Free Microsoft Office alternative

Frozen_up_north

Further to the earlier comment about dismissing Libre Office as being slow to start, just checked it on a friend’s basic Acer Win 10 64 bit laptop, from clicking the icon to it displaying a list of previously opened documents... 5 seconds. Just how quick does the OP want? And no, it was a cold boot of the laptop, not from hibernation.

SouthUKMan

You say your parents had either 2003 or 2007....but there is quite a difference between the two.

2003 was the last Office product to be based around tool bars. LibreOffice still is, and to my mind looks very similar in layout to 2003.

2007 was the first Office product to use the ribbon interface, and has a very different feel to LibreOffice.

Whatever anyone else says though, LibreOffice is a very capable free office suite that does offer a high level of compatibility with MS Office. For simple letters and spreadsheets it is perfect. Yes, on older hardware it might be a little slow to load - but are your parents really going mind if it takes 5 or 6 seconds instead of being instant?

Tom99

[QUOTE=SouthUKMan;73239649
Whatever anyone else says though, LibreOffice is a very capable free office suite that does offer a high level of compatibility with MS Office. For simple letters and spreadsheets it is perfect. Yes, on older hardware it might be a little slow to load - but are your parents really going mind if it takes 5 or 6 seconds instead of being instant?[/QUOTE]

I use Open Office but with either, if you save two template files on your desktop saved as EXCEL.xls and WORD.doc and then launch that file everytime you want a new document it should be pretty quick.

A.Penny.Saved

Other options to consider which have a considerably smaller file size than LibreOffice are:
OnlyOffice
https://www.onlyoffice.com/download-desktop.aspx
Softmaker FreeOffice, the free version lacks a thesaurus which rules it out for me. You do need to register to get a key so use a suitable throw away email if you decide to try it.
http://www.freeoffice.com/en/download
The following are very much smaller than all the others but the full pack provides a lot of features which are not really required by many people. There are versions for different minimum resolutions so check the chart for features and resolutions. The Premium HD+ is only 17MB
http://www.ssuitesoft.com/officesuites.htm
Here is a link to alternatives to Microsoft Office
https://alternativeto.net/software/microsoft-office-suite/

A.Penny.Saved

Another one, which I have seen recommended by a number of people is WPS Office, it does seem to have ads in the program but it might be possible to block those with a firewall. A benefit of this software is it's compatibility with MS office which is meant to be high and better than most of the other free office suites.
https://www.wps.com/office-free
I have not tried this yet.

I don't suppose that your parents demands would be high so something small and light on resources might be best.

Sicard

Tom99 wrote: »

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Try OpenOffice it works exactly like Word and Excel, you can save the files as .doc and .xls and you can even save a formatted file on your desktop called WORD and EXCEL to open up each time you want a new file.[/FONT]

Not quite exactly. When an unusual word or name crops up in OpenOffice and has the red line when it is given the 'ignore all' command it doesn't always do it. Also Word would highlight an extra character space between words with a coloured line whereas OpenOffice doesn't. This was useful when it's difficult to see the extra space.

SouthUKMan

At the end of the day, if you want MS Office then you have to pay for it. If you want a free near fully compatible programme then there are a number of options available - LibreOffice being the most popular and most compatible. To everyone who picks out all the small differences between the products - it really doesn't matter! The choice is either pay for MS Office or don't pay.

Tom99

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The one big thing that is not compatible in OpenOffice and I presume LibreOffice as well, are macros which in MS Office are written in VBA and in OO/LO in some other language.

[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]None of the macros in my old excel files will work in OpenOffice. I don't know it there is a simple way of converting them.[/FONT]

dipsomaniac

.............or pay £5 for the full office 2016

jamiesb

Tbh, if you need to stay offline (as OP mentions) you could give the free version of WPS Office a try, just go to the downloads section on their website. Sorry for some reason, it's not letting me post a link.
I use it and so far its a solid replacement to Word. The only annoying thing is there is an advert when I start it up, but I guess that's the price to pay for free