Free Office Software article discussion

crw49

I have been using Kingsoft Office on Android Tablets for a while - it works properly and saves back to MS format correctly. I recently found that they do a free 'classic' layout Windows version - looks and feels just like the MS Office version that I have. I've used OpenOffice in the past and spreadsheets didn't always keep the layout.

vixen1500

Does anyone run or know if Microsoft money will work with window 8?

Or does anyone know of a similar programme as it does not appear to be included in office?

Also am I right in thinking that you now have to buy a licence for microsoft office every year now?

orrery

vixen1500 wrote: »

Does anyone run or know if Microsoft money will work with window 8?

Or does anyone know of a similar programme as it does not appear to be included in office?

Also am I right in thinking that you now have to buy a licence for microsoft office every year now?

You're right, Microsoft Money isn't included in Office.

You shouldn't need a new licence for MS Office every year, but you will need to pay again if you upgrade it. However, I'm not sure why anyone would want to use MS Office (*), when there are really great equivalents that are completely free, like LibreOffice. LibreOffice will be upgraded for free as new versions come out.

I'd have thought that you should be able to do almost anything you want to manage your home finances in a spreadsheet (like the one in LibreOffice).

* Unless you are a really serious 'power' user.

vixen1500

not a really serious 'power' user.

But I have used money for the last 10years and it suits me fine. I know it works on windows 7 just trying to find out if anyone used it on windows 8 as having some problems with my nine year old computer which runs XP

buckwem

It is a great list of software. Here are a few more packages to add to your free list for students:

• TeamViewer - free screen sharing for private use. Great for working remotely when editing group projects. Much better than Skype screen sharing.
• KeePass - If you are following best practice then you need to store all your different passwords. KeePass can be read on lots of different platforms including an iPhone or Android phone.
• DropBox- 2GB of free space to store your essential files and make them available on your Wndows PC, iPhone or Android phone. Use it to share KeePass files (with a long password). If you edit within a Dropbox it stores every copy of a file for a month - so if you get a corrupted file whilst working on a project you can always recover an older version. It can also automatically backup all those photos from nights out.
• Greenshot - a better version of Snip (in Windows 7/8) to create screen shots and edit them. Makes creating screen shots for coursework much easier.
• PDFCreator - Create PDF files easily so you can view files in a portable format. You can then view important documents on your iPhone or Android phone. Note: Make sure you untick the option to install the Amazon browser bar and War Commander game if you don't want them.

Sorry I could not past the links but Google will find each of these packages. Hope you find this useful.

vixen1500

eeyore123 wrote: »

A power user would be using LibreOffice, Vim or LaTeX.

Using LibreOffice, even though not a power user, not heard of the others.


And just incase anyone else is using money it works fine with windows 8 so not a problem (just PC world trying to sell me an upgrade I didnot need after all)

orrery

vixen1500 wrote: »

Using LibreOffice, even though not a power user, not heard of the others.

Just in case people are getting confused - LibreOffice (and its alter ego Open Office) are just fine for personal use and light business use. My comment about 'power users' relates to my son who uses spreadsheets which are in excess of 150MB each. At this size, even Excel is slow (you need to have calculations turned off for it to manage them at all). LibreOffice never returns from trying to load them.

This isn't something you and I need worry about. I use LibreOffice in relation to financial modelling and graphing with over 20 tabs open and (other than the graphs take a few seconds to update) it works fine.

Montmorencymon

The Open Office / Libre Office situation

I'm grateful to MSE members for having alerted me to this, and I feel a bit shamefaced, since I should have noticed this before, since I used to work in IT (been away quite long time now, so I only usually take notice of changes of obviously direct relevance to me).

I was aware of the Oracle takeover of Sun quite a while back, and thought no good would come of it (I was a big fan of Sun), but I hadn't quite expected that it would impact on OO, which I thought was somehow happily insulated from corporate influence.
[EDIT: after some googling... ok, yes, I kind of knew about the later Apache involvement, but hadn't taken much notice of the corporate side of things.
I guess they are kind of running in parallel lines now...]


I've been a happy and lightish home user of Open Office on and off for many years, and for the most part it has done just what I need.
I thought I should have a look at the Libre Office website, and I see it's set up under German law in what looks like a pretty watertight way, so let's hope it remains independent. However, Open Office used to seem that way, and look what seems to have happened.


Now some have said that OO and LO are effectively the same, but others have said that LO is where the action is and where the development is taking place, and that OO is just there now as a "spoiler".

Well, I will be downloading and evaluating LO in the fullness of time, although I'm not a heavy user of office-type applications, so it will take me some time to try out a variety of functions.


In the meantime, if anyone has any comments on one versus the other for particular purposes, I would be interested in reading them. Thank you.

EDIT: just ran the following google search and got more hits than I know what to do with

"what is the difference between openoffice and libreoffice"

orrery

Montmorencymon wrote: »

The Open Office / Libre Office situation
...<snip>....
In the meantime, if anyone has any comments on one versus the other for particular purposes, I would be interested in reading them. Thank you.

Switched ages ago to LibreOffice - seamless, no issues.

KxMx

For basic word/spreadsheet use I had Open Office but found it a bit clunky and heavy.
When I got my new netbook I went for Libre Office and it's loads better
Can't give any techie reasons but I like it more than OO.