Alternate to MS Office !?

MT_

Thanks. That seems to be better choice compared to Google Docs. I was looking for something similar, probably I didn't try hard. Thanks.

Thanks, Milind

Ingo

Anna-Jayne Metcalfe wrote:

Ditto, though I've found Publisher and Outlook hard to leave behind.

:wtf: If a customer would ask me to do something in Publisher, i would role laughing on the floor. Of course I could do for a minimum 2000 Euros per Hour, but it's lost lifetime. I could do the same with Indesign (or another Desktop-Publishing software) in a quarter of time, I could do it better, it would look nicer and I would have fun doing it. MS Publisher is the silliest bunch of crap I ever started on my computer. X|

SharePoint Consultant and Developer at acocon Author of Primary ROleplaying SysTem I'm the ninth in a row of seven!

Anna Jayne Metcalfe

That's a valid opinion. but I don't think it's helpful in this context.

Anna :rose: Tech Blog | Visual Lint "Why would anyone prefer to wield a weapon that takes both hands at once, when they could use a lighter (and obviously superior) weapon that allows you to wield multiple ones at a time, and thus supports multi-paradigm carnage?"

Ingo

Anna-Jayne Metcalfe wrote:

That's a valid opinion. but I don't think it's helpful in this context.

You are right. But when I read something about "MS Publisher" I automatically change to be a rant troll. Sorry. :-\

SharePoint Consultant and Developer at acocon Author of Primary ROleplaying SysTem I'm the ninth in a row of seven!

Andres Cassagnes

My vote to LibreOffice. It's free, runs fantastic and handles every MS Office document type. It's pretty maintained. Try it a little to familiarize yourself with it. As example, its writter is better than MS Word handling objects like tables and images

Anna Jayne Metcalfe

No worries. Rants are fine from time to time, but I'm very wary of trolls at the moment so don't be too surprised if I reach for the halberd.

Anna :rose: Tech Blog | Visual Lint "Why would anyone prefer to wield a weapon that takes both hands at once, when they could use a lighter (and obviously superior) weapon that allows you to wield multiple ones at a time, and thus supports multi-paradigm carnage?"

User 10244914

Go with Kingsoft office, pretty small download. Simple to use. Works well with MS office documents

_WinBase_

While not perfect, MS office is the best and most common and you will find most your customers use it. I don't advocate piracy but ive *heard* of folks getting friendly students or kids to buy a copy that enables a multi pc licence. Myself, I bought it and claimed the full amount back in my accounts as a business expense rather than paying it in tax. GL

Paul Kemner

I'd suggest LibreOffice too. I've used Impress for presentations, and the writer for everything from letters to writing a novella. I don't have to hear complaints from my wife about the presence of "the ribbon" on her computers- a big plus. :-D

Andres Cassagnes

My wife, who is a lawyer, turns to LibreOffice too because of the ease of use and the practical functionality

zhaozhaozz

Kingsoft office is very good! You can have a try. Made in china is the best.

Matt McGuire

agreed; OpenOffice rocks. I have both on my work machine (MS office 2010 and OpenOffice)and only resort to Word when i absolutely have to. OpenOffice has a few quarks, but I still prefer the layout. (hope someone at MS is listening ;P )

kdmote

If the only reason you are wanting to avoid office is the cost, and if your freelance work could be considered a "startup" business, you definitely will want to take a look at the Microsoft Bizspark program -- an amazing (free) MS-sponsored organization that is dedicated to helping startups by providing free tools (both dev and Office tools). It really is quite incredible.

patbob

If you need to exchange documents with other people using MS Office, you really have no choice but to use MS Office yourself, and you'll have to be using a version fairly close to theirs at that. If you have a full time job someplace, they might be part of the home use program, and you might be able to get a license for MS Office through that for a very reasonable cost. If you don't need to interoperate with MS office, I've used the OpenOffice suite for a number of years and it works very well.

We can program with only 1's, but if all you've got are zeros, you've got nothing.

User 10083203

Quarks as opposed to neutrinos :) I prefer LibreOffice, because I like the layout and compatibility a little more.

BobbyStrain

If you shop online you can find a single installation license which cannot transfer. You can get Office Enterprise for less than $100.

RASPeter

LibreOffice. Last I checked, OpenOffice was dead, development-wise. I've used MSOffice 365, but wasn't impressed enough with it to continue using it once the project I was on that required it was done (It was an automated document generation thing). My daughter uses Google Docs for all her school work, and for the rare occasions when Google Docs isn't enough for me, LibreOffice is more than good enough, and also has a better UI, IMHO.

RedDk

Noone here in CP Lounge is going to believe this but ... Adobe Acrobat Pro? As a substitute for MS Word, that is. Problems like where to make personal data, charts, graphic extravaganzas in 3D (embedded and manipulatable, no less), front-end 2D illustration and image available to ... clients. Solved. Big editor capabilities, many save formats, integration with other members of Adobe Suite. PDF is 'yer one-stop-shop. Modestly priced too, in my estimation (go for a stand-alone, my friend).

carlospc1970

You may want to check Microsoft's BizSpark initiative. It gives 3 years of free licences of MS software, including Office, SQL Server and Visual Studio. It's really great. I use it myself.

Bitbeisser

OpenOffice or LibreOffice will be just fine. I use Writer, Calc and Impress (PowerPoint equivalent) all the time for the last 3 years now, with the added advantage that I can use the same programs, in the same way, on Windows, OS X and Linux...:thumbsup: