Word Processor Which word processor should I use?

[mystmag 0]

Recently, I purchased a new computer that came with both a full version of Microsoft Works 8 including Microsoft Works Word Processor and Microsoft Works Spreadsheet, however I also received a 60-day free trial to Microsoft Office. I assume that Microsoft Office is the better word processor, however I have used both and find no difference.After searching on the internet to find the cost of the full version of Microsoft Office, I found approximately $200.00 for their cheapest version, Microsoft Office Standard Edition. However, I found prices ranging all the way up to $800 or $900 for their Microsoft Office Professional Edition.Can someone please tell me which edition I should purchase if I would like to continue with Microsoft Office and uninstall Microsoft Works?Or can someone please tell me the differences between Microsoft Office Standard Edition and Microsoft Office Standard Edition?Thanks in advance for all of your help!Please respond before my 60-day trial is depleted to 0 days remaining!StephenP.S. Can you please give me links (if possible) to other site's opinions?

[jlhaslip 4]

If I can save you some money will you send me half of what I save you???

 

Doesn't matter which one of those programs you are interested in, I can save you almost all of your money by suggesting that you get OpenOffice from http://www.openoffice.org/. It has pretty much everything the MS packages have, Word Processing, Spreadsheet, Presentation, Database connect capability, you name it. Even a wysiwyg html editor. And you can't argue with the price.

 

FREE! or it is available already on disk for about $10.00.

 

Download it from openoffice.org. It is Open Source under a GNU licence.

 

I guarantee you won't be disappointed, at least for the money you spent...

[Tyssen 0]

I started using OpenOffice recently and have been fairly satisfied with it. My only small gripe is that it doesn't seem to handle Access files too well (or I haven't figured out how to do it properly yet).

[Gr4ve_Digger 0]

I started using OpenOffice recently and have been fairly satisfied with it. My only small gripe is that it doesn't seem to handle Access files too well (or I haven't figured out how to do it properly yet).

217738[/snapback]

I agree, open offic is very good, has compatiblity with linux aswell, although it isn't conventional, it has some good sides, like not being made by windows for one....... lol

[hulunes 0]

umm,usually i use office word to handl some word documents which is prevalent and powerful.besides that kingsoft wps is also good furthermore it is compatible to all microsoft format,convenient as well.whats openoffice?i dont ever use before...keen on hearing its introduction.

[moldboy 0]

Yes OpenOffice is good, however if you really want MS software, I would say dump works, it may do the job however Office is the editor of choice on the internet. If you do stick with works you must know one critical thing, .rtf that is the Rich Text Format which you should save as so it can be opened on many of the other office applications and OS'sNow as for which version of Office to get, that really depends what you want, do you want to type, if typing is your only concern don't get office, just buy word, I believe the price is about $100I have small business edition which has excel, word, powerpoint, and publisher. If you have children who will want to make poster and cards publisher is a good program (perhapse not the best) for that. I'm not sure what it costs, so if you want to have office, it really comes down to what you want to do.Do you want to manage complex databases?Do you want to type letters?Do you want to type documents?Do you want to make flyers, posters, and cards?Do you want to create and manage information in a spread sheet?Do you want to make presentation for business meetings?If you want all that you will need office pro, it is the one that costs $400-$900, if however you don't need the database functionaly then Small business edition will do the rest, and word has the capability to manage simple databases like addresses. Standard edition I believe is just Word and Excel, but I may be wrong.And A tip, if you or anyone you know is a student or a teacher try looking at the Office Student Teacher edition.

[realthor 0]

I guess he wanted a word processor not msoffice by all means but he didn't hear of any other. Anyway just a guess. My optinion and advice vould be like this.

If you want to run a business and speed is a critical issue go with Microsoft's Office as it has built in integration with microsoft's operating sistem and so it's very fast. Open Office can do about everything and costs nothing but loads slower than MS Word. If you just want to write ocasionaly and not some hundred pages documents another solution would be Abiword, very well ranked open source app.

This is a link that compares Open Office Word, Abiword and Koffice (linux versions) but you should find out features comparisons that apply of course under windows and compatibility with MS Word as well.

http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

also look at this PCWorld article called 'A Month Without Microsoft Office ':
http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

And, finally read some opinions here:
http://arstechnica.com/civis/

Cheers!

[mystmag 0]

Thanks for all of your responses! My 60-day free trial for Microsoft Office is almost complete now, and I have decided to go for OpenOffice. I believe that I do not require all of the programs included with Microsoft Office Professional Edition, and I do not personally like the cost of the products, so I believe that OpenOffice will be a good idea for my computer.However, I am a little concerned about how I am going to share files with other computers, because I believe that I am the only computer that actually has OpenOffice. I have never heard of this program before, and neither have any of my collagues, so I will be a little skeptical about OpenOffice. Anyways, thanks for all of your suggestions! They were a great help! If there are any other suggestions, post-up! Does Corel have any good programs for your computer?

[realthor 0]

Don't be afraid of not being able to share files created with Open Office with your friends or coleagues because OO can save in M$'s formats and thus there is compatibility.Also OO has joined some open standard for documents which is said to be better and smaller than word's documents but Microsoft will not get involved with this comunity as they try to keep monopoly. So go confident, no problem of compatibility.