Microsoft Word For Free? Is that possible?

[RelinquishedPerson 0]

When I got my PC for dell It came with a program called Word Perfect. It was awful! So I uninstalled it. But is there any way I can still get Microsoft word? I don't want to do anything against Microsoft. So is there a way to get it?

[robocz033 0]

well...ik of an illegalish way. but if u want it legally, u have to buy it. however, here i will not disscuss the illegal way.

[Tetraca 0]

Yes, you cannot get it for free unless you get it illegally. You can, however get OpenOffice, which is just about as good, though it lacks features. Chances are you won't be using those features, however...

[wenster 0]

There should be Microsoft Works suite on your computer. It should have one program for handling documents like Microsoft word just not as nice as Word. I forgot what's the name is called.

[rvalkass 5]

There is no way to get Microsoft Word for free legally. However, as Tetraca mentioned, you can get Open Office as a free alternative. Open Office has the same sorts of programs as the entire Microsoft Office suite, for free. The programs look slightly different but have all the basic features and functionality you are likely to need.

[FolkRockFan 0]

Actually, you can legally get MS Word at a fraction of the retail price - or even for free - if:You are a student and;Your school/college/university is a participant in Microsoft's student-licensing program.You can purchase (or get for free) a "student copy" of Word through your school's computer store. That's how I (legally) acquired MS Word 2000 for 20 bucks and XP Pro for five dollars.But that's the only legitimate way that I know about. I like Open Office too, though. That's free to everybody and is very much like MS Word. Except for being free and loading a bit faster on many computer systems.

[elrohir 0]

OpenOffice all the way. If you really want, you can export it to .doc in the save box, so it's almost 100% compatible with M$ Office. M$ Office doesn't run on Linux either, so even if it weren't an M$ WoS... well, you get the gist.

 

@FolkRockFan:

Why would you want all that? Just because it's cheap doesn't mean you have to go for it, does it?

[Tetraca 0]

I believe that you can run MS Works via Wine or Crossover Office in Linux, so it's not really true that you couldn't run MS Office on Linux.

[Renaissance 0]

Another alternative to OpenOffice is AbiSuite. It has some minor formatting issues but it is compatible with .doc files and is much like MSWord as is OpenOffice; one thing is that you can also install AbiWord which is a standalone word processor so you don't need to install the full suite (I'm not sure if you can do this with OpenOffice)

[FolkRockFan 0]

@FolkRockFan:

Why would you want all that? Just because it's cheap doesn't mean you have to go for it, does it?

Um...because I actually LIKE Microsoft, maybe? Gripe about Gates's corporate ethics all ya want, but the fact remains that his word processor isn't a bad piece of software. And XP was stable by the time I got around to upgrading, so I haven't had enough problems to make complaining worth my time.

[elrohir 0]

Well, I suppose if you don't care about the ethics and like the stuff they make, then no, there is no point in doing anything about it. I myself don't generally deliberately support the extreme side of capitalism (have you seen what MS has done to any number of smaller companies over the years?). But call me a Linux Hippie. That's the sterotype, isn't it? Each to his own - I really should stop attacking people in such a vicious way just because they have different moral constraints. It's fun to see the variety of responses people come up with, though.

[augyd 0]

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Edited August 21, 2007 by augyd (see edit history)

[FolkRockFan 0]

Yeah - attacking people who don't agree with your personal choices is probably a bad idea. It certainly doesn't encourage others to respect your beliefs. :lol:But, hey, go Linux all you want. I'm all for capitalism and free enterprise. Oh...and back to the topic at hand: one can also purchase legal copies of MS Word through Web sites like pacificgeek.com - right now 2000 is 21 bucks, plus shipping. I'm pretty sure that the software is still sealed, but don't quote me on that. If it is, then that's a pretty good deal as far as I'm concerned.

[delivi 0]

I think that there is no way of getting Microsoft Office for Free, but you can get the same functionality in Open Office and Abi Word and there are a huge range of free and opensource Office sutes and even the Google Docs for editing your documents online.

[reconraiders 0]

I use, love, and recommend openOffice! You can read write and save all the microsoft office files (.DOC,.PPT,ETC.) Best part is the price though. It's free!