Freeware to replace MS Office?

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hermit My problems were in my Word financial plan that had many embedded spread sheets, etc.

Oh OK, that explains it! I almost never use anything in Open Office except the spreadsheet and I don't know a thing about the Word equivalent part of it. Sorry that I didn't think about that, and I am sure you are right.

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alan I'm in exactly the same situation. Had the chance to switch to LibreOffice when we switched to Macs a few years ago but instead stuck with OpenOffice. I have the file defaults set to be the MS Office format and I can open workbooks etc to read on my iPad and iPhone when needed. (e.g. I still maintain our address book in a spreadsheet - what a dinosaur eh?)

Hey, I still use a spreadsheet for my calendar. If you are a dinosaur, join the herd because there are a lot of us here.

[ExFlyBoy5]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scrapr Not much love for the Google docs Have it and like it. I'm not a power user though. We are almost all transitioned off MS I did the slide show for my FIL funeral on Google Slides. Very easy to post up and then hook up to the video equipment

I prefer Google docs over Open Office. I have found that there are less formatting errors when opening a MS doc with Google docs over Open Office...which is very helpful with legal documents which can have odd formatting.

It's also very easy to share/modify with others (and can be done in real time) w/ Google docs.

[samclem]

I like LibreOffice a lot, but I might give OpenOffice another try sometime as Libre sometimes gets glitchy (I have lost my work. Rarely, but it has happened.)
Google Docs might work fine, but I don't feel comfortable giving the Googleborg access to my documents, spreadsheets, etc for their info mining biz. I'm surely an outlier in this regard.

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by samclem I like LibreOffice a lot, but I might give OpenOffice another try sometime as Libre sometimes gets glitchy (I have lost my work. Rarely, but it has happened.) Google Docs might work fine, but I don't feel comfortable giving the Googleborg access to my documents, spreadsheets, etc for their info mining biz. I'm surely an outlier in this regard.

I feel the same way about Google. Also, I feel we have so little privacy in this world today, that I cherish every scrap of it and do not like using clouds any more than I have to. It's just "a thing" that I have, I suppose. I do not use Microsoft's cloud either.

[joeea]

Quote:

Originally Posted by omni550 As I've not ever used these...how do you access? Do you need a google account, like gmail? Sis is a bit paranoid...not sure how she'll react to storing things in a cloud. Thx. omni

Yup, just go there and sign up, or use an existing Google account.
https://docs.google.com

[jetpack]

Google Docs all the way. Replacing my desktop machine no longer means buying or installing much new software .. or even moving over documents.

Just add chrome and sign into google. done.

[samclem]

Quote:

Originally Posted by W2R I feel the same way about Google. Also, I feel we have so little privacy in this world today, that I cherish every scrap of it and do not like using clouds any more than I have to. It's just "a thing" that I have, I suppose. I do not use Microsoft's cloud either.

Google's "Terms of Service" doesn't offer much comfort. In part;

"11.1 . . . . By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.
11.2 You agree that this license includes a right for Google to make such Content available to other companies, organizations or individuals with whom Google has relationships for the provision of syndicated services, and to use such Content in connection with the provision of those services.
11.3 You understand that Google, in performing the required technical steps to provide the Services to our users, may (a) transmit or distribute your Content over various public networks and in various media; and (b) make such changes to your Content as are necessary to conform and adapt that Content to the technical requirements of connecting networks, devices, services or media. You agree that this license shall permit Google to take these actions."

Whatever Google "promises", claims, etc about data agglomeration, anonymity, sharing, etc--the above is what you agree to if you use their services. And, they can change it at any time.

Their business is scraping and selling information on those who use their services. There's nothing disreputable, or hidden, about that. I'm glad we all have the option to choose to participate in that endeavor--or not.

[joeea]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jetpack Google Docs all the way. Replacing my desktop machine no longer means buying or installing much new software .. or even moving over documents. Just add chrome and sign into google. done.

I agree. Things are just that much simpler. And if you need to access your content from a different machine (perhaps on the road), it's trivial.

Add a Chromebook and it's pretty much an optimal combination at a terrific price point.

That's what we use for my wife. And I'd use one too if I wasn't still tied to a few Windows applications. Hopefully in a few years I'll be completely MS-free!

[aja8888]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jetpack Google Docs all the way. Replacing my desktop machine no longer means buying or installing much new software .. or even moving over documents. Just add chrome and sign into google. done.

My Chromebook has become my "main man" when it comes to internet searching/forums/general use/etc, and I have two desktops sitting idle (Win 10 and Win 7 machines).

Gmail is my e-mail client, Google Docs and Sheets are what I use to replace MS. Now that I am retired, I have nothing new to hide or have anything that is so important that I would feel uncomfortable using cloud based services. Our financial stuff is downloaded and either printed or put into a pdf file for local storage.

I guess if you have a lot of sensitive data, it makes good sense to not use cloud services.

[omni550]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jim584672 WPS Office looks a lot like MS Office... https://www.wps.com/ I use LibreOffice.

It does look like MS Office. Poking around their site, I see that the free version has ads, whereas the paid versions do not.

Does the other free software (like Open Office or LibreOffice) have ads?

omni

[jim584672]

Quote:

Originally Posted by omni550 Does the other free software (like Open Office or LibreOffice) have ads?

They do not have ads.

[Koogie]

I must admit I use Google Sheets for tracking my investments. And I use the freeware versions of MS Excel and Word online through Dropbox when I am updating personal finance documents that I store in Dropbox.

But I find Google Sheets plays less well with existing MS documents than Open Office. At work, relying on Google Sheets would be a no go for us, that's why we use Open Office.

[OHjosh]

Open Office +1.

[GravitySucks]

Quote:

Originally Posted by omni550 As I've not ever used these...how do you access? Do you need a google account, like gmail? Sis is a bit paranoid...not sure how she'll react to storing things in a cloud. Thx. omni

Yes you need a gmail account and things get stored on Drive. The cloud is the default, not sure if you can store local on!y.

I use Docs often a nd LibreOffice. I can do anything in LibreOffice I could do in MSOffice. Docs and Sheets is a bit more limited.