end of microsoft office home and student 2007 trial, HELP??

shopaholic2006

Hi all,
a few months ago i purchased a laptop for my son, for internet use and homework etc, it came with a microsoft trial. However the trial has now expired and to buy the full package its going to cost £80. I didn't realise it was only a trial when i purchased it, yes i should have read into the purchase more carefully as a result i haven't prepared for this large outlay of money.
My question is are there any other free trials around i could use, or any cheaper alternatives. At the moment i can open a new document page but i can't write on it, iykwim. I'm not great with all this computer techie stuff so thought you would be the best people to ask
Thanks in advance for your replies

aerostar

Open Office ... it is FREE and very good

http://www.openoffice.org/

seedyh

http://www.openoffice.org/

Completely free forever:)

There's also a trial of Office 2010 http://www.microsoft.com/office/2010/en/default.aspx.

I'd go for Openoffice if you don't want to pay though.

althas

The best free alternative is a package called Open Office http://www.openoffice.org/

It is maintained as part of the free computer software culture (along with other things like Linux operating systems, Firefox web browser etc), and generally thought of as one of the best alternatives to Microsoft. You dont need linux etc to use it, it works on Windows just fine

One alternative you COULD do if you want Microsoft Office, is the same thing I have just done. The home and student verson (but please check this before you buy incase they have changed it) comes with 3 licences. This means you can istall it legally on 3 different machines. So see if any of your son's friends want it and have a word with their parents, or anyone you work with. This is how I did it and cost us £25 each

shopaholic2006

wow thanks for your quick replies, free for ever sounds great!! :j
ok as i said i'm not great with this kind of stuff, will i have to remove the microsoft trial software first before i install the new one??

althas

If you are installing Open office, then no, it is a totally different program and has nothing to do with microsoft program. So you can just load it up and away you go

busenbust

Office 2010 Beta is still available; fully-functioning but with an expiry date (October 2010 I think).

Heliflyguy

Open office is good but not great when you receive document files from others and it fails to open them correctly also saving documents to open in other word programs I find a bit hit and miss, probably have to mess about with the settings, lazy on my part I guess.

If your son is using it for homework I would use the same document format right from the start as the school.

If your pc came with MS works try using that or there are good deals at software4students, search on the forum for deatils.

Not_a_Newbie

We tried openoffice and found it to be very annoying.

Amazon are selling a 3 user licence home and student for £60.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_7?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=microsoft+office+2007&sprefix=microso&sprefix=microso

shopaholic2006

thanks for all of your replies :beer:
well i have downloaded the open office, works perfectly but it quite different to the trial. I have used ms office to do some work and i have just had a play around with the open office and found it a little confusing (it doesn't take me much lol) then i realised ms works was preinstalled on the laptop but from what i can see is exactly the same as open office.

Hmm now the dilema, the trial software was much easier to use and understand and don't want to confuse my son. I'll leave it as it is for the moment see how he gets on but will look into sharing of the purchased 3 user licence, thanks for that suggestion, looks like a good option.

penrhyn

MS Office Standard is £39 for two licences at software4students.

Never tried them, so don't know what they are like.

http://www.software4students.co.uk/Microsoft_Office_Standard_2007-details.aspx