I have a valid copy of excel 2010 on my 10 year old PC, but have just bought a new PC and apparently the 2010 key is no longer supported so I can’t move excel to my new PC.
I am not going to pay a subscription for Windows 365 having paid for Office once already, whatever Mr Gates thinks.
So what are the alternatives? I can use sheets, but I’d much rather it be a local application rather than cloud based.
Thanks.
Oh, and bonus points if I can copy and paste my existing spreadsheets into it with formulas, which Sheets doesn’t seem to allow.
Open Office used to read and write to/from Excel, no idea if it still does.
Iirc it struggled with vba and if you were using stuff like the data model or array formulae, or any of the very latest MS functionality obvs, but for a basic spreadsheet it was OK.
MS might be money grabbing arses, but I think you got your money's worth out office 2010, if you've had it 10 years?
So... hows about the online version of office, that's free?
Libre office might also an option
One of the two of Open or Libre Office. GF uses one and has not really seen a problem with doing normal work on them. MS does love to push you to O365, but the tools there are limited.
O think your life is going to get pretty miserable of you take that stance against subscriptions. Its just the way its gone. You are happy enough to buy a new computer with windows i asssume? None of the previous options have come close to excel for me when you have macros etc.
Also what decade do you hink it is?! Billgates hasn't been ceo since 2000 and been out of microsoft full time in 2008 and completely since 2020!
Search CJS CDKeys and buy Microsoft Office Professional 2021 key for £23.99, download from installation from Microsoft and activate online you've now got a legit subscription free office installation. I see they are doing Office 2010 keys for £7.99 so maybe this is still a thing? If you've uninstalled (or blanked) your old machine I'd call Microsoft with the 2010 key they can usually reactivate - look at Office 2010 on CJS and click through to telephone activation tutorial.
Libreoffice is the replacement for OpenOffice, if you're still using Open Office you should prob replace it as it's pretty old now.
https://www.libreoffice.org/discover/libreoffice-vs-openoffice/
Just a note to say that if you end up going for OpenOffice / LibreOffice you should pick the latter.
OpenOffice at this point is a dead project being kept around for what appear to be politically-motivated reasons, and doesn't see active development.
LibreOffice is a fork of OpenOffice which took all the active developers with it and is being actively maintained.
EDIT: basically what @verses said 🙂
Libre office does work but it seems there are some formulas or whatever that don't translate into Excel.
As a cost saving excersise, the company I work for decided not to pay for MS Office for everyone. Only senior level field staff and managers had the licence.
Many Excel tables get sent out on a regular basis. Many Field staff looking a table full of broken formulas and 'weird writing'
So yeah, online version of office is probably the least troublesome provided you're not a field based mamabwr of staff with no Internet connection.
have a look at Google sheets which is part of the Google office package? It's only online or offline via Android tablet, but it seems to work perfectly well
Gamers Outlet have Office 2021 for £16.31. No subscription. Activated with Microsoft online. Even cheaper if you can deal with a phone activation. Legit versions. Should last a good few years.
MS does love to push you to O365, but the tools there are limited.
?. Office 365 includes all the online versions for Office but also allows you to download the local versions.
share it (legitimately, through Microsoft provided features) with your family.
Microsoft 365 Family gives you full downloadable Office, 1TB of OneDrive storage for each user, installable by up to 6 people on up to 5 devices each. List price is £79.99 per year but it isn't hard to find it for under £50. I'm struggling to wean my family off MS, but at £1 a week for all of us I'm not really that bothered.
MS might be money grabbing arses, but I think you got your money’s worth out office 2010, if you’ve had it 10 years?
I believe Excel specifically had a massive overhaul a few years ago. pretty much a ground up rebuild, which is only apparent when you ask it to do niche things.
I would be looking for a download key for a "OEM" copy, which i suspect is what Kneed found?
I would be looking for a download key for a “OEM” copy, which i suspect is what Kneed found?
Yes - as I understand it the keys used to be bundled with PCs from Dell or someone on corporate orders but never actually used so are now resold.
I've paid Gamers Outlet for a few versions over the years on various machines : all are legit, registered etc.
Just get Office again. Excel excels at being the best version of Excel. The online version is the devil and has random functions that don’t seem to work right.
In the market for an office licence myself, do these OEM type keys need you the have a ms account to sign in, or do the apps just work after activation? Guessing there's no one-drive space?
Plus I need ms Access database, which is not in the family subscription I believe?
In the market for an office licence myself, do these OEM type keys need you the have a ms account to sign in, or do the apps just work after activation? Guessing there’s no one-drive space?
Plus I need ms Access database, which is not in the family subscription I believe?
There is no one-drive space.
Access is included.
I have always had MS accounts to logon to windows so cant say if it will work without one (not sure why you would want to?)
This is the closest to what I last got:
Oh, and bonus points if I can copy and paste my existing spreadsheets into it with formulas, which Sheets doesn’t seem to allow.
Is there a reason you can't just open the .xls file in Sheets?
Alternatively Numbers can open Excel files. Comes free with MacOS 😁
I resisted the subscription model for ages then cracked. Pay monthly get updates and loads of cloud storage. Just embrace it. Hell I even pay for HP instant ink these days, i know Im not gettjng value for money but for a couple of quid a month its really not worth getting worked up about.
Google sheets works well for me when I'm mobile, and it's free.
I like to have an office suite installed on my machine though, so I just use Libre office for that, also free.
Both are compatible with MS format files and canopen/ save spreadsheets in .xls format.
I know you said you wanted not cloud.
But this is STW!
So I'm recommending Google sheets for general ease of use cross platform
I recently bought an one off licence from one of the many places online after checking the sites reviews. I do the same for Windows these days and not had any problems.
This might get deleted, but be aware of https://www.gamers-outlet.net
I bought a win 11 home key for £3.46 and it's fine, but more recently I tried to activate an MS office (2016 I think) code, I think I paid about a fiver, and nope 'too many licences in use' error code.
Trying to get a refund, but for the sake of a fiver... I just gave up on it.
Still, It's far cheaper than paying Micro$oft a subscription.
the subscription is pretty good value.
It realy isn't... just use google docs or get libre office https://www.libreoffice.org/
It's free.
I've been using libre office for years now. Seems to work just fine. I generally use open source software for most things now. There's some incredibly good software out there. Really no need to give money to the big corporations as a default option.
Cheers, some good sounding options.
Really no need to give money to the big corporations as a default option.
The hardware you run your software on is made by big corporations. If you are using Excel for doing any serious work, you need the real thing. Messing around trying to save a pretty minor amount of money just isn't worth it if it's going to be costing you time sorting out problems.
