Mad McCann Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 One for you IT guys. It appears that access to these microsoft applications is now annual subscription. Bearing in mind that on my last two laptops the software was a one off lifetime purchase I'm somewhat p155ed off that these billionaire to55pots have decided you need to stump up £75 a year for the privilege of using something you bought with the laptop. Are there any free or reasonably priced alternatives out there as it's a little inconvenient not being able to create spreadsheets and documents. Of course I can still hand write stuff... Dave. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BG John Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 OpenOffice or LibreOffice. Both open source and free forever. Basically the same, as LibreOffice is a fork from OpenOffice, and is the one that's seeing the most development, but I use OpenOffice. Download either or both and give them a try. If you don't like them, uninstall them. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Dava Posted March 3, 2016 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 3, 2016 Try OpenOffice the leading open & free solution, other apps available! https://www.openoffice.org/ Dava Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Y Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 Depending on any standpoint you may have of course but I find Google Docs, Sheets and other apps very useful as they autosave to the cloud after every action and is immediately accessible on other devices if you have a Google account. Sheets is more basic than Excel but does 95% of what I normally need. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold TheSignalEngineer Posted March 3, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 3, 2016 I use OpenOffice for most things. Documents and spreadsheets can be saved in either the .odt format or as .doc and .xls Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold 30801 Posted March 3, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 3, 2016 If you have the right employer you can buy Office outright for a tenner via MS's home use program http://www.microsofthup.com Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
laurenceb Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 My preference is for Libre Office it does all I want, But as someone else said download them both and try all it costs is a little bandwidth Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad McCann Posted March 3, 2016 Author Share Posted March 3, 2016 Thanks gents. Open office now installing. Dave. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BG John Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 I used OpenOffice for some years, then when I had my ill fated attempt at moving to Linux started using LibreOffice, as that's what came with the versions of Linux I tried. When I had to go back to Windows I carried on using LibreOffice, but had a few annoying little problems with it, although I've now forgotten what they were. Maybe they were just bugs in the current version that have been fixed by now. Then I got a new laptop that already had OpenOffice installed, so I left it there. I didn't notice much difference between them, although I suppose that may change over time. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium melmerby Posted March 3, 2016 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 3, 2016 Open Office is out of date. Go for Libre Office which is effectively the "current" version. Keith Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
antrobuscp Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 I've used both Open Office and Libre Office, but prefer Open Office as it seemed a little more stable. Can't now remember what I was unhappy with in Libre Office. Colin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium melmerby Posted March 4, 2016 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 4, 2016 I've used both Open Office and Libre Office, but prefer Open Office as it seemed a little more stable. Can't now remember what I was unhappy with in Libre Office. Colin I've used both and haven't found a problem with either but Libre Office is being developed more. I've still got Lotus Smartsuite which works fine with W10 unlike my MS Office of the same era which wouldn't! BTW if you have a smartphone consider something like Kingsoft Office for it, which reads and writes Office files. It's free. That way you can keep documents on your phone as well. I use it for my stock lists so I don't end up making duplicate purchases! Keith Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry Lime Posted March 4, 2016 Share Posted March 4, 2016 Pen, paper and a calculator - or is that now considered old technology these days? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium ColinK Posted March 4, 2016 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 4, 2016 Macs come with Pages, their equivelent to Word installed for free. Plus Numbers and Keynote, the Apple equivelent to Excel and Powerpoint. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium melmerby Posted March 4, 2016 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 4, 2016 Macs come with Pages, their equivelent to Word installed for free. Plus Numbers and Keynote, the Apple equivelent to Excel and Powerpoint. I would hardly call anything provided with a "Mac" as free considering the premium you have to pay for the privilege! Keith Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Butler Henderson Posted March 4, 2016 Share Posted March 4, 2016 One for you IT guys. It appears that access to these microsoft applications is now annual subscription. Bearing in mind that on my last two laptops the software was a one off lifetime purchase I'm somewhat p155ed off that these billionaire to55pots have decided you need to stump up £75 a year for the privilege of using something you bought with the laptop. Are there any free or reasonably priced alternatives out there as it's a little inconvenient not being able to create spreadsheets and documents. Of course I can still hand write stuff... Dave. Presumably you have Office 365 - that is the only one for which an annual subscription is required as far as I can make out. Certainly have not had any requests from MS for payment for using Office http://download.cnet.com/blog/download-blog/microsoft-office-2016-buy-vs-subscribe/ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJGraphics Posted March 4, 2016 Share Posted March 4, 2016 I would hardly call anything provided with a "Mac" as free considering the premium you have to pay for the privilege! Sorry to go off-topic, but before starting the Mac v PC cost thing, you need to consider the cost of ownership. A friend of mine has owned four fairly expensive PC laptops which have all crapped out on him in just over the last seven years. He has finally seen the light at the end of the tunnel, bought a Mac and has found out how the pain ceases once you stop banging your head against Windows (to slightly mis-quote the well-known saying). He has not stopped talking about the build quality and functionality of his new machine. My wife's nearly seven year old MacBookPro (which is still working very well and has never had anything spent on it) has over the same period cost almost six hundred pounds less than my friend's four PCs did and, in addition to the original purchase cost, he also spent out quite a lot of extra money on anti-virus software and several repairs. In my view the Mac "office" applications are not perfect, but they are pretty good. We dumped MS Office and used the Mac software for the last five years of my business until I retired a few years ago and my clients and the accountants never noticed the difference. JJ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Jonboy Posted March 4, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 4, 2016 https://www.pcworldbusiness.co.uk/catalogue/item/P230250P?from=category&heat=title is a perpetual license, but they only seem to offer a 1pc package these days, rather than the 3pc offer when I last bought. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium melmerby Posted March 4, 2016 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 4, 2016 I would hardly call anything provided with a "Mac" as free considering the premium you have to pay for the privilege! Sorry to go off-topic, but before starting the Mac v PC cost thing, you need to consider the cost of ownership. A friend of mine has owned four fairly expensive PC laptops which have all crapped out on him in just over the last seven years. He has finally seen the light at the end of the tunnel, bought a Mac and has found out how the pain ceases once you stop banging your head against Windows (to slightly mis-quote the well-known saying). He has not stopped talking about the build quality and functionality of his new machine. My wife's nearly seven year old MacBookPro (which is still working very well and has never had anything spent on it) has over the same period cost almost six hundred pounds less than my friend's four PCs did and, in addition to the original purchase cost, he also spent out quite a lot of extra money on anti-virus software and several repairs. In my view the Mac "office" applications are not perfect, but they are pretty good. We dumped MS Office and used the Mac software for the last five years of my business until I retired a few years ago and my clients and the accountants never noticed the difference. JJ Cost of ownership? My Core i7 Acer (same spec as a Mac Book Pro) came with Windows 7 has been upgraded to Win 10 (free, obviously) and has apart from security software and some graphics software cost a little over a third of the cost of the equivalent Mac. The build quality is every bit as good (and could well have come from the same Chinese factory!) The only maintenance after 4 years of solid use is a new battery. The MS Office was originally bought 14 years ago for a business machine and was dumped last year. Lotus Smartsuite cost £19 (full version - genuine) Libre Office etc. are free. And then there's the myth of not needing security software. Macs are being targeted as well. This Desktop cost around £850 all up It has a Core i7, 240Gb SSD, 1.5Gb HDD,16Gb ram, 8Gb Graphics, DVD writer, SB 5.1 sound card and 24" HD monitor. I must admit the PSU failed after just over a year, a new one 50% higher rated cost £70 Lets see how much Macs would have saved me. Whoops I'd be loads out of pocket! Keith Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold 30801 Posted March 4, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 4, 2016 50% of my Macs have broken. This is all of little interest to the OP who just wants to update his office software for cheap Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bernard Lamb Posted March 4, 2016 Share Posted March 4, 2016 One for you IT guys. It appears that access to these microsoft applications is now annual subscription. Bearing in mind that on my last two laptops the software was a one off lifetime purchase I'm somewhat p155ed off that these billionaire to55pots have decided you need to stump up £75 a year for the privilege of using something you bought with the laptop. Are there any free or reasonably priced alternatives out there as it's a little inconvenient not being able to create spreadsheets and documents. Of course I can still hand write stuff... Dave. Not quite correct. You can get a basic 2010 version for around £10. Take a look at Amazon. I use it and it opens any files that people with the full version send me. This seems to be what was installed in the bundle that came with my previous laptop. Just bought a new machine and was facing the same situation that you find your self in, so got this Bernard Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonny777 Posted March 4, 2016 Share Posted March 4, 2016 Cost of ownership? My Core i7 Acer (same spec as a Mac Book Pro) came with Windows 7 has been upgraded to Win 10 (free, obviously) and has apart from security software and some graphics software cost a little over a third of the cost of the equivalent Mac. The build quality is every bit as good (and could well have come from the same Chinese factory!) The only maintenance after 4 years of solid use is a new battery. The MS Office was originally bought 14 years ago for a business machine and was dumped last year. Lotus Smartsuite cost £19 (full version - genuine) Libre Office etc. are free. And then there's the myth of not needing security software. Macs are being targeted as well. This Desktop cost around £850 all up It has a Core i7, 240Gb SSD, 1.5Gb HDD,16Gb ram, 8Gb Graphics, DVD writer, SB 5.1 sound card and 24" HD monitor. I must admit the PSU failed after just over a year, a new one 50% higher rated cost £70 Lets see how much Macs would have saved me. Whoops I'd be loads out of pocket! Keith Please no. Not the Mac v PC flare-up again. We will be having people drawing up chairs and buying popcorn next. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium melmerby Posted March 4, 2016 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 4, 2016 Please no. Not the Mac v PC flare-up again. We will be having people drawing up chairs and buying popcorn next. I didn't start it! Keith Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium melmerby Posted March 5, 2016 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 5, 2016 One for you IT guys. It appears that access to these microsoft applications is now annual subscription. Bearing in mind that on my last two laptops the software was a one off lifetime purchase I'm somewhat p155ed off that these billionaire to55pots have decided you need to stump up £75 a year for the privilege of using something you bought with the laptop. Are there any free or reasonably priced alternatives out there as it's a little inconvenient not being able to create spreadsheets and documents. Of course I can still hand write stuff... Dave. There are different versions of MS Office. You can get Office 365 and pay per year or buy a full MS Office 2016 (in different flavours) for a one off cost Take your pick. Lower initial cost (or bundled) and pay up each year/month, or pay more up front and forget it. Or go for the free suites mentioned earlier. Keith Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium melmerby Posted March 9, 2016 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 9, 2016 Further to this thread. I earlier said that my Office 2000 stopped working on Win 10 and any attempt to reload/re-install it is met with "This software is not compatible with this version of Windows" and it bails out. However a stand alone Word 2000 did install and after telling it to work in Compatibility mode for XP operates just fine. Keith Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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