[FREE] Alternatives to Microsoft Office - Comments Page 2

I have been using Apache OpenOffice for about 2 years now. I mostly use the word processing & spreadsheet components. My computer has Windows 10 with the anniversary update. I really like it although there is a learning curve required, as I had previously used Microsoft Office.

I mostly do word processing using MS Word. I tried most all of the others, but always came back to MS Word.
I do use Google Doc writing my online journal, but nothing large that might get lost in the clouds...

What about Kingsoft? I have been using it for years and recommend it to heaps of others.

EDITOR'S NOTE: As I mentioned, Kingsoft is now called WPS.

I think John Silberman is right. MS, in order to keep their dominant position, need to make it difficult to exchange files with users of competing software.

Anyone who uses MS Office 'because everyone else does' is playing into M$'s hands (as well as paying into M$'s pockets).

Agree with not giving MS**t any more money.
1) I have frequently had to install W10 for people and then sort it out to make it usable. Dire. So staying with W7, and practising Linux for the future.
2) Have gone back to using Office 2003 (when I have to) instead of Office 2010, as it is so unusable (not just the *** ribbon), and the later versions get worse, as other people have noticed.
3. But LibreOffice does nearly all of what I need including excellent conversion both ways of spreadsheets and docs. Only real drawback is that it is slow to load. (I did not have any probs with Impress, either.)
4. Kingsoft / WPP are good, but Free version has a) watermark problem and b) desire to constantly contact their website, as bad as MS**t, so have chucked them.

I just want to put in a good word for Corel's WordPerfect word processor. Having used both WP and Word - WordPerfect is superior in so many ways - especially the intuitive interface and ease of use.

Also I find copying and pasting WP text into a text document (email) an absolute breeze - with no formatting problems. Same is true for archiving text on a web page for future reference.

I only use Word when necessary - otherwise WordPerfect is my first choice!

I have been a MO user longer than I care to remember😉 I changed to a Mac 5 yrs ago & have used MO for Mac 2011 since then. This includes Outlook mail. I have tried multiple email programs but have not been satisfied with them, including Thunderbird. Outlook 2011 has developed many problems that MS can't seem to fix, so I have been resigned to shelling out for 365. Do any other if these free (or lower cost) alternatives to MO Work on a Mac & have a good compatible email program? I use MO Profession with Outlook for work so want my home program to work with it.

One organization I work for (that has people literally scattered all over the globe) has started using Google Docs as a primary suite. The cloud storage and ability to let scattered users access the documents, spreadsheets, etc from just about anywhere at anytime is a boon for collaborative work. Yes it can be a pain to work with at times and for advanced users may not suffice, but for general use it's been good.

For most of my own more "serious" work Libre Office has filled the bill quite nicely without presenting me a large bill to buy it...

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I was using Excel to edit entries to a database program and when using SAVE AS to dbf format Excel would truncate entries in text fields. Doing the same thing with LibreOffice Calc produced perfect results and Calc allows more records (rows) than Excel so I've converted.

I have to say that I fully agree with the comment by Karena, on Aug 16.

Is there a good free alternative to Outlook 2016?

I've exclusively used LibreOffice for a number of years. I find it reads and saves Office documents better than Office, especially spreadsheets! All my business documents are Libre and the best aspect of LO is how just about the time I think of an improvement, a new version comes out from Open Office with that very improvement. Even my legal docs are written in Libre, complete with all necessary notations. Thank you, Open people with a better MS than MS!

At work I've always used Microsoft Office products, starting from 2003 to 2010, and at home I've simply used the same but including the 2013 (Office 365) version.

I've tried Open Office at home, and still have a few files stored in that format which I easily access through my current version of Microsoft Office. I also tried Mozilla Thunderbird for email but found it lacking compared to Microsoft Office.

Fully agree that Google Docs is nice but lacks many functions and features of a decent Office suite.

I downloaded the "free" WPS program, but reading the license, I saw "30 day trial." I don't want to face this same problem 30 days from now. Can anyone speak to this?