Microsoft Office has gone up up 25%! What alternatives are there?

[nglodnig]

Office is about the one app software that I actually pay for for my Windows L:aptop. Now I am told the licence fee is going up a whopping 25%.

 

I googled alternatives and saw this on "nerdused.com" - LIFETIME licences of Office for a tenth of the price! how can this be kosher? "If it's too good to be true it probably isn't"

 

Really all I want is Excel and at a pinch Word. 

[ignis]

have a look at https://www.wps.com/

 

years ago mid 1990s  changed to Kingsoft Office, was FREE, then the name changed in 2014 to WPS Office

has everything  = not likely to go back to W$$$ Office 

[isaanistical]

I have used Libre Office (https://libreoffice.org/) for 10 years, used to use Open Office, both ok, both compatible with MS files, both open-source and legally free. Never quite saw the point of microsoft.....

[johng]

Libreoffice    https://www.libreoffice.org/download/download-libreoffice/

 

or Openoffice  https://www.openoffice.org/download/index.html

[3NUMBAS]

Pirate bay ? Illegal tho

[FlorC]

Office is a 1 time purchase.

Office 365 is subscription.

 

Tried libre office when I was on linux. I didn't like it much.

It could open old MS Works though.

[impulse]

I keep seeing offers for legitimate lifetime licenses for ridiculously low prices.  On legitimate websites.

 

I'm an Office (365) subscriber, but I may go ahead and get one of them because I'm so disappointed with Teams displacing Skype.  They're definitely not equal.  And I no longer use Office for work so I really don't get the value for the annual subscription any more.  So I'm going to vote with my pennies...

Maybe someone else can chime in with a link.  I'm back in China and Googling is a PITA here.

 

 

 

[impulse]

3 minutes ago, FlorC said:

Tried libre office when I was on linux. I didn't like it much.

It could open old MS Works though.

 

My problem with the freeware was that I spent so much time fixing the formatting of spreadsheets and word processing documents that even free, they weren't worth it for me.  If you're in a personal environment and you start documents from scratch, they're probably great.  But not if you're in an office setting and you have to open (and edit) other people's work.

[ricklev]

5 minutes ago, impulse said:

I keep seeing offers for legitimate lifetime licenses for ridiculously low prices.  On legitimate websites.

 

I'm an Office (365) subscriber, but I may go ahead and get one of them because I'm so disappointed with Teams displacing Skype.  They're definitely not equal.  And I no longer use Office for work so I really don't get the value for the annual subscription any more.  So I'm going to vote with my pennies...

Maybe someone else can chime in with a link.  I'm back in China and Googling is a PITA here.

 

 

 

They work.  Usually for a good while, maybe not lifetime though.  Download and then log in as instructed with the activation code.  I think I paid 200 baht or so on Lazada.  I guess it was an organizational account.  Look for one with good ratings.  

[FlorC]

Not sure why you would choose office 365 over the one time purchase.

You like to make MS richer ?

 

I still have office 2006 on my XP machine !

Even office 2006's office picture manager on my W 11 machine.

 

I often see computers bought in Thailand have Office included in the price.

[KireB]

OpenOffice or Canva 

[billd766]

46 minutes ago, isaanistical said:

I have used Libre Office (https://libreoffice.org/) for 10 years, used to use Open Office, both ok, both compatible with MS files, both open-source and legally free. Never quite saw the point of microsoft.....

I am slowly changing MS files to Libre Office as I come across them.

 

MS sucks.

[rough diamond]

35 minutes ago, 3NUMBAS said:

Pirate bay ? Illegal tho

How is it illegal?

It is what you do after the download that counts.

[soi3eddie]

Microsoft 365 Family Classic is what you want. Microsoft sneakily upgraded their plans to included AI and maybe some other stuff and increased the price. You can (I did), revert to classic at the old price £79.99 in the UK. 

 

All you need to know on how to revert to the old price is at:  https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=95&t=2105664

 

 

[lungbing]

2 hours ago, billd766 said:

I am slowly changing MS files to Libre Office as I come across them.

 

MS sucks.

The problem with that when you have to send a document to somebody who doesn't use Libre Office.

[rough diamond]

Try WordPerfect!

Does all that office does but better.  And free via torrent!

[nglodnig]

2 hours ago, soi3eddie said:

Microsoft 365 Family Classic is what you want. Microsoft sneakily upgraded their plans to included AI and maybe some other stuff and increased the price. You can (I did), revert to classic at the old price £79.99 in the UK. 

 

 

2 hours ago, soi3eddie said:

All you need to know on how to revert to the old price is at:  https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=95&t=2105664

 

Excellent advice! As I need an AI like a hole in the head (which it closely resembles and my dog has a higher IQ 🙂 )  and I don't want to use the "free" options which makes portabilty difficult I have gone for this option.

 

I did it and it seems to have worked.

[MartinL]

3 hours ago, soi3eddie said:

Microsoft 365 Family Classic is what you want. Microsoft sneakily upgraded their plans to included AI and maybe some other stuff and increased the price. You can (I did), revert to classic at the old price £79.99 in the UK. 

 

All you need to know on how to revert to the old price is at:  https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=95&t=2105664

 

 

 

33 minutes ago, nglodnig said:

 

Excellent advice! As I need an AI like a hole in the head (which it closely resembles and my dog has a higher IQ 🙂 )  and I don't want to use the "free" options which makes portabilty difficult I have gone for this option.

 

I did it and it seems to have worked.

 

As above, I don't need AI. I've got a better, real version (such as it is) installed upstairs.

 

Does 365 Classic include Excel, Word and Outlook for e-mail and is it a trouble-free transition? If so, that's all I'd need. The MS blurb says it does but I thought I'd check with some real users.

 

[soi3eddie]

8 minutes ago, MartinL said:

As above, I don't need AI. I've got a better, real version (such as it is) installed upstairs.

 

Does 365 Classic include Excel, Word and Outlook for e-mail and is it a trouble-free transition? If so, that's all I'd need. The MS blurb says it does but I thought I'd check with some real users.

 

 

Everything same as before.Yes, classic includes all.

I have to use Outlook which is why I stay with Microsoft 365. There are free Word, Excel and Email alternative options elsewhere for those who don't need outlook. 

 

 

 

[billd766]

2 hours ago, lungbing said:

The problem with that when you have to send a document to somebody who doesn't use Libre Office.

Not really.

 

You can use the Open With function in MS and it works vert well. That is how I open any MS document into Libre Office. You can also save the document into MS by using the Save As function.

[CanadaSam]

As mentioned by ricklev, MS Office, many versions, are available for around 200 baht on Lazada.  Thousands of 5 star ratings on some of them.

[gk10012001]

7 hours ago, ignis said:

have a look at https://www.wps.com/

 

years ago mid 1990s  changed to Kingsoft Office, was FREE, then the name changed in 2014 to WPS Office

has everything  = not likely to go back to W$$$ Office 

Yes.  I too have used that for a long time now.  So far it has been totally compatible with WORD and EXCEL documents both that I generate or that I get from real Office Applications.  I still use hotmail.com for my email, and that does not require OFFICE 365 or whatever.  Of course one can use all sorts of other email domains such as gmail, yahoo, etc..

[gk10012001]

3 hours ago, rough diamond said:

Try WordPerfect!

Does all that office does but better.  And free via torrent!

haha.  I cut my teeth on WordPerfect decades ago.  Didn't realize it was still around

[Davedub]

I have been using Google Sheets, Google Docs and Open Office for many years now. I only really use Open Office Calc for quick calculations that I don't intend to keep - i.e. to avoid clogging up my Google Sheets folder.

 

I understand that Microsoft Excel might be the only solution for deep statisical analysis and other 'advanced' functionality - beyond that, I have no idea why anyone would ever pay for Microsoft Office.

[spidermike007]

If there is an illegal alternative by all means use it. Whether you support piracy or not, when a corporation becomes a pirate then they deserve to be pirated on any level possible. 

[KannikaP]

I have Microsoft 365, which gives me, and five Family members, all the Office Apps, 1TB One Drive cloud, and 100 Teams minutes to almost anywhere. When I renewed it last month, I was given the option of with or without Co-Pilot. I opted for without at $89 for the year, same as last year. I still get Co-Pilot on my PC and phone, although I find ChatGPT better and not as nauseatingly friendly.

[topt]

15 hours ago, FlorC said:

I still have office 2006 on my XP machine !

From what I know it is either 2003 or 2007 - unless you meant you had it since 2006?

 

For what it is worth I am still using Office 2007 but now only for Word and Excel. I "acquired some sort of Enterprise/student version back then and has worked across multiple computers since.......

[Drumbuie]

I've used OpenOffice for years. It's free, it's stable, they don't keep changing it for the sake of change, and it's even better now because it doesn't keep pushing AI doodads at me. 

 

Gradually trying to move everything away from US-based software - for reasons which will be obvious to anyone capable of critical thinking. 

 

About to try NextCloud for online storage, for example, to remove all my stuff from the Googlesphere. 

[FlorC]

18 minutes ago, topt said:

From what I know it is either 2003 or 2007 - unless you meant you had it since 2006?

 

For what it is worth I am still using Office 2007 but now only for Word and Excel. I "acquired some sort of Enterprise/student version back then and has worked across multiple computers since.......

Absolutely right ! I just looked at the cd I bought in Pantip (is it still there or closed down ?) , and it is office 2003 , but I installed it in 2006 when I bought my first computer.

 

[Freddy42OZ]

16 hours ago, nglodnig said:

Office is about the one app software that I actually pay for for my Windows L:aptop. Now I am told the licence fee is going up a whopping 25%.

 

I googled alternatives and saw this on "nerdused.com" - LIFETIME licences of Office for a tenth of the price! how can this be kosher? "If it's too good to be true it probably isn't"

 

Really all I want is Excel and at a pinch Word. 

 

 

Why not just use Libre Office or better yet just use Google Sheets (instead of Excel) and Google Docs (instead of word).