MS Office-compatible Alternatives?

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eracode

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#80727 3-Apr-2011 16:53

We have recently upgraded to a new version W7 on a netbook and, in the process, lost MS Office 2007. We don't now have the original instal disk.

The netbook is used by my wife and occasionally she needs to do some office work at home on the machine. She does only simple Power Point or Word work and that's about it. We really don't want/need to buy a replacement MS Office and I understand that there are some free suites that are compatible with Office.

I have googled this and seen a few names but would welcome advice from people who know about these things.

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freitasm

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#454840 3-Apr-2011 16:57

Libre Office (http://www.libreoffice.org) previously known as Open Office seems to be the choice for alternative office suites.

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#454844 3-Apr-2011 17:11

Note both LibreOffice and OpenOffice continue and are essentially still the same product as far as I can tell. I've used OpenOffice at home for years.

http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/group-of-openofficeorg-developers-break-ties-with-oracle

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gzt

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#455075 4-Apr-2011 12:31

Configuring for non-technical users - I would recommend going into the application options and setting the default save format to Microsoft Office.

This eliminates any possibility of later confusion which might occur when a non-technical user sends a document to an MS Office user for viewing or editing, and the reverse.

allan

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#455080 4-Apr-2011 12:39

Not free, but cheap and does a VERY good job of Microsoft compatibility, even with heavily formatted documents - http://www.softmaker.com/english/of_en.htm

eracode

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#455205 4-Apr-2011 18:07

Many thanks guys.

I may have an alternative under the Microsoft Home Use Program. If that's a dead end, I will go with Open Office.

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tardtasticx

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#455211 4-Apr-2011 18:25

Id got with Open office. It can export direct to PDF which is always handy.

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#455303 4-Apr-2011 20:59

A note on Libre Office / Open Office.

Open Office still exists and will continue, but now it is likely to go strongly in directions preferred by the new owner - Oracle. From what I can gather Oracle came in with a rigid attitude towards the open source community which led to the realisation of a need for a new project.

Libre Office continues the work of Open Office. Libre Office will be the default office suite for Ubuntu, Red Hat, Suse, and other linux distributions. Libre was released ahead of schedule and already includes new features not available in OO.

It's pretty clear now the dust has settled that Libre is moving forward, and financially stable.

No doubt the two projects will incorporate each others code when it suits them to do so, but Libre's momentum looks to be far greater.