Microsoft Office 365

[Supermike]

I have a new HP computer with Microsoft Office 365 and the trial period is ending. Microsoft want £80/annum to continue using the system.

On Windows 7 I used Microsoft Office Starter Pack which was free and sufficient for my limited needs. Is it possible to get the same thing, or similar, free on Windows 8? I only need Word/Excel and Outlook Express.

[Old_Jim]

Office suites are very much a matter of taste. Try downloading OpenOffice. It's a very powerful office suite, it will read and write Microsoft files (and a huge number of other formats) and it's free. If you don't like it, you can simply delete it. I prefer it to Microsoft Office although there are plenty who disagree - especially Bill Gates. http://www.openoffice.org/download/index.html

[Buenchico]

I'm unaware of anything similar from Microsoft for Windows 8 but there are several free alternatives. My post here provides more information:
http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Technology/Computers/Question1308849.html

The most popular (free) alternative to Outlook Express, as an email client, is Thunderbird:
https://www.mozilla.org/en-GB/thunderbird/

[Old_Jim]

PS If you're only using Outlook as an email client, get Windows Live Mail which comes free from the Microsoft site (provided you have a legal version of Windows) http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows-live/essentials-other#essentials=overviewother When you run the installation routine, you can decline Skydiver and Writer.

[AB Editor]

Hi Supermike.

This is the one you can buy for a one-off payment: http://office.microsoft.com/en-GB/home-and-student/

Check out your old version of office and see if you can find the product key - it's possible you'll be able to download a version of the software with it.

Older versions of office will be available in some shops. The 2010 version is quite good enough for most people. You might pay about £80 for it in this case.

You might even be able to find a 2007 product key somewhere - and you can get the software here: http://www.microsoft.com/office/downloads/ and use the product key to activate it.

I'm very fond of the 365 version myself.

[Supermike]

Thanks everyone for your help. I'm going to try OpenOffice to see if it suits my needs. Thank again

Mike

[Buenchico]

A wise choice, Supermike. (I've got OpenOffice on my netbook and I love it).

Just a (hopefully) helpful hint though:
By default, OpenOffice saves files in its own formats, which are NOT compatible with Microsoft Office formats. (e.g. it save word processor files with the extension .ODF, rather than with .DOC). So if you simply click 'Save' and then email your file to someone using Microsoft Office, they won't be able to view it. The trick is to select 'Save As' and then choose a Microsoft format from the menu.

However that can get tedious. A far better solution is to change the default settings, so that files are AUTOMATICALLY saved using Microsoft formats (simply by clicking on 'Save'). The instructions you'll need are here:
http://voices.yahoo.com/how-set-openoffice-writer-save-as-microsoft-11017880.html

[Supermike]

Thanks very much for that Buenchico. That has saved me a lot of time trying to figure out what is wrong with OpenOffice documents. I will set it up straight away. Your help is much appreciated, as were the other inputs.

Regards Mike