Microsoft Word / Excel

[Beach Hut]

Some thoughtful advice please.

Younger being 15 shortly has loads of homework which is normally done on our main house computer which is a MAC (NB this is not a debate about MAC / Microsoft etc).

So he has a laptop with Windows 7, where is best place to get the cheapest versions of word / excel ?

How much should we be spending on this ?

 

[clippedgull]

Amazon? £90 for home/student editions.

 

[El Sid]

Apache Open Office is free and should provide all the capability and compatibility your son needs.
Worth a look.

 

[Bozza]

A lot of organisations are on the Microsoft Home Use Program, meaning you get it for £8.95.

My Mac is polluted with Office for Mac as a result...

Microsoft Home Use Program - Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010. The software suite includes Word, Excel PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher, Access and more!

 

[jackanada]

if you really want to go microsoft then http://www.software4students.co.uk/ - much better deals and product than the expensive 'home and student edition' you get in shops.

I would really consider using libreoffice as this will do everything you want and is free.

 

[Beach Hut]

A lot of organisations are on the Microsoft Home Use Program, meaning you get it for £8.95.

My Mac is polluted with Office for Mac as a result...

Microsoft Home Use Program - Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010. The software suite includes Word, Excel PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher, Access and more!

Thanks, tried but advises work mail address does not let you do this

 

[8ace]

Apache Open Office is free and should provide all the capability and compatibility your son needs.
Worth a look.

This

 

[Beach Hut]

if you really want to go microsoft then http://www.software4students.co.uk/ - much better deals and product than the expensive 'home and student edition' you get in shops.

I would really consider using libreoffice as this will do everything you want and is free.

OK Apache has been mentioned as well.

So if he creates school homework with these programs and transfers to a memory stick to print at school would it work ?

 

[theonesmith]

if you really want to go microsoft then http://www.software4students.co.uk/ - much better deals and product than the expensive 'home and student edition' you get in shops.

I would really consider using libreoffice as this will do everything you want and is free.

As they say, this (for Student discounts, deals offers for premium software in UK - Software 4 Students)

 

[BHA Swiifty]

i bought mine with the laptop so it was £70 from PC world, £99 normally though.

 

[jackanada]

OK Apache has been mentioned as well.

So if he creates school homework with these programs and transfers to a memory stick to print at school would it work ?

yes

Open Office (Apache) and Libre Office are basically same program (believe they are 'forks' of previous Oo code)
They will open any file type and have the option to save as a word/excel doc to make sure it will open on the school computers. The only problem I have experienced (when teaching) is if you create word documents with lots of embedded pictures or tables some of the layout is lost when opening in microsoft word - easily fixed in a minute or 2, just need to be aware and not print without having a final check.

 

[Blackcap]

OK Apache has been mentioned as well.

So if he creates school homework with these programs and transfers to a memory stick to print at school would it work ?

Hi BH,

I use apache open office on a mac for my business accounts which I then send to my accountant who uses Excel on windows so I can confirm there's no problems with interoperabilty between the systems. It's completely free and can do pretty much everything that MS Office can. However, this comes with some caveats:

1) By default, OO saves documents into a file format which MS Office does not recognise. Therefore, if you are creating a document which needs to be opened in MS Office you need to remember to select the correct file format when saving the file. It's very easy but you have to remember to do it. If you are in a hurry and forget, you wont be able to open the document in MSO.

2) You sometimes get small differences in formatting between OO and MSO, particularly if you paste images into documents. So a document that looks beautiful in one system can end up looking crap in the other (works both ways).

3) If your kids are learning Word and Excel in school, they will be used to the toolbars and menus in those systems. Although OpenOffice can do everything that Word and Excel can, the menus and toolbars are arranged differently so be prepared to be bombarded with questions about where to find particular functions. I started off encouraging the kids to use OO but relented in the end and bought MS Office Home & Student for exactly this reason.

4) If they are doing any advanced stuff like macro programming, you're best advised to get MS Office.

 

[Beach Hut]

OK thanks everyone, we will download Apache onto the Net book and create some documents and then he can take them to school on a memory stick and test.

Thanks again for the useful information.