Microsoft Office

Just_landed

Im not that well up on Office we have a computer with windows 7 on it and office 2007 installed but needs a product key buying which to me seems expensive. My child is at college and we have been looking on the software for students website. on there it says we can purchase Office 2010 Pro for £37.89 or Office Professional plus for £48.35 My question is would the cheaper 2010 Pro be enough compared to buying Office 2007 or Professional Plus versions. We do not need an all singing & dancing version just the most basic version. What would we be missing if we bought the the cheaper version ?

Thanks in advance for any replies.

:beer:

pogofish

If all you need is a basic version, why not download Open Office and use it for free? It has decent compatibility.

scheming_gypsy

There isn't really anything you'd normally use in Plus unless you specifically wanted it. Both Pro and Plus have Word, Excel, Outlook, Powerpoint, Access etc and Plus just has additional bits

John_Gray

I think pogofish means LibreOffice...!

pogofish

I've not used Libre Office but yes, I know folk who swear by it too, so I imagine it would be fine for basic purposes.

http://www.openoffice.org/

Robisere

Libre Office vs. Open Office: the story so far: -

Open Office was bought by Sun Systems, then Sun was bought by Oracle, a massive US corporation which tried to bring in a paid-for version of OO. The whole Open Source community rebelled and Oracle backed down. Unfortunately, FREE OO does not seem to have moved beyond version 3.1 (someone will probably correct me there). However, I was once a user of Microsoft Office Professional 97, with all the bells and whistles. I moved to OO, got to version 3.1 and have never looked back. Ms documents can be saved and worked with in OO. OO doc's can be saved in Ms Office. It is slightly slower but it is FREE!

Libre Office was a response by the Open Source community, to Oracle's attempt to make OO a paid-for programme. It was set up. programmed and is still supported by some Sun people and by those who programmed the original OOffice. I have not used it, but I understand that it is very similar to OOffice.

I would go with pogofish and download Open Office from his link. Don't try to download it from anywhere else: there are other sites where it can be downloaded, but you may wind up with lots of software "offers" from those sources. the support and help from Open Office is great; I cannot comment about Libre Office support.

spenderdave

Partly true. Oracle sold Open Office to Apache earlier this year. But they are still working out how to develop the project, with a result that there has been no update from v3.3.0 since January, and it is unlikely to happen until well into next year. On the other hand, Libre Office is actively being developed, currently at v3.4.4 with v3.5 due early 2012. Many of the bugs in the old Open Office have been removed. At the moment the choice is clear, use Libre Office, as that is an active project. In due course Open Office may well become the better product, but not at the moment. Both are pretty well fully compatible with Office files.

http://libreoffice.org/download/

WhiteChristmas

Just_landed wrote: »

My question is would the cheaper 2010 Pro be enough compared to buying Office 2007 or Professional Plus versions.

Don't be fooled by the price difference - Office 2010 is the updated (and completely debugged) version of Office 2007. The cheapness is because you're looking at the student price.

You'll always get Moneysavers telling you to use LibreOffice, but if you're used to the Office ribbon interface then you'll find the free option very old fashioned and clunky.

I used to be an Open Office advocate, but Microsoft really upped their game with Windows 7 and Office 2010; for anything more than typing a letter or REALLY basic spreadsheet work, there's really no contest. The LO/OO "Powerpoint" equivalent is near useless.

ada1988

I think you can use some product to instead for windows office,such as WPS.you may have google that.
it is good and cheaper to use.

jestyenot

Just_landed wrote: »

What would we be missing if we bought the the cheaper version ?

Thanks in advance for any replies.

:beer:

Outlook email is missing out of the original basic version but I am almost certain it is in the pro and above.

scheming_gypsy

jestyenot wrote: »

Outlook email is missing out of the original basic version but I am almost certain it is in the pro and above.

Outlook is in everything bar home and student, but the OP is asking about the difference between Pro and Pro Plus.
The difference isn't worth the money unless you want InfoSpace, Lync and Sharepoint - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office_2010