MS Excel and Word (or Office whatever)

Manxman_in_exile

neilmcl said:

Just install the version you currently have.

Thanks Neil.

Yes - I think that this is my preferred option, but I'm afraid your blase use of the word "just" suggests you may have overlooked the most important part of my opening post!

Manxman_in_exile said:

...

(PS - Apologies if any of these are really stupid questions, but I'm a confirmed techno-dunce and techno-phobe!)

  

I wasn't kidding there - you sort of need to assume I'm a person with no technical knowledge whatsoever - I'm exctly the sort of person for whom very simple step by step procedure guides are intended!

So - I have a three user licence for Office Home and Student 2010 (one licence currently unused and one on a machine that is dead),  a Quick Start Guide, a product key and a disc (but two laptops with no disc drives).

How do I install what I already have on the two new laptops?  (I assume I need to go somewhere on the MS website and try installing it from there using the product key, but I literally don't know!  What I'm trying to avoid is diving straight in without knowing what I'm doing, getting it wrong, and then being asked by someone with a puzzled look on their face "But why didn't you do XYZ before you started?", XYZ being obvious to them, but not to me!)

Also, two points of concern for me are (1) if - as I assume - MS no longer support Office 2010, can I still install it on a new machine, and (2) am I going to run out of licences because I can't transfer the one from the Tosh that is dead?  (I think another poster has suggested that if I try to install the software I'll get the option to transfer the licence from the dead Tosh, but I'm not sure... )


I'm not expecting a 100 page procedure guide - just enough to get me started from the right place.  I'm afraid "Just install the version you currently have" doesn't get me past the start line.  Sorry!  

Manxman_in_exile

Thanks everybody who's agreed with neilmcl that I ought to be able to install or reuse the existing licences on the new machines - with the caveat that it may or may not be straightforward transferring the licence from the dead tosh.

That is my preferred option and is the one I'll investigate first.  I appreciate Office 2010 is no longer supported by MS but I think I'm happy to accept that.  (Unless someone wants to tell me it's a really stupid thing to do... )

I will also have a look at Libre Office

Thanks all.

Manxman_in_exile

J_B said:

roytom2 said:

If you have the MS Office product key you can certainly reuse the licence on another machine provided you’re not over the number of licenced copies in use. We’ve got a product key for office 2010 and I’ve had to transfer it twice as two old laptops conked out. They may ask you how many licences you have currently in use on activation, but this isn’t a problem.

IIRC (??), you should 'log out/unlink' MSO on the old laptop first, but, as it's died, you can't. Can you log into your MS account and see if you can unlink it from there?

Or, did I imagine all of the above? 🤔

Thanks J_B

Yeah - I hope I can work round the dead Tosh issue.

I had to laugh at your comment "Can you log into your MS account... etc?"   My wife asked me a similar question 30 minutes before I started this thread.  She, like you, assumed I had a MS account and that I knew what one was!  A resounding NO on both counts!

Manxman_in_exile

Prism said:

The web versions are free. I would try those first before deciding if you need to buy an Office subscription.

Thanks.

As already explained - can you point an idiot (me) in the right direction?

victor2

Can you copy the contents of the Office 2010 DVD onto a USB stick, then use that to install Office on the laptops with no drives?

Use a blank USB stick, copy the entire contents of the Office DVD onto it, then put it in the laptop(s) and run setup.exe from it.

J_B

https://www.tenforums.com/microsoft-office-365/166843-where-can-i-find-microsoft-2010-office-home-student-download.htmlmay be of some help.

Basically, you need to use the disk you have .... but you have no disk drive - hmm

Buy an external DVD reader?

or

Find a reliable site to download it from?

I'm sure that @OnlyTheBestWillDo would advise better than me

flaneurs_lobster

Manxman_in_exile said:

Prism said:

The web versions are free. I would try those first before deciding if you need to buy an Office subscription.

Thanks.

As already explained - can you point an idiot (me) in the right direction?

Try this link https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/free-office-online-for-the-web you will need to create a Microsoft account to use it.

Manxman_in_exile

[EDIT:  In respose to Victor2]

I don't know - seriously.  Can I do that?  Do you know* it will work?

As explained above, I don't particularly want to dive into this blind and then get comments along the lines of "Well, that was a daft thing to do... " or "What on earth made you think that would work... " or "Before doing that didn't you think to do this... " etc etc.

I want to avoid that situation if at all possible.

*Sorry - not wishing to seem ungrateful but I'm sort of looking for responses that people are pretty sure will work.  Or be told that it can't be done and I need to buy new software... 

Manxman_in_exile

gavinbaxter said:

Manxman_in_exile said:

Prism said:

The web versions are free. I would try those first before deciding if you need to buy an Office subscription.

Thanks.

As already explained - can you point an idiot (me) in the right direction?

Try this link https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/free-office-online-for-the-web you will need to create a Microsoft account to use it.

That might be easiest and most straightforward.  Thanks again

(Oh God!  I'm going to have to get myself a MS account... )

victor2

Have you got:

1. Access to working computer with a DVD drive and USB?

2. The original MS Office 2010 DVD, product key and a USB stick you can use?

If so, you can do what I suggested. I am running Office 2010 which I reinstalled on a new (to me) PC last year from the DVD and it is still working fine. I use Excel daily and Word frequently.