacy of it's users. Several people I know have stopped using it for that reason. Also, many people may want to avoid MS Office's monthly subscription cost. so free alternatives might be something to consider.

 

[dishdude]

I'm still using office 2003 and actually prefer it to the new versions which seemed to adopt a toy town look. It has a smaller footprint, loads faster and does everything I want. Also I have a macro that failed to work on a newer version. You can get converters that allow 2003 to work with later file types. I have the original media but looking around the web it appears you can find free downloads of older office versions.

The trouble with Office and especially recent versions is it's so sophisticated that only a tiny percentage of users actually utilise it's capability. The other 99% of users would make faster progress with something simpler.

 

[LazyDog]

View attachment 202467

Nice caption, the new version is way to complicated. I had an older version and key no longer works.

 

[dishdude]

Nice caption, the new version is way to complicated. I had an older version and key no longer works.

I didn't even notice, it was the first gif I came across with Clippy. lol

 

[ecotourist]

I'm still using an old version of Office, obtained for virtually nothing while working for my last employer.

 

[IndyIan]

Thank for all the great ideas, I very seldom used any office product any more. The Google doc work good enough to create the document this morning.

You can also set stuff in google to be available off line as well.

 

[uc50ic4more]

Open Office or Libre Office will allow you to work offline, if that’s important to you. I’m not sure you can do anything in Google Docs unless you’re connected.

LibreOffice was forked some years ago from OpenOffice - This is why they look and behave almost indistinguishably. LibreOffice, though, is enjoying much heavier development and ought to be slightly superior in every way; most importantly in this case MS Office compatibility.

 

[Pablo]

Same boat with excel - I just wanted something quick and did the silly online version. It gave my otherwise clean desktop a herniated disk

 

[barryh]

View attachment 202467

I'd forgotten all about clippy.

I long ago customised the installation of Office using an MST file and a batch file. It's a one click install with the exact set up I want and all of the nonsense excluded.