Need a free spreadsheet program

M

modhatter

Full time employment: Posting here.
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I generally only use a spreadsheet a couple time a year. One at tax time for a data sheet for my accountant, and secondly to keep track of my bank accounts, with my account numbers, cd and money market amounts, interest rates, maturity dates and their contact information.

I hate the thought of having to pay $100 every year for just this privilege. I was using Libre, but now when I try and save the file, it immediately is saved to Microsoft Excel file that can not be edited or added to unless I buy a yearly subscription to Microsoft 360.

I know I can use Google Calc, but I hate having that information so exposed and out there. I need a program and preferably offline that I can change and edit periodically. I know that Google calc can be saved as a PDF, but i can't edit a PDF, and then it is still out there in the Google universe.

Anyone have any recommendations for me?
 
modhatter said:
I generally only use a spreadsheet a couple time a year. One at tax time for a data sheet for my accountant, and secondly to keep track of my bank accounts, with my account numbers, cd and money market amounts, interest rates, maturity dates and their contact information.

I hate the thought of having to pay $100 every year for just this privilege. I was using Libre, but now when I try and save the file, it immediately is saved to Microsoft Excel file that can not be edited or added to unless I buy a yearly subscription to Microsoft 360.

I know I can use Google Calc, but I hate having that information so exposed and out there. I need a program and preferably offline that I can change and edit periodically. I know that Google calc can be saved as a PDF, but i can't edit a PDF, and then it is still out there in the Google universe.

Anyone have any recommendations for me?
Click to expand...

Try going into Libre first, then open the file. I had to do that with my new laptop. After I saved it in Libre, it opens up no problem.
 
I have used LibreCalc for years for my spreadsheet. I just set it up to save files in an Excel format.
 
LibreOffice here also. Never had the problem mentioned in the OP. LibreOffice version 7.4.7.2 on a pretty vanilla Win10 laptop.

I typically save in *.ods / *.odt format though. Don't know if that matters.
 
If you go to Google Sheets, go to Settings, and activate Offline, you can use it while disconnected from the internet, do your business, and delete it all before you reconnect.

I've used Offline a lot in the past, though just for my small edits to my stuff, not from the start to finish of a spreadsheet, so I can't vouch it will work the way I'm imagining, but it should.
 
Another Open Office user. Libre is just a political offshoot of Open. They're both excellent programs. I interact with MS Office users all the time, trading spreadsheets with no issues.

Edit: According to this article, Libre is probably the better choice. Maybe next time I have some down time in my business, I'll try changing packages, see how it goes.
 
Last edited:
I use LibreOffice Calc, and haven't had a problem editing files that I have saved. You can select the file format when saving the file. I generally use ODF spreadsheet (.ods).
 
Hey mods, looks like a duplicate thread. Not sure which was open first.
 
Car-Guy said:
Hey mods, looks like a duplicate thread. Not sure which was open first.
Click to expand...

The threads have been merged.

As a reminder for everyone, the moderators don't read every post or even every thread. If you need our attention, please either PM one of us or use the report post function. Thanks.
 
I use Excel 2013 but also have libreoffice. A quick google found the following:

1 Open LibreOffice Settings. The first to do is open LibreOffice. ...
2 Change the default file format. In the Options window, expand the Load/Save entry and click on General. ...
3 To save in the Open Document Formats, go to Save As.
Click to expand...

I just ried it and it now saves the spreadsheet as .XLS by default.
 
In the file folder. right click on the Excel file...you should see a list of options, one of which says: OPEN WITH...

Click on that option, and you can tell your computer to use LIBRE to open that file. You may be asked whether you want to do this ONCE or ALWAYS...I would select ALWAYS. Then in the future, you just have to double click on the Excel file to open it with Libre.
 
jimbee said:
I use LibreOffice Calc, and haven't had a problem editing files that I have saved. You can select the file format when saving the file. I generally use ODF spreadsheet (.ods).
Click to expand...

+1

OP - You can get libreOffice from: https://www.libreoffice.org/en

And when you save a spreadsheet, save it in the open document format: .ods

not excel format.

Should have no issues and it's free, (and includes lots of other office programs).
 
Office 360 is not the only version of Microsoft Office products. You can get a permanent, fixed 2021 Microsoft Office license as a one-time purchase with no subscription. A little googling will show you can purchase this extremely inexpensively.

Cheers.
 
I use Google Sheets for everything. Thanks for the offline tip, Greenblue, although since I have my Gmail as my email for all my accounts, I set it to confirm on my phone when I use a new device and get additional alerts for those. So if my Google account is hacked, I'll have more to worry about than my HSA tracking sheet!
 
I use Google Sheets because I like being able to link to fund prices to keep track of our portfolio. My understanding is that Google's security is on par with other major cloud providers. I don't keep account specific information in sheets and so I don't see a significant risk.

I suspect most users have as much risk on their home computers as they face on cloud based services.
 
Libre here too. My only issues with it are No email program and you have to load the whole package even if you only use 1 or 2 of their programs.
 
modhatter said:
I generally only use a spreadsheet a couple time a year. One at tax time for a data sheet for my accountant, and secondly to keep track of my bank accounts, with my account numbers, cd and money market amounts, interest rates, maturity dates and their contact information.

I hate the thought of having to pay $100 every year for just this privilege. I was using Libre, but now when I try and save the file, it immediately is saved to Microsoft Excel file that can not be edited or added to unless I buy a yearly subscription to Microsoft 360.

I know I can use Google Calc, but I hate having that information so exposed and out there. I need a program and preferably offline that I can change and edit periodically. I know that Google calc can be saved as a PDF, but i can't edit a PDF, and then it is still out there in the Google universe.

Anyone have any recommendations for me?
Click to expand...
Open Office or simply buy a stand-alone version of MS Excel. The older versions of Excel save files to your hard drive and work just fine and there's no need for MS 360. I'm on Win10 and using a legal, licensed MS Office 2007 (Word, Excel, Outlook).
 
+1 for google sheets for simple stuff. FYI if anyone is interested in doing graduate level reports, RStudio is a nice command line program (steep learning curve). Think of a spreadsheet integrated with word processing that you can program to write reports based on data inputs.
 
It started out pretty basic some years ago, but I've grown to like Apple's spreadsheet (it's called "Numbers") much better than Excel. User interface is more intuitive for me, and I can do many things quicker and easier than I can in Excel.

It also opens almost all Excel spreadsheets into its own format, except for a few with a lot of macros embedded.
 
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