Microsoft office is there free download or something similar.

Emuchops

Hello,
I need to send some reports using MS Word or 'Word compatible software'. I don't have Word, but was looking at the suggestions on this thread. Does anyone know if openoffice or libreoffice or abiword are 'Word compatible'? If not, can anyone suggest something cheap that is?
Many thanks.

DCFC79

Emuchops wrote: »

Hello,
I need to send some reports using MS Word or 'Word compatible software'. I don't have Word, but was looking at the suggestions on this thread. Does anyone know if openoffice or libreoffice or abiword are 'Word compatible'? If not, can anyone suggest something cheap that is?
Many thanks.

I believe they are, its the file format(file extension) you choose when saving it in OO/LO/AbiWord, i dont have any installed at the minute but i think you need to look for the file extension .doc

jayme1

Emuchops wrote: »

Hello,
I need to send some reports using MS Word or 'Word compatible software'. I don't have Word, but was looking at the suggestions on this thread. Does anyone know if openoffice or libreoffice or abiword are 'Word compatible'? If not, can anyone suggest something cheap that is?
Many thanks.

yes they are (libreoffice is the best choice) just save your file in .doc .docx or .rtf and it will be word compatible (.rtf (rich text format) is the most compatible), you can do this in most text editors including 'WordPad' that is built into win7, if it is a simple report then chances are that WordPad is enough.

Emuchops

Many thanks DCFC79 & Jayme for your help.

The instructions say 'please don't use Notepad or send a .odt document'.
I have Wordpad. You say to save my file in ' .doc .docx or .rtf' so I've just typed something in Wordpad and the option to save in rtf came up so I did that. Seems easy enough. Does that mean that that should be MS Word compatible then?
It's simply text that I need to send, no pictures or graphs or anything.

spud17

Emuchops, I've just made a quick Wordpad document and saved it as .rtf to my desktop. Double clicked to open it, and it opened in Word 2010 by default. HTH.

DCFC79

spud17 wrote: »

Emuchops, I've just made a quick Wordpad document and saved it as .rtf to my desktop. Double clicked to open it, and it opened in Word 2010 by default. HTH.

Glad it worked and you came back to say it worked,

:beer:

nickj_2

macman wrote: »

Bill Gates didn't get rich by giving away free copies of MS Office...
LibreOffice is the way to go.

actually , he did http://www.windowslive.co.uk/skydrive#office
ok so it might not be the all signing all dancing version , but there's more than enough for the average user

Emuchops

spud17 wrote: »

Emuchops, I've just made a quick Wordpad document and saved it as .rtf to my desktop. Double clicked to open it, and it opened in Word 2010 by default. HTH.

hello Spud17-I've tried that but mine saves as Wordpad, whether I use Libre Office Writer or just plain Wordpad. When I save it in .rtf it opens up in Wordpad. So despite being in Wordpad can someone just confirm for me that this will still be 'MS Word compatible'?
The instructions I have say 'do not use Notepad'. I'm worried that Wordpad's like Notepad-sorry to harp on about it but I want it to be right.
Thanks

macman

You need to change the default file associations-so for .rtf files set it to open with LibreOffice for example.

jayme1

Emuchops wrote: »

hello Spud17-I've tried that but mine saves as Wordpad, whether I use Libre Office Writer or just plain Wordpad. When I save it in .rtf it opens up in Wordpad. So despite being in Wordpad can someone just confirm for me that this will still be 'MS Word compatible'?
The instructions I have say 'do not use Notepad'. I'm worried that Wordpad's like Notepad-sorry to harp on about it but I want it to be right.
Thanks

yes it definitely is word compatible, .rtf is the most compatible 'document' format and is the best choice to use if you are not sure what the other person can use, it works with almost everything, including word.