topic Open Office vs MS Word in Electronics

Open Office vs MS Word

Laura14 — Mon, 07 May 2018 15:56:41 GMT

Asking for another blessing from the experts here.

I need a word processing program for personal use not business. Just looking to do a lot of personal writing that I can save to my laptop and I am having a hard time giving over my hard earned money to MS every single year for the privilege of using only 1 out of 5 of their personal 365 suite.

I don't want to get into Google Drive because the whole purpose of the laptop was to save my work privately on the machine and not in a cloud. I know that's ridiculous in this day and age but it's what I want. Plus I don't want to eventually get into storage issues and then I'm back in a payment situation there too.

I really miss the days of a typewriter sometimes.

Heard good things about Open Office which is free and supposedly close to the same thing as MS Word. Would that be a yay or nay? Is it a good substitute for Word that would serve my purpose or is there something else you can suggest out there?

Re: Open Office vs MS Word

jackthebear — Mon, 07 May 2018 16:17:58 GMT

I used open office briefly

looks very similar to MS Word

why don't you download and try it

I wouldn't pay for a years' license either

Re: Open Office vs MS Word

Laura14 — Mon, 07 May 2018 16:19:12 GMT

@jackthebear Thanks! I was going to do just that tonight unless someone screamed and told me not to. Appreciate it.

Re: Open Office vs MS Word

jackthebear — Mon, 07 May 2018 16:23:46 GMT

@Laura14 wrote:
@jackthebear Thanks! I was going to do just that tonight unless someone screamed and told me not to. Appreciate it.

lol

can always delete

Re: Open Office vs MS Word

Zhills — Mon, 07 May 2018 16:36:21 GMT

Have you looked at WordPad? It is already on your Windows computer under "Accessories."

It is compatible with MSWord.

Most people have never looked at Accessories to see what is there. Interesting!

Re: Open Office vs MS Word

glb613 — Mon, 07 May 2018 16:36:33 GMT

@Zhills wrote:
Have you looked at WordPad? It is already on your Windows computer under "Accessories."

Most people have never looked at Accessories to see what is there. Interesting!

Don't use wordpad. It's not compatible with anything. I'm surprised Microsoft still includes it.

Re: Open Office vs MS Word

Laura14 — Mon, 07 May 2018 16:45:31 GMT

@glb613 @Zhills I have heard both of these things about Wordpad. I will check it out and see if it is something I can use. Thanks!

Re: Open Office vs MS Word

Nightowlz — Mon, 07 May 2018 17:06:16 GMT

I would try Open Office. DH put it on my sisters laptop because she cannot afford MS Office.

I would not pay the price they want to use MS Office either.

DH can buy it thru work for $10 or $20 cannot remember. It's one price to just download with key or another price where you also get the disc which DH always wants. He uses the disc so he can put MS Office on the desktop & 3 laptops we have. We don't have to pay anything for it yearly.

Re: Open Office vs MS Word

Laura14 — Mon, 07 May 2018 17:13:33 GMT

Thanks @Nightowlz ! I was looking for the disc at Amazon as I don't mind a one time buy in but I don't think they sell it anymore or if they do I think someone told me they no longer security update that version.

I'll go check again although it sounds like open office will suit me just fine for free. Thank you for letting me know someone has good experience with it.

Re: Open Office vs MS Word

Zhills — Mon, 07 May 2018 17:18:09 GMT

@glb613 wrote:
@Zhills wrote:
Have you looked at WordPad? It is already on your Windows computer under "Accessories."

Most people have never looked at Accessories to see what is there. Interesting!
Don't use wordpad. It's not compatible with anything. I'm surprised Microsoft still includes it.

I just typed a page in WordPad, saved it and opened it in MSWord.

Also opened a MSWord Document in WordPad.

Works for me!

Re: Open Office vs MS Word

Laura14 — Mon, 07 May 2018 17:19:23 GMT

@Zhills wrote:
@glb613 wrote:
@Zhills wrote:
Have you looked at WordPad? It is already on your Windows computer under "Accessories."

Most people have never looked at Accessories to see what is there. Interesting!
Don't use wordpad. It's not compatible with anything. I'm surprised Microsoft still includes it.
I just typed a page in WordPad, saved it and opened it in MSWord.

Also opened a MSWord Document in WordPad.

Works for me!

Good to know!!

Re: Open Office vs MS Word

Nightowlz — Mon, 07 May 2018 17:20:08 GMT

@Laura14 wrote:
Thanks @Nightowlz ! I was looking for the disc at Amazon as I don't mind a one time buy in but I don't think they sell it anymore or if they do I think someone told me they no longer security update that version.

I'll go check again although it sounds like open office will suit me just fine for free. Thank you for letting me know someone has good experience with it.

@Laura14 I don't have any idea. I just know DH got it thru his work. He works on a military base so guess it's just a perk he gets. When my other sister was working on a naval base she was also able to buy MS Word cheap. DH always buy the one that costs more to get the disc so if he buys a new computer he can install it or if something happens to the computers we are using he can reinstall it. Was only suppose to be able to put it on 3 computers but found that not to be the case.

Re: Open Office vs MS Word

waymore81 — Tue, 08 May 2018 18:04:23 GMT

They both do basically the same thing but one is easier to operate compared to the other. For the price and personal use, go Open Office. It has a learning curve to it and isn't as easy to navigate compared to MS ( for me at least ).

Now I haven't used either in a long time so things may be different but you can probably YouTube some videos comparing both I'm sure.

Re: Open Office vs MS Word

AngelWhispers — Tue, 08 May 2018 22:59:33 GMT

My vote goes to Open Office! I have used it for years because I also didnt want to pay for MS Office. I have had no issues with it and it will open just about anything that MS Office will open. It's a great FREE program!

Re: Open Office vs MS Word

LexaMom — Wed, 09 May 2018 11:00:04 GMT

I have used open office - primarily for Spreadsheets. I started using it after Microsoft started charging a yearly subscription. Very happy with it. It is so rich in features - sometimes have to google to find a solution, but thus far, I have found that nothing is missing that I need.

Re: Open Office vs MS Word

WildDunes — Sun, 13 May 2018 18:57:53 GMT

I use MS Word and really like it. But I am a heavy user and Office just works better for me - I am a heavy Word user and also use PowerPoint, Publisher and Excel a lot. Even though I'm just doing my personal stuff I tend to refer to myself as a "word processor."

I do some informal teaching in a residential assocation and delved into both the OpenOffice and LibreOffice open source suites for teaching purposes. Much prefer Libre to OpenOffice. OpenOffice was having some organizational issues in the not-too-distant past, not sure if that's still the case.

And, yes, Wordpad, is a great little resource so long as you don't need to do much editing or formatting.

Good luck in finding what works for you.

Re: Open Office vs MS Word

Sweetbay magnolia — Sun, 13 May 2018 19:14:41 GMT

Have used OO on an iMac. A little clunky but not bad. Uses Java script in the background and had to ditch it to upgrade to the newer OS. Some will say it poses a security threat.

AS a previous poster indicated (@WildDunes, I think) there have been no updates to OO in quite some time and that is confusing.

Research it. It may be fine for you in the long run on a PC but I wouldn't touch it again on a Mac.

Re: Open Office vs MS Word

CJ — Wed, 16 May 2018 13:38:09 GMT

I still own and use my MS office program from 2003 and I like it so much better than the newer versions. So when I get a new computer I just download that. Works for me.

Re: Open Office vs MS Word

ceekay — Wed, 16 May 2018 18:22:43 GMT

@Laura14 - I have been using Open Office for about a year and a half now after using MS Word at work and home for decades. I like it and it does everything I need it to do. I do still have Word on an older computer so could use that in a pinch. Give it a try - since it's free you don't have much to lose. And I am with you about the cloud.

Re: Open Office vs MS Word

Laura14 — Wed, 16 May 2018 18:36:04 GMT

Thanks @ceekay. I have downloaded it but haven't had a chance to get in there and write with it but, at a glance, it looked good enough for me.