[blackwasp]

Microsoft Office remains the most popular productivity suite for documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and more - whether as a download software package, or as the cloud-based Microsoft 365 suite.

However, a range of alternative competitors have become increasingly attractive, not least because of more price-competitive licensing fees, and some are free to use. However, paying less, or nothing, doesn't necessarily mean that the software is of lower quality, as the open source community can testify.

Yet there can be issues with sharing documents between different office suite platforms, which can be a real concern. This is why when choosing an alternative to Microsoft Office, you need to be certain of any shortfalls that might limit your use of the software, especially if you need to share or collaborative on documents with other users who have one or more different office suites.

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Google’s online suite should need no introduction. The cloud-based software remains ideal if you need to work with others on a project — particularly if everyone is familiar with Google Drive, where files can be stored and shared. The current iteration of Docs supports PDFs, DOC files, and even iWork files, so you need not worry about information being lost. It also integrates with most of Google’s other services, including Gmail, Calendar, and Google Plus. There’s also the G Suite productivity solution for businesses, which is a strong competitor to Microsoft’s Office offerings in many enterprises.

The interface is classic Google — minimalist and oft-confusing. Certain tools or abilities may be hidden deep in menus or not made available for unknown reasons, which can make the software difficult to pick up without any previous experience. Still, if you’re used to Chrome or Chrome OS, then you know what to expect and shouldn’t have much problem navigating the menus.

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LibreOffice is an offshoot of the OpenOffice project, and is developed by huge team of enthusiastic coders who deliver regular updates and new features to ensure it keeps pace with premium office software.

LibreOffice contains six component programs that provide everything you need from an office suite:

Writer (word processing)
Calc (spreadsheets)
Impress (presentations)
Draw (vector graphics)
Math (mathematical formulae)
Base (databases)

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[DaptChatterjee]

I have been using LibreOffice on my personal Laptop. For someone who only needs word, excel and powerpoint alternative, it's a very capable and free substitute.

[roy_libran]

After being a Linux user since 2000, a Mac+Linux user since 2008, and mostly staying away from Microsoft products if I could help it, I finally took the Office 365 subscription (Personal) last year because I really loved the integration and cross-device abilities it achieved. I am now an avid user of the entire O365 suite across all my devices, and extensively use OneDrive, OneNote and Lens in addition to the regular office products.

Another thing I love about O365 is that I can flip between my work and personal accounts anytime, from within the same interface on any app and work on either my office stuff or personal stuff. The office stuff internally implements the necessary policies to protect content, although the single sign-on integration can be a bit iffy at times.

[DigitalOne]

Microsoft also gives the free option for editing Excel, Word, or Powerpoints stored in Onedrive. You need a Microsoft account (outlook.com).

This will open in the browser with an additional ribbon. No installation or purchases required. This is similar to Google Docs. The files can be downloaded as PDF to local desktop.

This is good enough for most personal use cases - Resumes, normal Word documents, Monthly expenses Excel file.

Have been using like this more than 4-5 years now.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Haven't used MS Office for over 5-6 years now, even in the office.

Libre office does the job just fine - since my official laptop is Linux based and the personal desktop is a MAC.

[nitinkbhaskar]

I use MS 365 extensively for both professional and personal use. Bought a group subscription with which i get MS 365 + 1 TB Onedrive storage. Costs measly 1500 per year. So I am content with both price and function.

[doxinboy]

Originally Posted by nitinkbhaskar

I use MS 365 extensively for both professional and personal use. Bought a group subscription with which i get MS 365 + 1 TB Onedrive storage. Costs measly 1500 per year. So I am content with both price and function.

I pay 420 monthly subscription dude. How did you manage 365 for 1500. Let me know if there is a magic pill

[nitinkbhaskar]

Originally Posted by doxinboy

I pay 420 monthly subscription dude. How did you manage 365 for 1500. Let me know if there is a magic pill

Just checked my MS account & historical transactions.
I bought it as a group buy (6 users) around Black friday sale for 3 years (from Amazon with SBI card offer at 10% off). Effectively it came to ~2000 for 3 years

[Rajeevraj]

Although I use Google Sheets for personal work and casual edits, have to go back the the Microsoft Suite for any serious work. Just way too used to it.

Also with O365 and they way Microsoft integrated everything into one bundle, I really love the seamless integration between MS Team, O365 products, Sharepoint/Wiki etc.. It has definitely improved my productivity a great deal.

[Comrade]

My employer allows me to install MS Office 365 on my personal PCs as long as I work for them. I downloaded office suite to every PC at home using my work credentials. I am okay with this arrangement and dont have any privacy concerns, especially about my employer.

[voldemort]

I use Linux exclusively, so I can't use MS Office natively even if I wanted to.

My college provided an Office 365 subscription to every student, and I don't know anybody who chose to use MS Office over the cloud (and since I was running Linux, I couldn't run their Office programs natively). In fact, their only service anybody I knew used was their email program.

I don't write an awful lot of documents, but when I do, I use Google Docs (and other Google apps like Sheets, Keep etc) due to the following reasons:

• Clean and simple UI
• Nothing to install on my personal computer
• Collaboration with others is dead simple
• Their mobile apps are pretty good and syncs nice and clean
• Because it's all on the cloud, you don't have to worry losing data on your hard drive (or SSD, whatever) due to any reason
• It's free for personal use, and even if you opt for higher variants. the pricing is rather cheap

Despite being a Linux user, I think LibreOffice isn't quite perfect. It gets the job done, but Google Docs seem to offer everything LibreOffice offers, and then some more.

That's not to say MS Office is bad, but I see little advantage in using MS Office over Google alternatives.

[wheelguy]

I am using LibreOffice since long, though I miss MS Office at times, most of the times LibreOffice is sufficient enough for my needs. Never tried Google Docs, got to try it once.

[deathwalkr]

I use the Home & Student edition with Word, Excel and Powerpoint. Serves my needs

[Gsynch]

I have voted for Buy MS office.

If one wants peace of mind of one time purchase, familiar UI and goodness of excel than its the easiest way. Google docs and sheets etc are good but MS office tools are different lever for Windows users.

[GTO]

Voted for "subscribe" to MS Office. Office 365 was a game-changer for Microsoft and it's a case study of how to move from steep one-time pricing (and the resultant piracy) to a reasonably priced annual subscription (Adobe Photoshop did it well too). We got a good deal for the office. 5,000 odd bucks for 5 computers or something like that (works out to barely 1 grand / PC annually).

That said, I have started using Google Docs recently and the experience is almost the same. Most people would switch over, if it weren't for habits. That's probably why Microsoft has made the subscription so cheap.