Free Alternatives to Microsoft Office?

lucan2

I have a new laptop running Windows8. On my other (older) laptop and desktop I am running an old version of Microsoft Office (2000) which is adequate but showing its age - and it won't run on Win8.

I don't want to shell out for a new version of MS Office and have been looking at the free alternatives - Apache OpenOffice, LibreOffice, etc.

I have discounted some products that only have the equivalent of Word, Publisher and Excel because I need an Access database equivalent, too.

Does anyone here use either Apache OpenOffice of LibreOffice and can give me any tips on which is preferable? Any other options?

Cheers

Mikey23

Openoffice works fine foe me and has done for many years

qube

Yep, Openoffice seems to be quite popular.

There are differences to Word etc obviously, but you can figure them out/workaround.

tyred&weary

OpenOffice has some incompatibilities with Excel and Word even if you don't save in the open office format. If you want to share documents with anyone using MS Office, which is fast becoming a business standard, or do mail merges, then OpenOffice is not or you.

Examples; text can get hidden in tables when reopened in Word; filtering in Excel works differently from Open office and deleting only the visible rows doesn't work in OpenOffice - they all go.

finchy

Open Office is fine for most purposes.

RDW

You might be able to get 2000 running with a bit of fiddling:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/offi ... 23e?page=1

though I don't know what sort of security holes that might open!

I tend to use LibreOffice rather than OpenOffice - they are both very similar, but LO tends to be the default on Linux these days, and was a bit more actively developed the last time I checked.

lucan2

Thanks for the comments. I think I'll try OpenOffice and see how it goes.

PoorInRichfield

You do know that you can use the online version of Office apps for free if you create a Microsoft account and use Outlook.com? There's Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. For most basic needs, it'll do just fine. I've been an Office user forever and I pretty much hate all the other alternatives.

ballysmate

Lucan2 wrote:

I have a new laptop running Windows8. On my other (older) laptop and desktop I am running an old version of Microsoft Office (2000) which is adequate but showing its age - and it won't run on Win8.

I don't want to shell out for a new version of MS Office and have been looking at the free alternatives - Apache OpenOffice, LibreOffice, etc.

I have discounted some products that only have the equivalent of Word, Publisher and Excel because I need an Access database equivalent, too.

Does anyone here use either Apache OpenOffice of LibreOffice and can give me any tips on which is preferable? Any other options?

Cheers

Maybe stating the bleeding obvious, but if you are happy with MS Office, try MS Office online.
I too have just got a new computer with Win8 and must confess didn't realise my Office 2000 wouldn't work.
Thanks for the heads up, as I hadn't tried to install it yet.

lucan2

MS Online isn't an option for two reasons - firstly I want to use it offline, and secondly I need a database program.

Thanks for the suggestions though.

briantrumpet

LibreOffice is an open source & free alternative. http://www.libreoffice.org/ - some background here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LibreOffice

It's what I use now, and does what I need it to.

Ouija

LibreOffice is just the newer, more updated version of OpenOffice, renamed after it forked from the original (forget the reason why, seamed to remember there was some kind of dispute).

briantrumpet

Ouija wrote:

LibreOffice is just the newer, more updated version of OpenOffice, renamed after it forked from the original (forget the reason why, seamed to remember there was some kind of dispute).

Yep - the dispute is noted in the wikipedia link.

I changed to Libre as OpenOffice seemed to be getting rather bloated, quite apart from the fact that OpenOffice was straying from its open source origins once it had been taken over by Oracle. I've no idea what Open Office is like now, as I've stuck with Libre. It looks like Open has returned to its roots, now it's been offloaded by Oracle.

pinno

I do not like Windows hate. Bought a brand new licensed copy of XP Pro for only £15 when I revamped my PC just so I could run Office 2007. Well, I much prefer it and find the file management and storage much much easier.
Can't do this to my laptop unfortunately as it is W vHate and can only run this and 7 or Worse - Vista.

briantrumpet

... though I still occasionally still use Lotus 1-2-3 and Lotus WordPro from Lotus Suite from 1997. Still work on Windows 8.

CiB

Does the DB prog need to be Access or a close equivalent? MS SQL Server Express is free to download, there's also the free MySQL DB package which runs in Windows.

The DB progs in Open & Libre Office work too, but if it's just a decent DB prog you need, you could worse than those two.

wongataa

pinarello001 wrote:

I do not like Windows hate. Bought a brand new licensed copy of XP Pro for only £15 when I revamped my PC just so I could run Office 2007. Well, I much prefer it and find the file management and storage much much easier.
Can't do this to my laptop unfortunately as it is W vHate and can only run this and 7 or Worse - Vista.

Office 2007 works just fine on Windows 7.

pinno

wongataa wrote:

pinarello001 wrote:

I do not like Windows hate. Bought a brand new licensed copy of XP Pro for only £15 when I revamped my PC just so I could run Office 2007. Well, I much prefer it and find the file management and storage much much easier.
Can't do this to my laptop unfortunately as it is W vHate and can only run this and 7 or Worse - Vista.

Office 2007 works just fine on Windows 7.

That's right - if you want Win 7. The only MS Office compatible between XP and Win 7, 8 and Vista I believe.