open source alternative to MS Office

[tyoungs]

Just got new laptop and previously wife's work IT folks loaded MS Office to our home computer. They can't do that this time (new owners) and so I am looking for suggestions on alternative to paying full boat for MS Office. We have files for Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Publisher. What do you suggest for alternative.
Thanks in advance,

[AsheGuy]

tyoungs wrote:
Just got new laptop and previously wife's work IT folks loaded MS Office to our home computer. They can't do that this time (new owners) and so I am looking for suggestions on alternative to paying full boat for MS Office. We have files for Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Publisher. What do you suggest for alternative.
Thanks in advance,

It seems you are talking about personal use instead of doing work related work. Google apps (Docs, Sheets, Slides, etc.) are free, can open MS documents, and have a similar (or easily used) interface. I've been using them for years, not paying for MS apps.

[Gdetrailer]

valhalla360 wrote:
See if she can double check the company license, since she is in IT. I can get the full professional version for $9 thru work...MS throws it in when the company buys MS Office.

Not exactly.

MS DOES have a "Home Use Program" or HUP which IF your place of business is using ENTERPRISE VERSIONS AND PAYING FOR ENTERPRISE LEVELS OF SUPPORT of MS products, so you MIGHT be eligible for this program and your company may not even know that this program exists.

Cost is currently $15 for digital download of Office Professional Plus 2019 or Office Home and Business 2019 and it IS NOT A SUBSCRIPTION (IE you never pay a monthly fee).

You do have the option of also USB flash drive for an additional charge, I would highly recommend paying for the USB flash drive. Gives you a backup method to reinstall if needed..

It DOES however have a few caveats, it IS supposed to be legal to use as long as your company is paying for ENTERPRISE LEVEL SUPPORT AND YOU ARE STILL WORKING AT THE COMPANY.

Granted, I suspect it will most likely still work even if you left the company but that is something you would have to consider once you left the company..

You can go to the MS HUP PROGRAM WEBSITE HERE, enter your COMPANY EMAIL ADDRESS and it will tell you if you are eligible for the HUP Program.

I got Office 2016 that way from my company and it works fine.

I have also used Open OFFICE, it generally works well, but it is a bit dated as far as the GUI so if you are used to Office 2011 or newer you will find Open office looks a lot more like Office 2000 or older and might take some time to figure things out if you never worked with older MS Office.

[Tom_M1]

Here's a link to an article that compares OpenOffice to LibreOffice:

https://www.lifewire.com/libreoffice-vs-openoffice-who-wins-2512178

[Campfire_Time]

Libre Office. Unless you have complex spreadsheets with pivot tables or lots of formulas, for most home users it's easily compatible with MS Office.

valhalla360 wrote:
See if she can double check the company license, since she is in IT. I can get the full professional version for $9 thru work...MS throws it in when the company buys MS Office.

That depends. They must be a volume license customer and they also must be paying for SA (Software Assurance). Even then many IT depts opt not to make it available to the company staff because they end up becoming support for the staff's home machines.

[valhalla360]

See if she can double check the company license, since she is in IT. I can get the full professional version for $9 thru work...MS throws it in when the company buys MS Office.

[joebedford]

Open Office

[pianotuna]

Open Office is what I've used for years.

[theoldwizard1]

LibreOffice

[groundhogy]

... or you could do a duckduckgo for it also.

[Ozlander]

I bought Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2016 for $39.
Had to download it and got the key by email.

Do a Google for it.

[wildtoad]

I’ve used Open Office and Libre Office in the past and both work well. I don’t remember (but they may) either having a Publisher replacement. For the most part they are compatible with MS Office, but I did have issues with some formatting, and even though they allow saving documents in eith ODF or MS formats, people I would send files to could not always read them properly. I have since dropped all Office products as I no longer need the full power they provide and anything I need to do in a spreadsheet or letter can be done on my IPad with Apple apps. I got irritated at MS too as they offer office apps on IPads for free (or did) EXCEPT for the IPad Pro which of course is the one I have.

[D_E_Bishop]

I got a fully licensed copy of MS Office Pro for less than $50. A lot, evidently, of businesses buy software with a multi computer license and don't use them all. It is legal to sell them and MS will even update them for you. I looked on ebay for them and I have 2010 currently but I'll be updating soon because the company mine came from updated to 2018 or something like that and while the license is lifetime MS is trying to get all the copies updated, not a big deal at all but freaks the DW out.

[bob213]

I like Apache Open Office but LibreOffice is an off shoot of it and works well also.

[HackerAce]

Microsoft Office 365 is $9.00 per month and includes up to five installations as well as web based versions of the software that can be used from any browser. This includes One Drive storage as well.

[chrisguld]

Open Office is a good alternative, but there are others if you're willing to work online, you can use the free online version of Word, Excel, Powerpoint. See Onedrive.com. You do need a Microsoft free account.
Or, you can also use Google's free online apps, Docs, Sheets, Slides. They can be used offline as well. See Drive.com.