MS Office 2019, What’s the Best Free Replacement Suite

[CharlesF]

A couple of years ago, I bought MS Office 2019, online for £24.99, bargain. It now appears that it may have been not entirely proper. As I discovered when trying to move the suite to a new laptop.

Nowadays, working from home, I use the work Office for most personal things. However, for personal stuff such as bank recons, investment tracking, etc. I do that on my own laptop. After work hours the work laptop is OFF.

Anyway, to the question….. is anyone using one of the free Office alternatives - Open Office, LibreOffice, etc., and how similar is it to the modern MS Office?

I know I can download many varieties, but I’m lazy and looking for a shortcut to the best of the best of the free office suites.😁

 

[homebuilds]

LibreOffice is my choice. I've tried OpenOffice too which is very good

 

[midlife]

I'd bite the bullet and buy a genuine home / student Microsoft 365 and know that it all works.

 

[homebuilds]

I'd bite the bullet and buy a genuine home / student Microsoft 365 and know that it all works.

Actually LibreOffice performs much better than 365. You're paying for looks with 365, not performance

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

I seem to remember that the development of OpenOffice stalled or something and LibreOffice was the preferred version nowadays

I have used both and LibreOffice does most of the stuff you need

major problems are
a) Access - not even close - but then is Access really waht you need?
b) Publisher - OK - not standard but what to replace it???

but the basic Word, Excel and Powerpoint is great!

 

[Gunk]

£5.99 a month for 365 is the best option, it just works

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

£5.99 a month for 365 is the best option, it just works

For reasons I do not understand I seem to have Office 365 for free
I have worked in IT since 1982 and I have no clue why this is free to me
(p.s. don't tell Bill Gates!!!!!)

 

[Chislenko]

If you have any old discs with a "key" just use one of them.

I have just loaded Office 98 on a new lap top and it works.

If it's only for a few spreadsheets (as mine is) it does the job.

 

[si_c]

Libreoffice is great if you're looking to replicate some of the simpler tasks available. Especially when it comes to spreadsheets some of the functions and macros don't work in the same way as Excel so you may run into some compatibility issues if you use more advanced features.

I've got an Office 365 subscription though, it's only a couple of quid a month when paid annually and I use it regularly, there's really no substitute.

 

[Mike Ayling]

A couple of years ago, I bought MS Office 2019, online for £24.99, bargain. It now appears that it may have been not entirely proper. As I discovered when trying to move the suite to a new laptop.

Nowadays, working from home, I use the work Office for most personal things. However, for personal stuff such as bank recons, investment tracking, etc. I do that on my own laptop. After work hours the work laptop is OFF.

Anyway, to the question….. is anyone using one of the free Office alternatives - Open Office, LibreOffice, etc., and how similar is it to the modern MS Office?

I know I can download many varieties, but I’m lazy and looking for a shortcut to the best of the best of the free office suites.😁

I am quite happy with Open Office.

Mike

 

[simon the viking]

after my free year subscription to office finished on a new laptop i happily went back to Libreoffice. email files to people as odt files never get any problems.

I find libreoffice better than open office. open office seems to freeze occasionally.

 

[slowmotion]

Go to eBay and buy a sub-£10 version of Office. I've bought three for different machines over the last ten years. All of them have worked perfectly.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Libreoffice is great if you're looking to replicate some of the simpler tasks available. Especially when it comes to spreadsheets some of the functions and macros don't work in the same way as Excel so you may run into some compatibility issues if you use more advanced features.

I've got an Office 365 subscription though, it's only a couple of quid a month when paid annually and I use it regularly, there's really no substitute.

I used to teach ICT to 'A' Level
LibreOffice would work just fine up to GCSE at the very least
so if you need to go beyond Vlookup and Countif then maybe you need the full Office
if not - or if you do not know what those things are - then LibreOffice is fine
(N.B. you may need to change a comma to a semi colon - but the WWW will help you)

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

I've no idea how OpenOffice performs now but there was a point where LibreOffice was working better. Better and free seemed like a good combination to me at the time and I see no reason to change.

 

[si_c]

I used to teach ICT to 'A' Level
LibreOffice would work just fine up to GCSE at the very least
so if you need to go beyond Vlookup and Countif then maybe you need the full Office
if not - or if you do not know what those things are - then LibreOffice is fine
(N.B. you may need to change a comma to a semi colon - but the WWW will help you)

Pretty much, I'm a Data Scientist in my day job, so I try to avoid spreadsheets wherever possible for a whole litany of reasons I won't go into, but if I do have to use a spreadsheet package, Excel is what I choose to use.