fret_man
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MS Office light weight alternatives
I am trying very hard to keep my music DAW clean from other non-music related apps but finding more and more that I need read/edit access to Word and Excel documents. What have you found that works well but is light weight and free? Anyone have experience with these or something else I've overlooked? I will only be using it occasionally.
MS Office Online
Google Docs/Sheets (but docs aren't always converted correctly and look funny cuz they use web fonts)
Libre Office (but how disruptive/invasive is the install?)
Softmaker FreeOffice but how disruptive/invasive is the install?)
WPS Office (I know nothing about it)
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jude77
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Re: MS Office light weight alternatives
2017/12/30 23:48:14
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☄ Helpfulby gswitz 2017/12/31 15:15:20
I use Libre and FreeOffice. Both were pretty painless to install and use. I haven't had any problems from either in relation to other software. You're smart to keep your music computer light. I do the same thing.
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cclarry
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Re: MS Office light weight alternatives
2017/12/31 00:49:25
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I use LibreOffice also...it's free...and does everything I need
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JohnKenn
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Re: MS Office light weight alternatives
2017/12/31 01:12:01
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Second these guys' good opinions. Lots of pseudo suites out there trying to catch up with the latest MS extension. Libre Office, Open Office are about the best available, plus open source and free. Some kind of legal crap, barrier making it harder to implement changes in this hemisphere with Open Office. Essentially one and the same, but Libre can do updates faster with less bureaucratic red tape. They always seem to be one step ahead. Remember maybe a decade ago downloading Open Office to try, and it was a bugged joke. Not now. Either suite will cut through the majority of the MS Office tasks with extras, and only getting better. https://www.libreoffice.org/ John Off topic and just for the hell of it, Libre Office is to MS Office, like Gimp is to Adobe Photoshop. Powerful open source rival to the expensive, authorization restricted coin of the realm. Way cool program if you got anything to do with graphics. https://www.gimp.org/
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jyoung60
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Re: MS Office light weight alternatives
2017/12/31 02:14:36
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Not sure why WPS hasn't caught on like it deserves. While the others do a decent job of MS compatibilty, I've never known an office suite that is practically an MS Office clone. There are only a few things different, but WPS is so close to a free MS Office it's a no-brainer.
(Disclaimer: While my opinions have never carried much weight because I choose products that are
on the edge, be aware that my opinions have a 99% success rate of being very, very reliable.)
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StepD
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Re: MS Office light weight alternatives
2017/12/31 03:14:47
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I've been using OpenOffice for many years and have had good luck with it. It gets updated fairly often and is pretty compatible these days.
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mettelus
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Re: MS Office light weight alternatives
2017/12/31 03:31:21
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+1 to the above. Another thing to consider is the portable-specific apps, since they do not create registry entries nor are required to be resident on your computer. They are often light-weight and designed to be run from a thumb drive as needed. Apache OpenOffice, and LibreOffice (both mentioned above) have portable versions. PortableApps.com is a good resource for these ( https://portableapps.com/apps/office is specific to office apps, and can be navigated on the left side).
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TheMaartian
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Re: MS Office light weight alternatives
2017/12/31 14:03:34
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I use, and like very much, Ashampoo's Burning Studio 19. It replaced several, less-capable, less-stable freeware apps. Based on that experience, I would recommend taking a look at their MS Office suite (it's currently on sale for $29.99). They have just released the 2018 version, and it now includes the MS Ribbons in addition to the regular menus. Ribbons took me awhile to get used to, but I love them now. Much easier to navigate than menus. https://www.ashampoo.com/en/usd/pin/1238/office-software/office-2018 It includes Word, Excel and Powerpoint modules. You don't get all of the extra bloat I get with my MS Office 365 subscription ($80/year) like Access, One Note (I use Evernote anyway), Publisher and who knows what else. I stick with it because: a) I've been on Office from day 1 (from work), and b) I use Outlook extensively and would need to keep that.
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BobF
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Re: MS Office light weight alternatives
2017/12/31 14:32:15
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mkerl
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Re: MS Office light weight alternatives
2017/12/31 14:37:20
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TheMaartian
I would recommend taking a look at their MS Office suite (it's currently on sale for $29.99). They have just released the 2018 version, and it now includes the MS Ribbons in addition to the regular menus. Ribbons took me awhile to get used to, but I love them now. Much easier to navigate than menus.
https://www.ashampoo.com/en/usd/pin/1238/office-software/office-2018
It includes Word, Excel and Powerpoint modules.
The Ashampoo Office is in Fact the Office from Softmaker. Just another Label on it, but same Software. That's why Textmaker, Planmaker and Presentations are the modules included. BTW; I use the softmaker Office 2016 and like it. It's lightning fast and you can install it on an USB-Stick and take it with you, that's pretty cool. Hth Cheers :)
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synkrotron
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Re: MS Office light weight alternatives
2017/12/31 14:56:49
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AllanH
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Re: MS Office light weight alternatives
2017/12/31 14:58:24
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The simplest is to use Microsoft's hosted product at Live.com or Outlook.com (or your own email). It's free and excellent. It's the free version of Office 365's web components.
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bdickens
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Re: MS Office light weight alternatives
2017/12/31 15:57:02
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Another vote for Open Office.
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bdickens
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Re: MS Office light weight alternatives
2018/01/01 00:22:41
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Is there anything like Gimp for video?
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Snehankur
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Re: MS Office light weight alternatives
2018/01/01 05:06:15
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StepD
I've been using OpenOffice for many years and have had good luck with it. It gets updated fairly often and is pretty compatible these days.
YES..
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JonD
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Re: MS Office light weight alternatives
2018/01/01 06:01:52
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Another happy Libre Office user here. I think Open Office and Libre are the two most popular free alternatives. Best to just try both for yourself and compare resource usage on your system.
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