Office 365 about to run out.

[HappyHippyDad]

My free years subscription to Microsoft Office 365 is about to run out. I was happily set to take the laptop to the coffee shop this weekend to get some paperwork done and now I may not be able to do it!

I only use Word, nothing else. It runs out on the 8th and says 'Most features of word will be disabled'.

Is there a way of using MS word for free if you are not using any of the other stuff?

It says 'most features', will I still be able to write word documents and save them?

I know open office is a possibility, but I tried that before and it didn't seem to be compatible with Word.

Lastly, when browsing the web it says something about being able to use Word for free but calls it 'online word', does this mean I have to be online to use word? That would be a pain.

Cheers all.

 

[Deleted member 26818]

I changed my iPad and now can’t edit or write in Word.
Seems Word and Excell is free for devices up to 10.1 inches.
My new iPad is 10.5 inches.

There is a free program called open office, which may allow you to open and edit Word documents.

 

[littlespark]

Buy the subscription. Put it down as a business expense.

Or take the Jack Sparrow route... but I didn't say that....

 

[davesparks]

I use open office, it is open source software so is free to download and use. It can open most Microsoft document formats along with others and functions in a pretty similar way to office.

 

[happysteve]

Yeah, I use open office. It will load and save Word documents, though for complicated documents that have a lot of tables/pictures etc in them, there will likely be formatting issues. I only use it for invoices, making the PDF forms (a once-only job each time they change the forms), and doing the accounts on the open office spreadsheet.

If you have to load and edit Word documents that others have sent to you, then you need Word, really. You're going to have to suck it up and pay M$ the subscription.

If you just want to read Word documents that others send to you, then you can use the existing Office 365 (without a subscription) to do that.

If you want to send things to other people and not have to worry about it looking ok or not, then write the document in open office, then export as a PDF (which it does very nicely).

 

[Midwest]

I bought an MS Office package through some years ago, was about £30. Do you know of anyone in a work place environment?

If you got kids, you can have a student package, that lasts for donkeys.

 

[Gavin John Hyde]

you can use office for free usually via the microsoft website, its a slightly paired back version via the cloud, works fine as long as you get a web connection. for basic business stuff it is fine.
Free Microsoft Office Online, Word, Excel, PowerPoint - https://products.office.com/en-us/office-online/documents-spreadsheets-presentations-office-online?legRedir=true&CorrelationId=2ca6c4fb-82d6-4201-b684-999feb033ec3

 

[Squid]

What platform?

 

[HappyHippyDad]

Thanks all.

I had a few more questions, but each time I got to the next paragraph of happysteves post they got answered one by one

 

[HappyHippyDad]

What platform?

Absolutely no idea what that means.

 

[Bobster]

Absolutely no idea what that means.

What version of windows are you running or mac os?

 

[Strima]

I bought a second hand copy of Office 2016 from a well known auction site, it works very well.

 

[Starjack]

Just get office bought, it goes through the company so what's the problem.
Look at it another way you were recently debating buying a Tool belt, don't buy the Toolbelt , ok so you won't be able to go to that village people concert but you will be able to right a sorry letter with Word .
Every cloud and all that.

 

[Marti]

What platform?

It is web based so you can use it on ....anything. MS Windows, Apple OS even Android. Personally, I tried it and kept loosing files. Goole Docs is a similar web based system. A stripped down Word Excel et-ctera.

IMHO forget hacked and illegal software. You're running a business - if money is tight get on to Ebay and buy a legally licenced but earlier version of MS Office - Simples.

 

[FatBob]

I use linux; ubuntu is a user friendly distro that sits on linux;

Ubuntu PC operating system | Ubuntu - https://www.ubuntu.com/desktop

then as previously mentioned, it comes with libreoffice already installed;

all free