Alternatives to Microsoft office

[Trewithy]

I am about to get a new home computer with Windows 10 to replace my old Windows XP machine. Currently I have Microsoft Office 2007 which is mainly used for letter writing and a few simple spreadsheets. Are there any alternatives to MS Office. I have heard of Open Office, is it any good? I would need the ability to open and edit the spreadsheets and documents I have already got. 

[GMX]

I've been using Open Office since 2000 and more recently Libre Office. Libre Office has the advantage of a larger team of developers workign on it, so it's updated more frequently, usually monthly.

Both are vastly superior to MS Office by a long way: if you do switch, you'll be wondering why you used such an inferior office suite for so long.

You will have no problem open and editing MS Office files with either, all the way back to the very first version of MS Office, and moreover, you can choose which format you save to.

Open Office

https://www.openoffice.org/

Libre Office

https://www.libreoffice.org/

[BOF]

I'm in a similar position to GMX - have used OO for some time and, for the last few years, I'm on to LibreOffice. I'm not quite as enthusiastic, though.

Either of those two works reasonably well as a standalone product - some differences to MS Orifice, but hey, they are different programs. Where it can go a bit pear shaped is if you have to import complex documents from MS - simple documents usually work absolutely fine, but get too clever and you might have to rework the formatting. Usually the data is fine, but it may have flopped around the page somewhat, and there are situations in which that can be a real pain and others in which it can be a minor irritant. (And, if you have some authority looking over your shoulder, looking at data traceability and quality, and auditing data interchange, that would increase the difficulty.)

That said, it is actually difficult to claim that MS Office is perfectly MS Office compatible - across versions and with rather different printer set-ups you can have similar types of problems - .doc, for example, isn't really a document interchange format, and using it as such has some risks.
 

[Arwen]

I have Open Office installed on my work pc, simply because it is better at recovering damaged/corrupt MS office files. To use, Open office is alight, it gets the job done. I also use Google doc's for my personal stuff. I love how it sync's across devices so quickly. It is basic, but what more do you really need?
Is there a particular reason you don't want to stay with MS office? Many work places have the option to allow their employees to buy a copy for home use for £10, might be worth asking if you have an IT department. 

 

[alexp999]

You can still use office 2007 on Win 10, I do on my work PC.

Otherwise the best free one from my experience is Libre Office.

 

[TomsFocus]

I've used Open Office for years, mainly for the equivalent of Word and Excel and I can't fault them tbh!

[alexp999]

The original open office got oracled, it is not what it was.

Libre Office is a fork from before it got screwed up by oracle, and is the true spiritual successor to the original open office as many of the open office members moved to it.