Free Microsoft Office alternative

StockportGerbil · 4 October 2017 at 1:15PM

Folks :-
I am setting up a laptop for the parents to replace their elderly Windows Vista based PC which is getting increasingly flakey.

On that PC they had either Office 2003 or 2007. They write the odd letter possibly look at the odd spreadsheet / presentation, but otherwise the PC is used for email, web browsing and Dad keeping Amazon in business.

I can't see any justification in paying for a full Office licence when usage is so light, but something that is compatible is going to be required with a minimal number of differences from Office. (At 83 they are resistant to change and the Windows Vista to Windows 10 upgrade is going to keep them amused...)

I've tried Softmaker Freeoffice (which made a pigs ear of accessing one Word Document I tried to edit and didn't have a thesaurus) and LibreOffice (slow on starting up.)

Are there any alternate recommendations? (Online is out as the internet access can be a bit flakey and it's a low end laptop - i3 processor / 4GB RAM so not huge amounts of power.)

Thanks

Kevin

AndyPix · 4 October 2017 at 1:29PM

I have some office 2007 pro left still.
Free to a good home ..

Frozen_up_north · 4 October 2017 at 3:28PM

https://www.libreoffice.org/

Been using it for years, no need to use Microsoft Office...

giraffe69 · 4 October 2017 at 3:38PM

https://www.libreoffice.org/

Been using it for years, no need to use Microsoft Office...

Perhaps you didn't see OPs comment that this had already been tried and rejected. Andypix's kind offer seems to tick all the boxes including a package they are familiar with.

Tom99 · 4 October 2017 at 3:41PM

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Try OpenOffice it works exactly like Word and Excel, you can save the files as .doc and .xls and you can even save a formatted file on your desktop called WORD and EXCEL to open up each time you want a new file.[/FONT]

dipsomaniac · 4 October 2017 at 8:20PM

i recently bought office 2016 for £5.67 ish on ebay. very easy to install and activate and working well

StockportGerbil · 5 October 2017 at 12:33AM

dipsomaniac wrote: »

i recently bought office 2016 for £5.67 ish on ebay. very easy to install and activate and working well

I thought that's only for a years licence? What happens after the year? Thanks

unforeseen · 5 October 2017 at 6:57AM

Why not use their existing Office on the new machine?

dipsomaniac · 5 October 2017 at 8:03AM

StockportGerbil wrote: »

I thought that's only for a years licence? What happens after the year? Thanks

wasn't aware of that. just looked at listing and can't see any ref to a years licence

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Microsoft-Office-2016-Pro-Professional-Plus-Original-Vollversion-32-64-Bit/322705835866?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649

down to 4.49 now. should have stuck with office 2010 for another month

Le_Kirk · 5 October 2017 at 9:31AM

It's £4.49 because it's out of stock!

Undervalued · 5 October 2017 at 12:14PM

Frozen_up_north wrote: »

https://www.libreoffice.org/

Been using it for years, no need to use Microsoft Office...

This crops up regularly!

Yes, Libra office etc are fine if you only create your own documents or have only the most basic requirements.

However if you need to be able to interact with other people using the genuine Microsoft Office, particularly with more complex documents / templates etc it is hopeless.

Free Microsoft Office alternative

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free