I need Excel! Is Openoffice any good?

steb_2

Hi,

I need to have a spreadsheet program and ideally would like Excel but it is expensive. I have a few questions! :rolleyes:

1) As I am a teacher can I buy Excel cheaper? (a friend thinks I can get a cheaper package but can't remember how she knows that! )

2) If I can't get Excel cheaper is it worth downloading 'Openoffice' or have people had problems with their products? :eek:

I am hoping someone will be nice enough to reply and help me! :A

Thank you. :j

jonathang

Hi

As I recall Microsoft used to offer discounts to Students - not sure about teachers though ?

I've heard some good things about Openoffice - as its free I guess you have nothing to lose by downloading it

According to the blurb, it can read MS Office documents so you should be able to import documents from Excel - although as I've not personally used it I can't comment on how reliable this is

Cheers

Jon

dbrooke

1, As a teacher (or anyone with kids I believe), you can get a discounted version of MS Office, with an educational/academic license, i.e. not for commercial use.

2, OpenOffice is great, it actually has the distinction of being more MS Office compatible than MS Office (backward compatibility that is). I generally have very little problem opening Word documents or Excel Spreadsheets. Only very complex Macros throw it sometimes. For instance, I downloaded a spreadsheet to reclaim my bank charges and calculate interest - it worked first time in OO.o

Give OO.o a try - I wouldn't have MS Office for free now.

superscaper

Openoffice's Calc program can open, edit, create and save excel files. As for teacher discount for MS Office, I don't think there is a student/teacher edition any more (2007). There's a Home & Student edition, but anyone can buy that.

Edit: Looks like there's a Pro Academic version which I'm sure you'd be eligible for, £150 for the same suite that'd cost you £370

Millionaire

As far as Im aware The Student teacher has been replaced by the Home office which has Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Onenote. and also has 3 licences so you can use them on 3 different machines.

So basically you could share the cost with family memebers if you want. Thats what I did and worked out just over £25.

Can be picked up for around £78 using google checkout.

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/120771

superscaper

Millionaire wrote: »

As far as Im aware The Student teacher has been replaced by the Home office which has Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Onenote. and also has 3 licences so you can use them on 3 different machines.

So basically you could share the cost with family memebers if you want. Thats what I did and worked out just over £25.

Can be picked up for around £78 using google checkout.

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/120771

The thing that gets me about their new home edition is the lack of Outlook. Which would be quite an important component for me personally.

Millionaire

superscaper wrote: »

The thing that gets me about their new home edition is the lack of Outlook. Which would be quite an important component for me personally.

Totally agree, Couldnt understand it myself and I could not justify paying alot more just to use outlook, better using alternatives.

I feel Microsoft have too many versions of both Office 2007 and Vista and you end up baffled which one to get.

hechizero

OpenOffice is brilliant, the interface is very similar to Microsoft products. All file types are fully compatible with office. I recommend it highly. StarOffice is also excellent.

sniperpenguin

The "Home" version of MS Office isnt designed for heavy use, combine that with the improvements to Outlook Express (i.e. Windows Mail - now has a calendar etc) - I dont see it as much of a loss.

sicker

There is no reason NOT to download Open Office. If you don't like it you have lost nothing and you might just be very pleased with this free application.

John

pennymakespounds

http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.200-4544.aspx

never see this mentioned much .. tesco office for £20 ... word & exel equiv.. and compatable with microsoft .

any good ??

ps .. appears to be one of six items they have.
http://direct.tesco.com/q/buylist/id.694.aspx