Question:
Just got new package from Dell but just realised that it doesn't have MS Office Suite which I normally use, just has MS Works which I'm not very familiar with. I've looked on PC World's web and see that it's pretty expensive to buy MS Office Suite but wonder if anyone can direct me to anywhere I can buy cheaper. Thanks.
Answers:
You can always try open office, which is a free alternative to MS Office. Try
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You can always try open office, which is a free alternative to MS Office. Try
I second this. Especially if you dont use Office at work. I do, and we have a licence for home use. If this wasn't the case I would switch to Openoffice for my occasional letter,cv or budgetting sheets
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If you really want Microsoft Office you may qualify for the Student & Teacher Edition (see eligibility below)
It includes Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint
Amazon do it for about £93 including delivery - I'm not sure how the verification of eligibility is done (if any) - you may need a code from the school/college.
Eligibility for student licence Students: Full or part-time student aged five or over enrolled on a course that will deliver an academic qualification publicly recognised by the Department for Education & Skills (DfES) or the Irish Department of Education (DOE)
Parents and guardians: Parents and guardians who have a child who is a qualifying student and wish to buy software for their child's educational use.
Teachers: Full or part-time registered to teach in a school, college or educational establishment recognised by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), the Irish Department of Education (DoE), or the Higher Education Authorities (HEAs).
Answers:
If you really want Microsoft Office you may qualify for the Student & Teacher Edition (see eligibility below)
It includes Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint
Amazon do it for about £93 including delivery - I'm not sure how the verification of eligibility is done (if any) - you may need a code from the school/college.
Eligibility for student licence Students: Full or part-time student aged five or over enrolled on a course that will deliver an academic qualification publicly recognised by the Department for Education & Skills (DfES) or the Irish Department of Education (DOE)
Parents and guardians: Parents and guardians who have a child who is a qualifying student and wish to buy software for their child's educational use.
Teachers: Full or part-time registered to teach in a school, college or educational establishment recognised by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), the Irish Department of Education (DoE), or the Higher Education Authorities (HEAs).
No, you can just buy Office Student & Teacher anywhere, even PC World. They do not ask for proof of being a parent (can you imagine!). Even if you don't have kids I wouldn't get too hung up about it: basically this is the consumer version Microsoft sells; all the langauage is just to make sure there are no loopholes for businesses to use it. As an ordinary consumer you should pat yourself on the back for buying this version at all rather than stealing it.
But do check out Works: I was under the impression that the file formats were compatible with Office? (You may have to use "Save As.." though.) For ordinary documents and simple balance-the-chequebook type spreadhseets I thought it was fine - obviously if you're editing a book or dealing with complicated spreasheets then not, but you might like to give it a go before shelling out more money?
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No, you can just buy Office Student & Teacher anywhere, even PC World. They do not ask for proof of being a parent (can you imagine!). Even if you don't have kids I wouldn't get too hung up about it: basically this is the consumer version Microsoft sells; all the langauage is just to make sure there are no loopholes for businesses to use it. As an ordinary consumer you should pat yourself on the back for buying this version at all rather than stealing it.
It doesn't really matter where it is sold. If you do not comply with the licence agreement then the software cannot be legally used. The licence agreement is the key here. For illustration, our site licence allows burning of CDRs for home installation. I am just trying to emphasise that having an original CD does not make its use better than 'stealing it'. Having a false licence agreement amounts to the same thing!
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No, you can just buy Office Student & Teacher anywhere, even PC World.
When we were at Uni, a friend brought the student version of Office from PC world (think it was £50) but it was just the box with some forms in. Turns out that she had to get a letter sent off proving she was a student and then they'd send out the CD's.
If you are going to get the student version when you aren't a student then you might as well save yourself £45 and just get a pirate version. As far as I know, they are both breaking the law!!
M
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Due to the huge number of versions of office now you can spend not so much or a lot depending on the version you buy
check this site out
it tells you what is included in which version and then go buy the version with the components you need, there is no point spending a fortune on Office Pro when all you need is word outlook and excel and the basic will do you fine.
You missed out on the cheapest way by not buying an OEM version when you bought the PC.
I do find it amusing when people buy a PC and expect to get office included, people dont seem to know the cost of software. This is usually due to using pirate versions in the past, I know I've used a pirate version before now its grat having access and powerpoint installed but It is never used so I decided to just buy office basic and it is fine. £190 well spent. when you look at the cost you know why software piracy is such a popular way to go.
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I'd say go with open office too. There's no reason why you can't use it at home and MS Office at work as the files are saved in the same format (but openoffice will have some trouble with complexly formatted documents and spreadsheets).
If you have someone of school age in your house then you can look into getting a student license which makes MS office a lot cheaper.
Or you can buy someone's old version of office 2000 or office XP on ebay. Office 2003 doesn't have that many new features anyway.
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MS Works has wordprocessor and spreadsheet tools....often "old" code from Office....
But I'd champion along with everyone else. There is no need to try to work around EULA and the like
I have a HUL for Office and prefer to install OOo on my machines...
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I have MS Office 2000 and Open Office 2.0 but recently formatted the hardrive. I could not be bothered to reinstall MS Office as it takes so long compared to Open Office. I have not had any compatibility issues between Open Office docs and being able to open these in MS Office. Note that I still have to save the Open Office docs in MS Office format. If ever anyone did have a compatibility issue then they could always use the handy inbuilt pdf maker in Open Office and bobs your uncle you'll be able to at least read the doc. My girlfriend works on complex spreadsheets and these open fine in OPen Office.
The point, just download it and trial it, if you can't get to grips with it then buy MS Office, but I can't see me ever going back.
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The student/ teacher version I used had a licence to be used on three machines for the 100 oddquid
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Have you checked out eBay?
GG
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If microsoft want you to have something for less money (or free) then they will let you know. I have the MS visual studio express freebie ISO downloads on my hard drive.
OK, MS probably wont come around or set the lawyers on you. However they probably wouldn't do this for most stolen copies. The point is having no licence or an invalid licence is the same thing. You cant say 'don't spend £400, spend £100' as I can come along and say 'You might as well get it for free as the £100 licence is invalid'. You are still on dodgy ground and you are £100 worse off.
I probably agree with you on the Record Industry. There is a funny thing going on at the moment. 'Official' Leaks - ie giving the record away FOR FREE early to build hype and push sales (often with artificial poor quality). I bet a lot of people buying Office today (for themselves or their businesses) have previously used a pirate version, so perhaps this is part of the reason microsoft don't make examples of people. Someone getting comfortable with a copied version could be a sucker for life still!