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From the top of the page, select Services and subscriptions and on that page find the Office product you want to install and select Install. To install Office in a different language, or to install the 64-bit version, select the link Other options. Choose the language and bit version you want, and then select Install. Though Microsoft Office is the 800-pound gorilla of productivity software, it's not the best choice for every home or business user. Some people find that the cost, which runs from $70 a year for.
As the name suggests, Microsoft Office is a software package that is suitable for various office tasks. It combines different applications for text processing, for creating tables, presentations , databases, as well as its own e-mail program. An advantage is that many companies use Microsoft Office, which makes it easy to exchange files. This comfort comes at a price: even the simplest installation package costs around $10 per employee per month). For private customers, it currently costs around $70 for a single user, with licenses for several users creeping into the three-digit range. Many users find these prices too high, so what are the free Microsoft Office alternatives?
Microsoft Office Online: work from anywhere
If you don’t mind only being able to work when there’s an internet connection, you can switch to the online version of Microsoft Office. The advantage is that you can access your files from any computer, so there’s no need to worry if you leave your laptop at home. It’s also possible for several users to work on a single document at once using the online version with trackable changes. You also don’t have to install Office updates ever again: the online version is always up-to-date.
The online version of Microsoft Office comes, of course, with some disadvantages. It runs somewhat slower than the desktop version and its speed is also dependent on the quality of the internet connection. Many users don’t feel comfortable storing their work on a server, since they can’t control how secure the data is. There’s also a security risk associated with the internet connection: if you use public WiFi to access Microsoft Office Online, your uploaded data could be intercepted and read. Ultimately, Microsoft Office Online also has fewer features than the classic Microsoft Office package: the applications are limited to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. If you require more features, you should look at other Microsoft Office alternatives.
OpenOffice: the most popular Microsoft Office alternative
OpenOffice is probably the most well-known alternative to Microsoft Office. The software package is similar to that of Microsoft Office, and also offers programs for word processing and creating tables, presentations, and databases. It additionally boasts a program for processing mathematical formulas. Overall, the layout and operation of OpenOffice can be compared to the Microsoft package. The features are practically identical. For some users, it might be crucial that OpenOffice doesn’t use the ribbon layout that has characterized Microsoft Office since 2007. An important difference is that OpenOffice can open all file formats from Microsoft, but cannot save.docxfor Word, .xslx for Excel, nor .pptx for PowerPoint. When you save your work, you therefore have to switch to .doc, .xsl, and .ppt. This can lead to small shifts in the formatting of text documents. Before printing anything out from OpenOffice, it is therefore recommended to always export files as .pdf. OpenOffice works on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.
LibreOffice: alternative for OpenOffice
LibreOffice split off from OpenOffice in 2010 after Oracle took over. The Office package is similar to OpenOffice in many ways. However, unlike OpenOffice, LibreOffice can also save docx, .xslx, and .pptx files. In practice, however, there are occasional small shifts in the layout. Since the development of OpenOffice has been neglected for a while, LibreOffice now has a competitive edge. This is why this program is seen by many as the current best Microsoft Office alternative.
There are many more updates for LibreOffice then OpenOffice, which makes the package especially interesting for users who like to be up-to-date and try out the newest versions. In the past, however, LibreOffice developers have sometimes integrated undeveloped features into their software – or errors have arisen during the development of new features. These are then rectified in the next version. Just like OpenOffice, LibreOffice works on Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X. It also offers a viewer for Android.
WPS Office Free: paid through ads
WPS Office Free is the free version of the WPS Office Business Package. This Microsoft Office alternative consists of a word processor, a program for creating presentations, and one for creating tables. WPS Office Free is compatible with Microsoft Office file formats, and the package also uses the ribbon interface instead of a traditional menu. The Office package is available for Windows and Linux, and for mobile operating systems iOS and Android.
WPS is similar to newer versions of Microsoft Office, more so than OpenOffice and LibreOffice, but is more flexible that its role model. Users that don’t like the ribbon interface can easily switch to the static menu. Another benefit of WPS are the tabs, which make it easier to switch between documents. The paragraph layout tool also simplifies the design of paragraphs. Eye protection mode is quite unique, giving the sceen background a gentle green touch. Night mode causes the background to change to a medium gray.
What some users might see as a disadvantage is that an advertisement will be displayed when printing or exporting a document as a .pdf. To avoid advertisements completely, a license can be bought. Showing ads is definitely an improvement to what WPS used to do, which was to always incorporate a watermark into printed documents and exported .pdf files.
Calligra Office: for creative users and Linux users
Calligra is probably the most specific of the Office packages mentioned here. Although it is theoretically available for Windows, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, and Linux, it works best with Linux. Calligra is particularly useful for those wanting to use it for creative purposes. Like the other alternatives to Microsoft Office, Calligra has programs suitable for word processing (Words), creating tables (Sheets), and presentations (Stage). Its three programs are similar to those of OpenOffice and LibreOffice, but the number of functions is similar to Google Docs. The file formats of Microsoft Office can only open Calligra, but not save it. Microsoft Office files also can’t be saved.
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The distinctive features of Calligra Office are its creative applications, above all. One of them is a drawing program, known as Krita, which is seen as a competitor to GIMP – having won the 'Artist’s Choice Award' from ImagineFX in 2015. Krita has not been released by its own foundation, but is still included in the Calligra Office package and all Krita developers are members of the KDE community, which also develops Calligra Office. Krita is mostly known for its brush options, and for its interface, which enables the editing window to quickly be adapted to a current project.
Softmaker FreeOffice: Microsoft Office Alternative from Germany
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FreeOffice was developed by software creator Softmaker in Germany, and is a good alternative to Microsoft Office. The 3 applications offered are called TextMaker, PlanMaker, and Presentations. Softmaker uses FreeOffice’s 2016 version, which makes it easy to use, and means it has good functionality. The packet requires little memory and even runs from a USB stick, which makes it easy to use on different computers. The layout is similar to that of Microsoft Office XP, which provides intuitive operation without the ribbon layout. FreeOffice is available for Linux and Windows – for Android, there is both a smartphone and a tablet version.
FreeOffice can easily open data files .doc and .docx, .xls and.xlsx, and .ppt and .pptx, as well as older Microsoft formats. However, if you plan to save .docx, .xlsx, and .pptx files, you must use the paid version of SoftMaker Office. The program bundle also contains a thesaurus, a formula editor, and advanced image editing functions. A nice extra in the free package is that .epub files can be exported, which was added as a feature in the 2016 version. A huge advantage is that SoftMaker offers great manufacturer support.
Overview of all office packages
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Microsoft today launched Office for Android and iOS in general availability. The unified app means you no longer need to download, install, and switch between the individual Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps. The company today also announced new features coming to the app this spring: Word Dictation, Excel Cards View, and Outline to PowerPoint. You can download the app now for Android phones and tablets (limited support) from Google Play and for iOS from Apple’s App Store (iPhone-only, iPad support is coming later). You can use Office for free, and if you sign in with a Microsoft Account or connect a third-party storage service you can access and store documents in the cloud.
Microsoft has over 200 million monthly active Office 365 business users and over 37 million Office 365 consumer subscribers. When the company launched the new Office mobile app as a public preview in November, “tens of thousands of people” rushed to try it. Microsoft has found that most users and businesses want to use the Office app as a hub or starting point for all their document work. “The idea behind the Office app is to give our users a single place from which they can access all their relevant content,” Office product manager Nithya Sampathkumar told VentureBeat. But that’s not the only reason to adopt it — Microsoft’s push to roll out nifty AI features in Office is especially noticeable in this launch.
Between public preview and general availability, the Office app has gained several enhancements. On both Android and iOS, Office now includes templates to help you create new documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, as well as support for third-party cloud storage services Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, and iCloud. On iOS, you can now create a Presentation from images and use Dark Mode. On Android, Office gained a bunch of tablet optimizations.
Additive featuresMicrosoft Office Replacement Programs
The only functionality that the standalone Word, Excel, and PowerPoint mobile apps have that Office doesn’t yet have is optimized tablet support on Android and iOS. Other than that, all the functionality of the existing mobile apps is there. You can thus uninstall the other three apps if you’d like. After all, the Office app does take up less space than the three apps. Additionally, businesses now only need to deploy and update one app. We asked Microsoft 365 general manager Rob Howard if the three will be killed off, and he said no.
“There’s definitely no disruption we want to cause,” Howard said. “There are hundreds of millions of downloads of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint as individual apps on Android and iOS. We’re not getting rid of those, killing those, or telling people they need to change their workflow. If people are happy with those and excited about them, we absolutely want them to continue using them.”
We asked Microsoft for a full list of features in the Office app that aren’t available in the individual Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps. If you do choose to install Office, here’s what you can expect.
Home
First, there’s the Home screen, which has the following features:
The AI-based recommended documents section is pretty powerful because it leverages the Microsoft Graph to serve up relevant suggestions. It takes into consideration which documents you’ve created that others have read or edited, which documents you have read and edited, how long you spent in a document, recency, frequency, sharing, and so on. “It’s taking all of that signal about all the different ways you collaborate and then building recommendations on what’s the content that I’m most likely to be interested in, and then looking at the activity of those documents and prioritizing them using machine learning,” Howard explained.
Best of all, the Office app tries to precache documents so you can open them quickly (or even offline).
New button and Actions
Next, there’s the New button, which includes:
Lens is worth calling out because it uses AI to convert images taken with your device’s camera into editable Word and Excel documents. Lens can also scan PDFs, capture whiteboards, and even automatically digitally enhance what was captured. The next three options also leverage AI to help make content creation in Office much more productive on mobile. “Lens is all about connecting the physical world and pulling into the digital word,” Howard said.
Finally, there are Actions, which represent common tasks people encounter on the go:
Interestingly, almost all of these are mobile-only experiences. Again, Microsoft isn’t just porting over desktop features here.
Word Dictation, Excel Cards, and Outline to PowerPoint
Microsoft also shared what’s next for the Office app. Word, Excel, and PowerPoint help you view documents and maybe even do a little light editing. Office is meant to be for “more sophisticated work.”
“The big focus for us with Office on mobile is to help people not just consume content but also create content,” said Howard. “To help them really be productive on the phone.”
Microsoft plans to ship the next three features this spring.
Word Dictation will do exactly what you’d expect — it will use AI to turn your voice into written text. But that’s not all — you will be able to use voice commands (such as “numbered list” or “new line”) while still having access to toolbars and formatting options as you dictate.
Excel Cards View converts table rows to a more digestible card format so you do not have swipe back and forth across columns on your screen. It’s essentially an easier way to view and edit the data in an Excel row on mobile.
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Outline to PowerPoint lets you write your presentation content as a simple outline. PowerPoint Designer, the AI-powered service that offers presentation suggestions, will then turn it into slides using styling, formatting, and iconography.
Beyond Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
These features will be coming to the new Office app first and will show up in the individual Word, Excel, and PowerPoint soon after. Howard explained that while the codebase is the same for all these apps, the testing they go through is different, resulting in a lag between the same feature landing in different apps.
Microsoft is also exploring whether to build more apps into the Office app, such as OneNote. “We are looking at ‘How do we add more capabilities?'” Sampathkumar said. “Users do tell us, ‘We see this as a content hub. We want to see OneNote here.’ We are looking at how we can add it while still keeping the size small. We don’t want the size of the app to bloat up. Because for users who do not use OneNote, they don’t want a bloated app.”
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