CNET's Cheapskate scours the Web for great deals on PCs, phones, gadgets and much more. Questions about the Cheapskate blog? Find the answers on our., and with it the Microsoft adopted a couple years back: $69 per year for the single-user Personal Edition, $99 per year for the five-user Home Edition or $149.99 to buy the suite outright. Make no mistake, I like Office. Word, Excel and PowerPoint have been refined and polished to a fine shine, and Outlook is arguably the best desktop mail client currently available, especially for business users. But for years many of us have been spoiled by Google Docs, OpenOffice and other free alternatives, to the point where it just seems ludicrous to pay for Microsoft's suite - even with its 1 terabyte of OneDrive cloud storage and (snicker) 60 minutes of monthly Skype time. (Excuse my mockery, but this is such a paltry value-add, one few people ever use, yet Microsoft wants you to think it's all that and a bag of chips.) My question for you, fellow cheeps: What's your solution?
Compatible with Excel 98 through Excel 2004 for Mac and Excel 97 through Excel 2003 for Windows. Saves settings such as formatting, headings, formulas, VBA macros, and custom toolbars. VBA macros do not run in Excel 2008.
My guess is you're not paying for Office either (unless you're getting it cheap or free as a student or from your company), but you still need word processing, spreadsheets and/or presentations. One of my longtime favorites, WPS Office (formerly Kingsoft Office), has become something of a mess. If you head to WPS.com, you find only Android, iOS and Linux versions of the suite. A little Googling reveals that Kingsoft proper still offers the Windows version, but good luck figuring out the. (My advice: click the Download button next to Office Suite Free 2013.
That's the version I used for a long while and really liked.) What about Google Docs? It's effective enough for basic document work, but file management is kind of a pain - especially if you use Google Drive as your portal. (If there's a way to sort your documents by file type, I haven't found it.) And like most of Google's Web-based apps, it's just ugly. I consider myself a creative guy, and when I'm creating stuff, I prefer a pretty interface.
Which brings us to Microsoft Office Online, a surprisingly decent set of tools that more or less rival what Google has to offer - but with a much prettier UI. If you don't need the higher-end feature packed into Word, Excel and PowerPoint (and I suspect most users don't), you might be surprised by how much you can accomplish with free Office Online. Now, your turn. What's your pleasure?
Old-standby OpenOffice? Something else entirely? Tell me (and everyone else) what tools you use to handle your everyday office-y tasks.
Bonus deal: Calling all Mac users! If you're getting ready to make the move to El Capitan, you'll no doubt want to make a full backup first. And for that you'll need software. For a limited time, you can grab.
Normally $19.95, this drive-cloning tool creates a bootable backup and includes features like file-syncing and scheduled activities. Bonus deal No. 2: You've probably heard this news by now, but just in case: Starting tomorrow (and ending tomorrow!), Amazon will offer a. Regular price: $99.
This offer is for new subscribers only, though if there's a gift option, you could theoretically buy that gift for yourself and use it to renew an existing subscription when the time comes. (You'll definitely want to read all the fine print to see if this would work. I'm only speculating.).
Apple's alternative to Office is iWork. It's the most comparable alternative to Microsoft's productivity suite, only it comes free with every Mac. The interface is different, and will take some time to get used to, but if you're really interested in kicking Office to the curb, the iWork suite is the best alternative on Mac. If you're ready for change, and Office's user interface, design, and tools aren't burned into your psyche, get Apple's iWork suite of apps. It comes preinstalled on new Macs, but you can also find it in the Mac App Store. Pages -.
Numbers-. Keynote - OpenOffice. OpenOffice by Apache is probably the most similar to Microsoft Office in look and design. It comes with a word processor, a spreadsheet maker, and a presentation creator, all with many of the same features their Office counterparts have.
Files are saved as open document format files, so they can be opened with any document viewer, including Office apps, without needing to be converted first. The best part is that OpenOffice is completely free. If you're looking for an alternative to Microsoft Office that looks and works pretty much exactly the same, but doesn't cost a dime, OpenOffice is for you.
LibreOffice is an open source productivity suite very similar to Microsoft Office that comes with a word processor, spreadsheet maker, and presentation creator. It also includes a vector graphics editor, a math formula editor, and a database manager.
Files are saved as open document format files, so you can open them with any document viewer, including Office apps, without needing to be converted first, though it does provide tools for saving a document as an Office-specific file. LibreOffice is totally free. It is very similar in design to Microsoft Office, with some minor differences in the design. LibreOffice is a solid replacement for the Office apps and includes some useful extra programs that Office doesn't even have. Google Docs is the easiest replacement for Microsoft office because it's so accessible.
If you have a Gmail account, or a Google Hangouts account, or a YouTube account, you have Google Docs. Just visit the web-based app from your browser and you can create word processor documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. There is a Google Drive app you can download onto Mac so you can work offline.
The changes will be made when your Mac is back online. Google Docs doesn't look at all like Microsoft Office, and has a very different user interface, but it does have many of the same, familiar features you know from Office. The thing that makes Google Docs so useful, however, is it's real-time collaboration, which works seamlessly with multiple users. I've worked alongside a dozen other people in one document. I am able to see where everyone is within the documents and can see exactly when changes are made. If you're looking for a very easy to use Office replacement that is ideal for working with others in real-time, you'll be pleased with Google Docs.
What's your pick? Do you use a Microsoft Office alternative you'd recommend to our readers that are new to Mac or just want to switch from Microsoft? Put your suggestion in the comments below and tell us why its the one you chose.