Word or alternatives?

Prudent

I have bought a new laptop. It has come without microsoft word. Someone has told me to use an alternative such as 'open office' (?) which can be downloaded free. Can anyone tell me the advantages and disadvantages of doing this? I use word for home use only such as writing letters, dd doing essays etc.

tru

The advantage - it's free

No disadvantages as far as I can see, I've used it for the same things as you with no problem.

toastydave

https://www.openoffice.org, its great and compatible with word documents, includes there version of word, excel, PowerPoint, access and a drawing program

Prudent

Thank you both. I shall try downloading now. Just downloaded avg, next roboform!

Browntoa

if you want to use it with Word on another PC just remember to use "save as" and choose word format

newfoundglory

OpenOffice is very good yes. Other free open-source alternatives include AbiWord.... http://www.abiword.org/


For desktop publishing, consider the free and open-source Scribus.... http://www.scribus.net/

Prudent

Goodness, started download and its just come up with a download time of 7 hours??? I am on dial up, but this still seems very long. Am I doing something wrong?

newfoundglory

open office is a good 80mb+ so, yeah, its gonna take a while on dialup.

go with AbiWord.... its only 5mb... and shouldnt take you longer than about 20 or 25 mins...

tru

I'm on BB and sometimes get a long download time, then suddenly it'll jump from 3 hours to 1 minute 55 seconds or something :rolleyes:

Prudent

Goodness, started download and its just come up with a download time of 9 hours??? I am on dial up, but this still seems very long. Am I doing something wrong?

DonnyDave

If you are after Word on its own, you will probably find that Microsoft Works Suite is cheaper than Word on its own. The only thing is that the latest version of Work Suite comes with Word 2002 and not Word 2003, but for most users I think that this will be adequate.