Getting  Along With Your Computer Column Archive

Cheap Microsoft Office and Free Alternatives

By Cate Eales
Appeared September 27, 2007 on castanet.net

This is a good time to need Office software. We have lots of choices, ranging from Microsoft Office to competing office suites, to online office-like tools. If you're a student, you might be able to grab a copy of Office 2007 Ultimate for CAD$64.

This week we'll look at office software to install on your computer. Next time, we'll look at what's available online.


The Ultimate Steal
Microsoft is offering Office 2007 Ultimate (the BIG version of Office) for CAD$64 to qualifying students in Canada. To find out if you're eligible, start here. (American readers can enjoy the same deal for USD$59.95, by browsing here.) The Ultimate edition retails for CAD$899.95, or USD$679.95. (So much for the dollar being at parity!) In either currency, you'll enjoy a huge savings if you qualify, so go have a look if you want the real Microsoft Office.


Or, you can get an office suite on your computer for free
Several companies offer good, free alternatives to MS Office, with the ability to open, read, edit and "Save as..." in the Microsoft Office format. This means that you can work with Word, Excel, and other well-known file types, without using MS Office.

OpenOffice from Sun is an excellent office suite. I've been using it for over a year --- in fact, I'm using it now! The "Writer" program looks and functions much like Word, with the familiar tool bars and commands for changing fonts, creating lists, and other routine tasks just where you would expect them to be. OpenOffice also includes an Excel-like spreadsheet program, an Access-like database program, a PowerPoint-like presentation program, and more.

Saving your documents in MS Office format is quite easy, and it's even easier to open MS Office documents in OpenOffice. This means you can read, edit, and save stuff you get from people using MS Office, and of course you can create your own documents and save them in the OpenOffice format, MS Office format, or both.

Although there is not technical support, OpenOffice is a good alternative to MS Office if you don't want to spend the money on the Microsoft product. OpenOffice is available here.

IBM has just released Lotus Symphony, which includes programs to create and edit documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. I have not tried this one out yet. Lotus Symphony is available for download here. It is apparently based on the OpenOffice standard, so it will be interesting to see how it differs from OpenOffice.


File viewers and converters can help
With all the office-like software out there, you might like a handy little tool called TextMaker Viewer, which will open, view and print documents in all common word processing formats even if you don't have the program that created them installed on your computer. (It won't understand the new MS Office 2007 documents, but more on that in a minute.) TextMaker Viewer is free; you can learn more about it or grab it here.

Finally, if you are starting to receive files with the mysterious .docx extension, the person sending them probably has MS Office 2007. If you have an earlier version of MS Office, you won't be able to do anything with these files until you install the MS Office Compatibility Pack, available here. Once you have that installed, you can work with the new file formats. Read more here. (If you have Office 2007, you can learn how to make your documents compatible with older version here. It couldn't hurt.)

Thank you to everyone who emailed their comments and suggestions. Please keep them coming! You can contact me at cate@rlis.com.  If you'd like to look at past columns, browse over to the column archives, here. If you'd like to subscribe to this column by email, please visit this link.  It's easy, and free. If you'd prefer the RSS Feed, click here.

See you next week with the scoop on the web-based office programs!


Links
Microsoft Ultimate Steal (Canada) http://www.theultimatesteal.ca/
Microsoft Office Ultimate Steal (USA) http://www.theultimatesteal.com/home.asp
OpenOffice http://www.openoffice.org/
IBM Lotus Symphony http://symphony.lotus.com/software/lotus/symphony/home.jspa
TextMaker Viewer http://www.officeviewers.com/
MS Office Compatibility Pack https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=941b3470-3ae9-4aee-8f43-c6bb74cd1466&displaylang=en
Use earlier versions of MS Office to work with Office 2007 files http://support.microsoft.com/kb/924074
Make your MS Office 2007 documents compatible with older versions of MS Office http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA100444751033.aspx
Getting Along With Your Computer Column Archives http://rlis.com/column.htm
Get Cate's column by email http://www.feedblitz.com/f/f.fbz?Sub=20618
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Cate Eales has been helping people make online computing safe, accessible and fun for over 20 years. She lives in Kelowna with her husband, Eric, and her dog, Sandy. Cate is a partner in Real Life Internet Solutions, helping individuals and small businesses with virus, spyware and malware eradication; personal computer training and management; digital image management; music transfer; and website design, hosting and management. Email Cate at cate@rlis.com with your comments, suggestions, or questions. To browse the column archives, visit the Real Life Internet Solutions website at www.rlis.com.