Need to be able to open and amend excel document

gk172

Hi there:hello: Ive just upgraded my pc to a nice shiny dell which comes with microsoft works and vista home basic which is what i needed but hubby needs to be able to access and amend excel and word documents, what is going to be the cheapest option to do this? Ive heard of open office but dont know if this will open the docs or will just run similar ones and then there is Microsoft office 2007 home and student 3 licence package for £75 but will that open the older files? as all i know was it was office xp that the old pc was running and was fine with what hubby needed it for.

What do you think will be the best option here without breaking the bank?

Thanks in advance;)

skylight

Open Office is free. (Google it). When you install, click the boxes when it prompts you (its obvious) for excel/word/powerpoint.

What this does is saves each doc in a format that Excel/Word etc can open and allows you to open those docs in Open Office.

Open Office looks and feels very similar to the Windows version. I lost my disc for Word etc, so have it on the main PC but Open Office on my laptop for all my studies - so far AOK. And its free.

gk172

Thanks for the quick reply, daft question from me can open office open excel documents or is that it creates files that offices users can open if that makes sence?

philnicandamy

Open office can open & read excel documents as well as save in excel format

isofa

Office 2007 can open, read and save in the older formats too, so if you did want the full MS Office suite, instead of OpenOffice, then the Home and Student edition is the best value.

Also you could find some legal genuine copies of Office 2003 (the version before 2007) on eBay if you are careful!

Else OpenOffice all the way!

superscaper

The only compatibility issue is that Openoffice (Sun version) can't work with Office 2007 files.