Alternatives to Microsoft office

[Over The Hill]

Anyone buying a computer will now have the problem of it not having Microsoft office on it (word excel and powerpoint) but having to pay £50-70 to get these.

I think there are a number of alternatives available for nothing or next to nothing. Anyone recommend any or have good/bad experience with them?

Probably obvious but need them to be able to create and be compatible with the Microsoft versions.

Thanks

 

[Sea of vapours]

http://www.openoffice.org/

Free, very close to being fully compatible with the Microsoft equivalents and rather nicer to use (though that's subjective of course).

 

[Slioch]

^^^^^ as above.

 

[TVC]

Another Openoffice user here, it does everything I want and has a similar feel to Bill Gates' monster.

 

[growingvegetables]

Yup - as above ----- OpenOffice; or the very similar http://www.libreoffice.org/ (I think they had an argument over whose turn it was to make the coffee one day).

 

[shouldbeinbed]

http://www.kingsoftstore.com/

Available from http://filehippo.com/ too

There's a few different ones to look into on filehippo as well as free/share/demo ware across the gamut of computer apps and functionality.

My last windows netbook was stocked totally for free from filehippo and had everything I ever wanted or needed for it.

Kingsoft office is even more compatible to MS Office docs than open office, e.g. Headers & Footers that OO didn't process are covered bit for bit.

Its also available on Android and works well on tablets, I'd assume there may be an iVersion too but don't have the fruity toys to know for sure.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Kingsoft is the most compatible ime
Libreoffice is the one I use

 

[neil_merseyside]

Libre Office - as the open source branch of Open Office

 

[andyfraser]

I use Google Docs but I'm not really a power user. I also have Libre Office for those very rare cases when I need something more comprehensive. There's also Office 365 from Microsoft if you have to have Office. £7.99 per month for all the apps, including tablet and web apps, for up to 5 users and 1TB of OneDrive cloud storage.

 

[Shut Up Legs]

Kingsoft is the most compatible ime
Libreoffice is the one I use

After some reading of their web page, I noticed however that the Kingsoft Office free version doesn't support VBA macros. Probably not an issue for a lot of users, but I like to use a few macros here and there to make my documents a bit easier to use.

 

[ScotiaLass]

Openoffice is great

 

[GrumpyGregry]

After some reading of their web page, I noticed however that the Kingsoft Office free version doesn't support VBA macros. Probably not an issue for a lot of users, but I like to use a few macros here and there to make my documents a bit easier to use.

Your own VBA Macro's are great. Other people's maybe not so much

 

[srw]

I hated Open Office - it was horribly buggy and clunky.

If you're employed by a reasonably large organisation who uses MS Office they ought to be able to negotiate a very cheap deal - I've got two installations of the latest version of MS Office Pro (more up-to-date than the one the office systems were upgraded to last year) for about a tenner.

 

[captain nemo1701]

Another Openoffice user here, it does everything I want and has a similar feel to Bill Gates' monster.

Yep, I use it too. Nicer that Microsoft.

 

[Drago]

Another happy OpenOffice user here.