Does Anyone know of a good alternative to MS Office
Preferably with the same features as Office or better, but must be freely downloadable.
The e-mail portion must have the same features as Outlook.
Thanx [thumbsup]
Open Office...
open office is most likely the one you want. however, it does not have an integrated email client of any kind, so......
you might consider open office and the mozilla email client (thunderbird i think.)
heres a link
http://www.openoffice.org/ (http://www.openoffice.org/)
I am sure there is someone on here that would gladly through you a copy of MS Office with the product key
Open Office will handle everything except the email and feels close enough to MS Office that you probably won't notice much of a difference.
Thunderbird is the email client from Mozilla. It is fairly bare and straight forward by itself, but there are a ton of addons for it to add all sorts of functionality.
If you're looking for something you can take with you where ever you go, check out portableapps.com and install the portable apps suite on a USB stick. It has slightly modified versions of Firefox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice and others that run straight off the USB stick without needing to be installed locally.
PM Sent [thumbsup]
... if you are runing a buisness open office is about 90% as good as MS office. and free. looks like office 03 not 07 though.
Quote from: Big Troubled Bear on July 08, 2009, 04:02:57 AM
Does Anyone know of a good alternative to MS Office
Preferably with the same features as Office or better, but must be freely downloadable.
The e-mail portion must have the same features as Outlook.
Thanx [thumbsup]
There is no substitution for MS Office. Period.
I like the google apps personally [thumbsup]
Quote from: He Man on July 08, 2009, 10:50:34 AM
... if you are runing a buisness open office is about 90% as good as MS office. and free. looks like office 03 not 07 though.
thats a good thing too...
dont care for 07 myself.
Quote from: herm on July 08, 2009, 03:32:06 PM
thats a good thing too...
dont care for 07 myself.
I can't stand office 2007. :P
Quote from: somegirl on July 08, 2009, 08:47:57 PM
I can't stand office 2007. :P
You're not alone. I was so quick on Office '03 and then when I tried to use '07 my productivity was more than halved.
Office 2007 is the pits. Upside of getting laid off was not having to use that hunk o' shit anymore. [thumbsup]
I'm not a heavy Office user, but OpenOffice has always worked for me. Hell, AbiWord and Gnumeric usually do the trick.
Quote from: erkishhorde on July 08, 2009, 09:10:09 PM
You're not alone. I was so quick on Office '03 and then when I tried to use '07 my productivity was more than halved.
Running Excel macros in '07 gave me a lot more coffee breaks. [coffee]
Will be going back to 03 it seems.
Thanx CB [thumbsup]
i learned to use MS office on office 7. before that all i knew how to do was change fonts and make different color text, and i had no idea what excell was.
but going to school and using office 2003, the old one, the learning curve was much more level. things made more sense cause its more windows like. office 07 is kind of like windows vista from windows xp, everything got dumbed down that nothing made sense. why do i have to click 9,000 things to get to my printer in the control panel? so +1 on that.
i am still pissed that i paid for Office07...and then went back to 03.
Quote from: herm on July 09, 2009, 03:51:56 PM
i am still pissed that i paid for Office07...and then went back to 03.
My work had a deal w/ MS - $20 for full office 07 for your personal computer at home, and that might have been too much.
After using it for 2 years, I still suck at it compared to 03.
mitt
if open office would/could add an email client..........DA BOMB!!
Quote from: herm on July 09, 2009, 06:52:12 PM
if open office would/could add an email client..........DA BOMB!!
why does your "office" suite need an email client?
Quote from: derby on July 11, 2009, 12:55:52 PM
why does your "office" suite need an email client?
maybe just preference based on past experience?
there is a lot to be said for the seamless integration that comes with an office suite like MS office. especially for folks who are not all that technically proficient.
Quote from: herm on July 12, 2009, 02:43:08 PM
maybe just preference based on past experience?
i'll buy that, though that's really not a valid technical reason.
interesting article re: outlook inertia vs google apps:
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/168248/outlook_separation_anxiety_holds_back_google_apps.html (http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/168248/outlook_separation_anxiety_holds_back_google_apps.html)
Quote from: herm on July 12, 2009, 02:43:08 PM
there is a lot to be said for the seamless integration that comes with an office suite like MS office. especially for folks who are not all that technically proficient.
but what does that "seamless integration" really consist of? send document as email/attachment?
collaboration/shared calendar's etc are a completely different consideration (and they require a backend server).
Quote from: derby on July 12, 2009, 03:22:43 PM
i'll buy that, though that's really not a valid technical reason.
interesting article re: outlook inertia vs google apps:
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/168248/outlook_separation_anxiety_holds_back_google_apps.html (http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/168248/outlook_separation_anxiety_holds_back_google_apps.html)
but what does that "seamless integration" really consist of? send document as email/attachment?
collaboration/shared calendar's etc are a completely different consideration (and they require a backend server).
interesting article. touches on my feelings pretty well, i think.
1) gmail is pretty good. its even better that i can read my gmail in outlook. i like that i can check it from any machine.....but its not outlook.
2) google apps is a great idea..........until you lose your connection.
3) the idea of doing away with machine based applications is interesting, from the standpoint of saving space on the hard drive......but what if you lose your connection, or (god forbid) have really slow service?
i still feel that open office is the closest the MS office available. if they integrate a mail client, it has a far better shot at competing than google apps/gmail.
almost forgot....my early experience with MS office definitely had the benefit of the server tie in, allowing the functionality of the shared calander, etc...
Quote from: herm on July 12, 2009, 05:13:22 PM
i still feel that open office is the closest the MS office available. if they integrate a mail client, it has a far better shot at competing than google apps/gmail.
almost forgot....my early experience with MS office definitely had the benefit of the server tie in, allowing the functionality of the shared calander, etc...
but unless you have that backend server doing all the "collaboration" stuff, you have just another email client.
besides, i don't really see a need for the open office guys to develop their own outlook replacement when somebody has already done it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_%28software%29 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_%28software%29)
yeah,...........but if we go back to the OP, he is looking for just that.
yeah.. op says:
Quote from: Big Troubled Bear on July 08, 2009, 04:02:57 AM
The e-mail portion must have the same features as Outlook.
but outlook as a LOT of features... if this is for home use, i doubt he's talking about exchange integration and collaboration.
probably should've gotten clarification on that since i seriously doubt he needs exchange integration.
either way, open office + evolution... there ya go.
Open Office + Windows Live Mail (http://download.live.com/wlmail) may be a freebie solution.
Just noticed this email program since Hotmail is moving to POP access. Not sure of its capabilities and no FHE though.
To clarify I went from 03 to 07 and didn`t like it at all and after downloading Ooen Office and Thunderbird am now back to using MS O 03 [thumbsup]
haha...
you should check out the article derby linked in. pretty interesting, and spot on IMO. i have also looked for other options.....and found them wanting.