Microsoft Office has been ruling the roost since it first came onto the scene back in 1990. Say what you will about its price and its stubborn use of proprietary formats that have more or less monopolized the industry, but its 2016 iteration is pretty damn good, and people and businesses who fork out big cash on it generally don’t feel short-changed. But that doesn’t mean you can’t function perfectly well with some of the free Office alternatives which often come with their own perks that outdo those of Microsoft’s baby. There are many reasons not to want to be part of Microsoft’s ecosystem – privacy concerns, monopolization, lack of open source – and these fine software specimens will help you leave it. Let’s take a look at four of our favorite (free) alternatives for Microsoft Office.
These Microsoft Office free alternatives will let you download similar versions of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access. It's important to note that these free Office alternatives won't give you all the features of the originals but in many cases they'll get you awful close.
WPS Office (Formerly Kingsoft Office) Compatibility: Windows, Linux, iOS, Android If you’re ready to jump overboard from the Microsoft ship yet want to retain the overall look and feel of it, then does a damn fine job of making you forget that you’re not using MS Office. Like Microsoft’s more recent Office iterations, it has a banner-based interface with “Home,” “Insert,” and similar buttons rather than the traditional “File,” “Edit,” etc. That you find on many of the options listed here. It supports all the proprietary Microsoft formats, making the transition seamless and also has the bonus of coming with a nifty PDF reader. Unlike many of the other free Office alternatives, WPS also packs 1GB free cloud storage. (Hey, don’t snicker.
Back in my day only millionaires could afford that kind of storage capacity, and “cloud” was just a word for those puffy things in the sky.) For such a light package, WPS looks and feels the part. Chinese developer Kingsoft has really gone all out in providing not so much an alternative to Office but almost a mirror image of it! LibreOffice Compatibility: Windows, macOS, Linux The office suite from the people who formerly worked on the now-defunct OpenOffice, is the natural continuation of the open-source dream that began all the way back with StarOffice in 1985. (Yep, that kind of makes it older than Microsoft Office!) In this free office suite you have equivalents to Word, Excel and PowerPoint. While Draw is a diagramming tool similar to Visio, Math is used for creating complex mathematical formulae, and Base is Libre’s answer to Microsoft Access, allowing creation and management of databases.
The interfaces are a little more old school than the fancy ribbons of Office, but it’s replete with features for both basic and advanced users that arguably beat out Microsoft’s offering. It has huge support for all kinds of obscure formats, and the buzzing community is always coming up with nifty extensions to help you tailor it to your exact needs. FreeOffice Compatibility: Windows, macOS, Linux, Android If you’re looking for something a little more intuitive and perhaps not quite as feature heavy, then you may prefer over Libre.
It’s super-compatible with Microsoft’s infamous yet omnipresent formats –.doc,.xls,.ppt and so on – and lets you export in formats such as the common PDF and the not-so-common ePub e-book format. FreeOffice only features the standard three programs – its answers to Word, Excel and PowerPoint – but for most people these will suffice, negating the clutter of extra software. Something to bear in mind is that while FreeOffice is indeed free, you will need to apply for a product key to get it running.
This shouldn’t be a problem, however, and as far as I know you won’t get rejected. Google Drive Compatibility: Windows, macOS, Linux (unofficial), Android, iOS This is kind of an obvious one and at the same time a controversial one. ‘s holy trinity of Docs, Sheets and Slides has triggered a mass exodus of around 800 million people so far towards a cloud-based way of working. None of the office apps in Google Drive are as feature-rich as the dedicated, hard drive-based suites I mentioned before, but they make up for it with seamless syncing across devices, instantaneous auto-saving, and excellent options for collaboration, allowing multiple people to work on the same documents simultaneously and easily communicate with each other while they work. It’s lightweight compared to the competition in some ways (fitting, given its cloud-based nature), but the Google Drive suite is a must-have, even if you end up using it alongside your existing office suite rather than instead of it. Conclusion These are just some of the free alternatives that should give you hope that there is life outside Microsoft Office.
Try the three choices and see what you think because it really is a case of seeing which one’s best suited to your needs rather than there really being a universe ‘Number 1.’ Or maybe you do have a favorite. If so, let us know what it is in the comments! The one thing that can be said for MS Office is that it is the most used office suite in the world.
![Alternative Alternative](/uploads/1/2/5/6/125638338/663242747.png)
Therefore it is the de facto standard. However, quantity (market share or the number of users) does not indicate quality.
For proof we just have to remember the VHS vs. Betamax battle.
By all accounts Betamax was a superior product but VHS forced it off the market. What’s that you say? Ribbons shows MS Office’s superiority? Many people swear BY them but many people swear AT them. “Microsoft’s infamous yet omniscient formats” Not to pick nits but shouldn’t that be ‘omnipresent’ or ‘ubiquitous’ instead of ‘OMNISCIENT’?
‘Omniscient’ means ‘all-knowing’ which MS formats certainly are not. You are absolutely right, DM. Other than at work, where I use whatever I’m given, I NEVER use Microsoft Office and I haven’t for years. I’ve used Star Office, Wordperfect, OpenOffice, and LibreOffice for many years instead of Microsoft Office, though in my current work, I use Word and Excel quite often and occasionally PowerPoint or one of the other tools.
SharePoint is perhaps one of the most useful MS apps, but I’d only use it at work; again there are plenty of other forum and information sharing resources available that offer many different, but capable and interesting alternatives. I’ve used StarOfficeOpenOfficeWPS (formerly Kingston Office suite!) and currently LibreOffice. And while there might be a few issues here and there with some of them? For BASIC office documentation use? In my opinion LibreOffice reigns supreme. Granted, LibreOffice itself spawned from OpenOffice so maybe I should say OpenOffice reigns supreme? Either way, for just typing up a memo, working on basic spreadsheets (with formulas no less!).and creating stellar presentations for mass consumption or specific events, LibreOffice gets the job done.and best of all it does it for free, minus a “One-Time-Price-Of” whatever, and it doesn’t shoehorn you into having to pay for some “Premium” version that adds functionality, it works fully featured straight out the gate.
So while other offerings might be more compatible with Microsoft’s formats, you could have a Small to Medium Business function perfectly fine using LibreOffice throughout. Its when you get specialized and need extra functionality that things become difficult and all wonky. But that’s what makes the ability to install and use whichever version you need such a joy.
You’re almost certain to find what you’re looking for online without having to pay through the nose.or minus having to jump through hoops (fill out this form, then wait for the link in your email, and when you get it enter your username, password, and region, then click “send” and check your spam folder for a message from the source team, which will send you the link to download the app!LoL!!) Nah, for just basic stuff?LibreOffice fits the bill. If you want something not so “heavy” there’s WPS.or Google Docs(which I personally despise, since they’re cloud basednot a big fan of cloud tech, convergence, etc).
Click to expand.Apple now includes Pages, Numbers and Keynote with all Macs. I like Pages and Numbers but suspect users coming from Office won't. However, Keynote destroys Powerpoint utterly. As far as databases, you're entering the 'Nix world with a Mac and there are lots to choose from. Various SQL based varieties generally, all free. MySQL offers tools to migrate your data out of access and there are other options that are just a google away.
As others have said, LibreOffice includes the 'Base' tool which may also suit. Then there's the option of just running your Windows software on your Mac - you can do this by using a virtualisation tool like VMWare or VirtualBox and then you can just run the Windows tools you need directly on your Mac. If you've still got your Windows software licenses, you should just be able to install a fresh Windows in VirtualBox and then install Office in that. These virtual environments integrate nicely with the Mac (especially VMWare which I use) so they can even launch the Windows applications from Finder. Class CustomerAdmin ( admin. ModelAdmin ): listdisplay = ( 'code', 'name', 'phone' ) searchfields = 'code', 'name' ) ordering = ( 'name' ) You get a full admin interface with searching. Django auto-magically make it work, and you don't need to write html/js/css for the auto-generated admin site.
It is fairly customizable in ways that are close to the capabilities of Acces (and more). Django can work with postgresql (and the best way to install it: ), mysql, sqlite and others. The good thing of doing this is that you are not as limited as with a tool like acces, and exist TONS of info about django. The bad is that you need some programming skills if wanna step-out the automatic admin generation for more 'complex' work. And that don't exist nothing like the Acces Report generator included on django or any other kind of software tool I can think of. I've been using Windows Access since 1993 and Excel since 1990 (Mac) and 1993 (Windows).
There's no real substitute on the Mac platform for Access, although Excel's file size has allowed deeper/larger data sources for a few years. I've managed to use Excel to provide a data resource for products that Access was the only option until a few years ago. I tried Filemaker but found it was a pretty weak option for larger data pools. I've been 'all in' on the Mac platform for over a decade and wished for a competent alternative for Access - UNIX is so much more powerful than anything on Windows - but I'm still using Access. My solution was to sign up for Office 365 Home and Office, so I get Access in that package.
I use Parallels 10 and Windows 8.1, with Access 2013 installed on that partition. I bought a year's subscription to Office 365 via Amazon - a 40% discount over MS's cost. I get Access 2013 for about $3 per month after the cost of Parallels ($50 upgrade) and Win 8.1 ($40). And I don't have to ask for the 'Mac equivalent question' you did.
I also won't use Excel 2011 as a substitute for Excel 2013. I've been using Excel since version 4 in college. Excel 2013, and its database size may be what you're looking for. MS's newer iterations may be nice to use, but Excel 2013's file size (huge) may serve what you're looking for - it's working for me and my small company. Excel 2011 is too gimped and there's nothing I can think of on the Mac platform that can compete with MS's offerings on Windows. Click to expand.The most recent version of PowerPoint for the Mac is 2011 (which is basically 2010 for Windows) and I've used both it and KeyNote.
Of the two, KeyNote is by far the better tool for putting together a set of slides. I'm less fond of the current version of KeyNote so I've kept 09 around too but the latest version does gain many points due to the integration between KeyNote for Mac and iOS because on my iPad I can see the next slide, I can control the presentation and I can even turn on a pointer or pen and annotate sides as I go. Seriously, it is really good. Heck, I can happily sit and edit slides on my iPhone or iPad and as it is all integrated with iCloud those changes are there on the Mac too. I'm sure MS has some similar features but they always seem to find a way to cripple things just a bit to get you to pay more.
With the Mac, all this stuff comes with the machine.