Microsoft Office

[amexer]

Can anyone advise. On previous laptops/computers I have purchased Office and continued using unless I wanted to upgrade. On the laptop I have now a notice has come up saying my Office has now expired and I have to renew . I was never aware when I bought Office it only had a limited shelf life. Can you no longer buy Office that will last life of your computer

 

[Coldeanseagull]

A free alternative is open office or libre office, both open source and both with same features and compatability as microshaft

 

[timco]

Have you bought Office or Office 365? Office 365 is a web based subscription and not a stand alone licensed program, this confusion is the only way I can see it happening unless you loaded a trial version which needs a full time licence.

 

[Deleted member 22389]

A free alternative is open office or libre office, both open source and both with same features and compatability as microshaft

I agree, it's the only decent choice if you use Linux, does the job very well. Doesn't get the credit it deserves.

 

[Rugrat]

As others have said try a free one. I use libre office to run my business, looks just the same as Word/Excel and opens MS files just fine

 

[Bold Seagull]

I'll fourth recommend Libre Office.

I use it as my work package. You do occasionally get some formatting inconsistencies opening some .doc files from MSOffice, but generally it is fine. It also opens and edits .pdf's which I find useful. Oh, and its free, so that helps.

 

[wellquickwoody]

A free alternative is open office or libre office, both open source and both with same features and compatability as microshaft

I use Open Office both at work (because my employer is tight) and at home on my new laptop (cos I am too!). Whilst it is mostly OK, it is not fully compatible, has glitches and missing features and leads to many emails having to be sent again as the default format for documents is often unreadable to the rest of the Microsoft based world. I personally use it as the cost of Microsoft Office has gone nuts as a one off purchase and I am not getting dragged into monthly subscription for something which I only use infrequently. On the other hand I think my employer is making a false economy due to extra labour costs incurred by using an inferior product but that is his choice I guess.

 

[Mr Smggles]

If anyone has a spouse or child or anyone they know that are in any form of education, Microsoft have made office365 free to them. From Primary School up to Further Education. You just log in using the institutions email credentials into the O365 portal (google it if you don't know the URL) and you can download a free copy of office 2016 onto up to 5 devices.

Difficult to explain at length as I'm on my phone, but if anyone wants more info PM me. It's completely free and being driven hard my Microsoft at the moment.

 

[Seagull58]

I use Open Office both at work (because my employer is tight) and at home on my new laptop (cos I am too!). Whilst it is mostly OK, it is not fully compatible, has glitches and missing features and leads to many emails having to be sent again as the default format for documents is often unreadable to the rest of the Microsoft based world. I personally use it as the cost of Microsoft Office has gone nuts as a one off purchase and I am not getting dragged into monthly subscription for something which I only use infrequently. On the other hand I think my employer is making a false economy due to extra labour costs incurred by using an inferior product but that is his choice I guess.

You can convert between open document and MS formats for free at zamzar.com if you run into compatibility issues. I occasionally convert powerpoint presentations there because Libre Office doesn't pick up all the fancy slide transitions and builds.