Open Office or MS Office

[stevenrw]

I hope this is on the right board..
Some advice please.
I've offered my services as a volunteer at the local Age Concern Office to help people with basic computer skills. I am looking for either Microsoft Office or similar for a lady there who has just bought her first lappy. She was told that you can d/l MS Office for free but I advised her to approach that with some caution, on the basis that if it looks too good to be true etc etc...
So two questions for you chaps.
1. If she does get a free download will she end up with more spyware than you can shake a mouse at or is there a legit way to get a cut down version for free? By definition, she is a pensioner so will not be able to justify buying a full version of MS Office.
2. I suggested Open Office as a free alternative but it seems to be called Apache Open Office now. Is this the same and is it compatible with MS Word, for example. I don't think she will be venturing into Excel or Publisher any time soon, she needs a basic (free) word processing program
Any pointers would, as always be much appreciated.

[colirv]

There is no free version of MS Office. I would try her on WordPad, which is free and bundles with Windows, and see if that meets her needs - which it may well do. If it doesn't, I did use Open Office on an earlier machine. It was fine, and was certainly compatible with Word.

[Bill]

Have a look at LibreOffice.

Some Wiki information on it.

I switched to it from NeoOffice on the iMac, and like it.

[john]

Both MS Office and Open Office are probably far more comprehensive than she needs. You can of course you them to create and edit simple documents but the myriad of options available the interface may be a bit daunting for her. Both are designed to be used in a commercial environment and have to provide functionality that would probably be never be needed by a casual user.

There are some comparisons of office suites here

Hope this helps.

[Technical Ben]

Open Office is now (practically) Libre Office, so go with that for the free version, or MS WordPad. A full subscription or purchase of MS office is overkill. MS word is expensive enough, but I'm not sure if it's even available on it's own anymore.

I've moved most people I know over to Libre Office. I have a few keys to a few old copies of Word/Works etc, but getting hold of the install disks is impossible. Buying new is practically the budget/cost of the computer it's self, so totally out of the question these days (most people are not spending the £500-£1000 on a PC they use to).

Functionally Libre Office seems the same. It has very few if any difficulty opening MS documents too. Wordpad is as others have said good enough for writing letter.

PS, I don't remember any adds with Libre Office, but the default these days seems to be any installer now comes with "Add Chrome/McAfee/Ask Toolbars/scanners", even Adobe is doing it. But no spyware or problematic stuff. Just untick any additional offers.

[cavillas]

Don't forget that Ability word processor is exceptionally good and light on resources, also easy to get to grips with.  Another one is Atlantis word processor which has many more features.  Both will open, save and edit all MS office documents.

[Bill]

Don't forget that Ability word processor is exceptionally good and light on resources, also easy to get to grips with.  Another one is Atlantis word processor which has many more features.  Both will open, save and edit all MS office documents.

I wouldn't know about those- they're Windows programs

[Simon]

 

[Technical Ben]

Hi. Kind of new development. There technically is a "Free" version of MS office. It's part of the Live.com account (or similar from MS). You can go to "Live Apps" and select "Word", "Excel" and a few others. Must run in a supported browser. I'm not sure if you can easily link to it (book mark) though. Which is a problem, as most users would not like the faff of going through all the menu options just to get to word.

[stevenrw]

Mmmm, interesting. That is a new development. I'm sure those tiles weren't there last time I looked. Not that it would affect me, but I would assume that there is a limit to how many docs you could produce, as they store them online.
However, a bit of a bonus for that minority that require all the features that Word offers.

[Technical Ben]

I think it was there before, but under "Cloud Apps" or something strange. I've not had a change to use it, only booted it up, so not seen if it does local saves or not. Though for simple hot desking I might use it for a couple of quick things.