Alternate to MS Office !?

[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:

[Jwalant Natvarlal Soneji]

LibreOffice is best. Google Docs is nasty in between the worlds needs online and offline. MS Online is some way better than Google Docs. Though, both lack good offline support. OpenOffice is not good. AbiWorder seemed better than OpenOffice. Waste to spend on MS Office now.

Regards, Jwalant Natvarlal Soneji http://jwalantsoneji.com[^]

[KarstenK]

I do my private stuff since years with Open Office/Libre Office and it is most times fine. Some adavanced features are missing. But I like it - at most "for free". :cool:

Press F1 for help or google it. Greetings from Germany