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Respected Contributor
Posts: 2,005
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Anyone use the free WPS Office Suite

[ Edited ]

I have my new HP Windows 11 laptop all set up except getting Microsoft Office 365. I have Office 2007 but I know that won't be compatible. I don't know why Microsoft can't just sell a one time Office Suite like they used other than to a student version. My understanding is if you buy Microsoft 365 you have to renew it every year but you will still have your documents but will not be able to change or update them after you do not renew it?

Does anyone have an older daughter Microsoft Office that still can be used on Windows 11 or a free office that does the Word and Outlook that will work on Windows 11?

That is why I was wondering about the WPS Office.
Thank you.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 11,923
Registered: ‎03-19-2010

Re: Anyone use the free WPS Office Suite

[ Edited ]

I have a MAC, so different operating systems.  However, I used to use the stand-alone MS Office.  At some point a document I was working on started continually shutting down due to some sort of error and no matter what I did to fix it, the problem kept returning.  I went on a search for a free alternative since I could no longer trust MS Office and I knew an upgrade would require a subscription.

 

One of those free alternatives you might look into is LibreOffice which also works on both Windows and Mac.  I did use it for a bit, but ended up migrating to MAC's own word processing program Pages.  Both allow you to import MS Office documents and you can also export back to a MS Office format so others can read your documents.

 

And if you're on Facebook, there's a LibreOffice Users Group.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 14,752
Registered: ‎03-15-2014

Re: Anyone use the free WPS Office Suite

I don't know about WPS - haven't heard of it.

 

But, if you have a free Microsoft account (for email, for example), you can use its online apps for free. The available apps may be stripped-down versions, I'm not sure.  And the other drawback is that your documents can only be saved to the Cloud, not, for example, to your computer.  It's not ideal, I know, but if you're not a heavy user, it's better than paying $$$ every year.

Frequent Contributor
Posts: 140
Registered: ‎03-22-2010

Re: Anyone use the free WPS Office Suite

I no longer use WPS Office Suite due to the yearly cost.   When I got my new laptop a couple of years ago I found free software.   For the word docs it is called TextMaker and for spreadsheets planmaker.   They both will open word documents.   Do a google search to find them.   I really like both of them.   I

Honored Contributor
Posts: 14,752
Registered: ‎03-15-2014

Re: Anyone use the free WPS Office Suite


@quilter61 wrote:

For the word docs it is called TextMaker and for spreadsheets planmaker.   They both will open word documents.   Do a google search to find them.   I really like both of them.  


I agree - the FreeOffice product is quite good.  Its apps - TextMaker, PlanMaker, and Presentations - are similar to and compatible with Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.  I have used it on both my computer and my mother's.  I believe there's now a paid version of FreeOffice - I think it gets you more frequent updates - but that's strictly optional 

Respected Contributor
Posts: 2,005
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: Anyone use the free WPS Office Suite

Thank you to all! 
I will bring my new computer up tomorrow and download the TextMaker Office. I bookmarked the site on my iPad and also sent to my email on my laptop.

I sure missed the forums when they were gone. I called after 6 days and the CS rep said they were not aware of the forum being down. It was down a long time. I am sure others emailed it called and they just weren't finding the problem.

Respected Contributor
Posts: 3,491
Registered: ‎06-24-2011

Re: Anyone use the free WPS Office Suite

@MKR14  I recently bought the Microsoft Office Home and Student 2021 edition for $150 because I don't want to have to renew every year. I save to my computer and also sometimes to a flash drive. 365 is great if you want to save to the cloud and can always depend on the internet working. At work a couple years ago, we lost our internet connection almost daily - so frustrating - and that's why I like Office 2021.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 11,923
Registered: ‎03-19-2010

Re: Anyone use the free WPS Office Suite

I don't trust the cloud, so I don't want my stuff automatically saved to it.