Best/cheapesty way to buy Microsoft Office?

nmjams

I bought mine via Groupon, a few months back.
I was a bit suspicious as it was only a few quid but it's working.

Keep_pedalling

Undervalued said:

Eyeful said:

Use Libre Office. Its free:
https://www.libreoffice.org/

Pay peanuts, get monkeys. See my earlier post!

I have been using LibraOffice for years and I have not had a problem with anything sent to me that has been created on MSO. I still have MSO 2007 installed on my PC which I have kept just in case, but one complex spreadsheet that I have to update won’t run on that but will run on LO. 

For the vast majority of users LO will do everything they need. 

Undervalued

Keep_pedalling said:

Undervalued said:

Eyeful said:

Use Libre Office. Its free:
https://www.libreoffice.org/

Pay peanuts, get monkeys. See my earlier post!

I have been using LibraOffice for years and I have not had a problem with anything sent to me that has been created on MSO. I still have MSO 2007 installed on my PC which I have kept just in case, but one complex spreadsheet that I have to update won’t run on that but will run on LO. 

For the vast majority of users LO will do everything they need. 

If you are just creating and printing out you own stuff then certainly.

However I have seen too many issues over many years with compatibility with Microsoft Office. Yes, the simpler the document the less likely this is to happen but it still can crop up when you least expect it.

ScratchyCat

Can recommend Libre Office over Apache Office if you go with a free version. I was using Libre for a few years once MS started charging, got a new computer and the person who put the computer together for me accidentally installed Apache. Even for my basic spreadsheet use i found teething issues. So quickly installed Libre and removed Apache.

Eyeful

Undervalued said:

Eyeful said:

Use Libre Office. Its free:
https://www.libreoffice.org/

Pay peanuts, get monkeys. See my earlier post!

I did read your earlier post.

1. Paying a lot of money for something, does not mean that the product is any good.
2. If the OP downloads & tries a "free" alternative and it works OK, they save themselves money. 
3. If the OP downloads & tries a "free" alternative and it does not work, they can then spend money.

I thought this was a Money Saving forum. 

Newcad

I got a new laptop a month ago (On 25% discount at Argos).

It came with 12 month free MS365 subscription (and 12 months of an AV) which is useless to me as I prefer a free alternative, see my post above.

The MS365 is non-expiring so can be used anytime, it's still in the sealed retail box (as is the AV which I won't be installing either).

It might seem odd but even with that unwanted software the laptop itself was a bargain for the specification.

The boxed MS365 subscription will probably end up in the charity shop. (I wouldn't foist that AV on anyone though).

TMSG

When I switched the whole family from Windows 7 to Linux (~2018/9) one of the bigger headaches was finding a replacement for M$O. I spent quite a while to evaluate the two main contenders, LibreOffice and Softmaker's FreeOffice (OpenOffice and the even older StarOffice are no-gos). After testing many (but by no means all) of our XLS(X)/DOC(X) files, FreeOffice was the clear winner in terms of file compatibility. There was a problem with complex spreadsheets and pivot tables but this resolved itself in one of the FO updates.
Since then, all our office files have been opened and edited with FreeOffice and I can say that the spreadsheets work perfectly OK while the text documents occasionally required small edits. Recommended though there's of course no guarantee FO will open every office file... YMMV.
(And re that peanuts vs monkeys comment above... even MS Office itself can't always fully open some of its own files if they were produced with an earlier version... well-known problem.)

Frozen_up_north

Newcad said:

The MS365 is non-expiring so can be used anytime, it's still in the sealed retail box (as is the AV which I won't be installing either).

<SNIP>

The boxed MS365 subscription will probably end up in the charity shop.

MS365 is a subscription service, which many of us would not want.
There are OEM licences (or perhaps pirate licenses) for MS Office widely sold for £20 (or less) on eBay and Amazon, beware if Microsoft become aware that the seller is making licences available that are not in accordance with the MS T&Cs, you may find your Office mysteriously ceases to work.

victor2

I use MS Office extensively and am not interested in licensing it. I have twice now helped people install MS Office 2021 Pro (lifetime licence) bought from Amazon for around £30. Both are still running fine and one is over a year old now. Groupon are currently offering it for £16.99.

I have tried Libre Office myself and a large spreadsheet I use daily with ODBC links and fairly complex graphs in it doesn't work. I think the ODBC is OK, but not the graphs. As long as I can run MS Office, I don't think I'll bother trying to convert the spreadsheet to work as I require in Libre Office. I also help friends out with MS Office problems, so it's handy to have the same software as them, even if a different version.

J_B

Frozen_up_north said:

MS365 is a subscription service, which many of us would not want.
There are OEM licences (or perhaps pirate licenses) for MS Office widely sold for £20 (or less) on eBay and Amazon, beware if Microsoft become aware that the seller is making licences available that are not in accordance with the MS T&Cs, you may find your Office mysteriously ceases to work.

I have a couple of these that I dubiously purchased off eBay one in 2019 and one in 2020 - both still working fine.

If MS want to pull the plug, it will be a tenner down the pan!