Can I buy MS Office...
 

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Can I buy MS Office? One off and cheap.

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Just bought a cheap refurbished laptop soley for Web and Arduino stuff. Can I put Office on it for like £30? OS is Win 10 Home.

TIA


 
Posted : 31/07/2024 9:07 pm
Ti-Jane and Ti-Jane reacted
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Try out libre office (formally open office) it's totally free and compatible with MS office docs unless you need to use super advanced functionality.

https://www.libreoffice.org/discover/libreoffice/


 
Posted : 31/07/2024 9:11 pm
cookeaa, prettygreenparrot, cookeaa and 1 people reacted
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Agree. Cheap and good? Libre Office.

if you must have MS Office then O365 is very fairly priced for what it offers.

windows 10?


 
Posted : 31/07/2024 9:16 pm
andrewh and andrewh reacted
 xora
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https://theunitysoft.com/product/ms-office-standard-2021/

SUMMER15 apparently gets 15% off that!


 
Posted : 31/07/2024 9:17 pm
roger_mellie, ChrisL, ChrisL and 1 people reacted
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Have you got any students in your family? They can usually get it for free, including for relatives.


 
Posted : 31/07/2024 9:29 pm
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Just buy a licence off one of the many sellers on Amazon or eBay. Had a few in my time and they’ve all worked.


 
Posted : 31/07/2024 10:11 pm
leffeboy, J-R, nuke and 3 people reacted
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Just buy a licence off one of the many sellers on Amazon or eBay. Had a few in my time and they’ve all worked.

+1


 
Posted : 01/08/2024 7:31 am
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Microsoft Office Standard 2021 Home & Student is £120, if you're buying it significantly cheaper than that then it won't be a fully legit copy (it will be a resold OEM or Enterprise Agreement key, which isn't permitted under MS's EULA). There is a slim chance that key gets deactivated by MS rendering your install useless (they tend to do this in big batches as they become aware of mass misuse of certain keys) but in reality it's very unlikely you'd end up affected.

So it's more down to your appetite for purchasing dodgy goods and use of 'justification' arguments about tech billionaires and trillion-dollar evil companies etc.

MS do offer various deals (e.g. schemes for home use licences if your company is an Enterprise Agreement) that might be worth looking into


 
Posted : 01/08/2024 7:31 am
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Google "office product key" and there are loads of places selling cheap product keys.

I've bought a few over the years and they all worked.

Or as others have said, just use Open Office or other open source variant.


 
Posted : 01/08/2024 8:22 am
J-R and J-R reacted
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Libre Office

And if you must ...

KeyGen for the other thing.

I only use Opensource where I can and make a donation when it's been used. When I feel like it 🙂


 
Posted : 01/08/2024 8:35 am
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Why bother. The free options (libre or Google docs if you'll always have a net connection) are more than up to the job.


 
Posted : 01/08/2024 8:44 am
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Funnily enough I've just bought a refurbished Lenovo for web stuff as my old 10 year old laptop is literally falling to bits - keys and hinges being the issue.

I'm lucky I get the licence through work - the agreement let's you have 365 for personal computers too (if employed check with the IT department - it's usually part of the licence agreement.). It's on most of our home PC's - we get the occasional (like once a year) reminder to log in my ID again.


 
Posted : 01/08/2024 10:00 am
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Refurb PC/laptop and Libre Office here.

I really don't know why people buy personal copies/licences of MS Office for home use anymore.

If your employer needs you to use it they can supply it.

If you want to write Docs and Spreadsheets for your own use then Libre Office does the job.


 
Posted : 01/08/2024 10:21 am
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One other option which hasn't been mentioned, MS Office is free for personal use online at office dot com.  It can be a bit quirky but works for most purposes.

Really, recommendations depend on what you want it for.  Everyone says they "need" MS Office, half the time what they actually need is WordPad and Calculator.


 
Posted : 01/08/2024 10:36 am
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I've used Gamers Outlet many times with no problem and is the cheapest around

https://www.gamers-outlet.net/


 
Posted : 01/08/2024 10:42 am
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I used gamers outlet for office 2016 if I recall correctly and the key didn't work... And trying to get a refund is nigh on impossible and I gave up.

That said I've bought lots of 'grey market' keys in the past an this is the first time I've had a problem.

So I just use libre now.. Well actually I use Google docs mostly but I like to have an office suite I can use offline too.


 
Posted : 01/08/2024 6:04 pm
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Downloaded Libreoffice without a hitch. It seems very good.

Thanks all.


 
Posted : 02/08/2024 11:54 am
mattyfez, cookeaa, mattyfez and 1 people reacted
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Well actually I use Google docs mostly but I like to have an office suite I can use offline too.

You can use Google docs offline.


 
Posted : 02/08/2024 11:59 am
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Offl... no, you've lost me, sorry.  I can count of the fingers of one foot the number of times I've thought "the Internet is down, best write a letter to someone."


 
Posted : 02/08/2024 12:25 pm
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On a similar subject, I use Office 365. I've a works account and my own personal account (different One Drive etc under work email account and personal email accounts).

I'll be retiring soon so my works account will (I assume) be revoked.

Any idea what happens to my personal account? I'm assuming I'll still be able to access all my own documents even though I no longer have a valid license/subscription.

Will current documents be read-only?? Will the locally install apps (eg Word and Excel) stop working??

Thought I'd check with the experts before I find myself with no access to my personal One Drive/files....


 
Posted : 02/08/2024 10:25 pm
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I'm still using 2007. Did have 2010 installed (lent the disk out never to return) at one point. The GUI matched W10 better and it's a bit less clunky in places but TBH I don't really care it does mostly the same things!

Nothing wrong with Libreoffice I've used it alongside or instead of MS products.

If you need the most up-to-date versions for work it's a different story but most average home users only need basic functionally that's been around for decades or more.

Somebody will be along to tell you old versions will blow up in your face and burn your house down (who views porn through MS Word anyway!) If you're not a complete numpty it works fine IME.


 
Posted : 02/08/2024 10:54 pm
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Any idea what happens to my personal account? I’m assuming I’ll still be able to access all my own documents even though I no longer have a valid license/subscription.

Yes, and your locally installed office app's will tell you they need activating, but as per Cougars post you can use the online versions of office to edit them for free

You could also search Github for a free activation tool, but that would be naughty


 
Posted : 03/08/2024 10:55 am
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One thing to be aware of is that OneDrive with a paid-for personal sub is something like 1TB, the free version only 5GB.  5GB is probably fine for a few documents, but if you've got a decades worth of photos on there you might want to relocate them.


 
Posted : 03/08/2024 11:09 am
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I view the annual sub good value for money when you include OneDrive storage the all the office programs. At home I have about 4 PC/laptops/tablets that I use, and being able to access all my files anywhere is useful. The OneDrive app on my phone uploads photos so I don't need to worry about backing them up. (I'm sure there is free software that can do all this as well as OneDrive).

Plus after many years of using Word and Excel I can't be bothered to learn something else.


 
Posted : 03/08/2024 11:34 am
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Plus after many years of using Word and Excel I can’t be bothered to learn something else.

Libre office is pretty much the same, although looks wise it looks like an older version of MS office, there are a few things slightly different, but if you can use one, you can use the other.

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Posted : 03/08/2024 6:51 pm

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