The case when you do not need to look for a “cracked” version of Office: why, if you can download a free analog. We have collected several suitable options.
Office programs are needed on any computer, home, or work. Writing essays, preparing presentations, and calculating the family budget in the table – whatever one may say, cannot do without standard software. The most popular package is Microsoft Office, but you have to pay for it. If you’re not ready, here are free alternatives.
Microsoft Office Online
Platform: Web
Microsoft provides free access to its office suite online through a browser. But not everything: only Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote are available. A Microsoft account is required to use the web version of MS Office (if you have Skype, chances are you have one).
The online version of MS Office, of course, natively supports all Microsoft document formats – Docx, xlsx, pptx and their earlier versions (doc, Xls, ppt), and open formats odt, ods, odp. It can be used purely intuitively, as its interface is similar to the new versions of the “desktop” Office. Created documents are saved to the OneDrive cloud. This means that you can work with them – give access to the right people by link.
However, documents can be downloaded to a computer in MS Office formats or open formats for offline editing and exported to PDF. The downside is that the online version does not support all the offline editor functions (for example, you cannot create a pivot table or HTML document from a Word file in it). But overall, Microsoft’s offer is pretty generous.
Google Docs
Platforms: Web, Android
Microsoft would never have taken Office online if Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets didn’t exist. The world’s most famous office collaboration product, integrated with Google Drive, Android operating system, and Chrome browser.
To work, you need a Google account (if you have an Android smartphone, you have one). Google Docs correctly supports all Microsoft office formats, as well as open document formats. The files you create are saved to Google Drive, but you can also export them to your computer – including HTML, RTF, TXT, and EPUB formats. Or edit offline in the browser: you need to install the extension for the Chrome browser.
The office product has a minimalistic interface but stuffed with various hidden chips. And the most important thing is that the product is focused on collaboration and provides many opportunities for collaborative editing of documents and real-time.
Apple IWork
Platforms: web, Mac OS, iOS
For fans of devices and software, Apple has its free alternative to the “office”. Apple Pages, Numbers, and Keynote let you work with documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, respectively.
To work with the package, you need macOS, preinstalled, or an Apple ID to access the iCloud cloud. If you have an iPhone, you have an Apple ID – go to the iCloud website and enter it. Apple iWork is compatible with Microsoft Office formats and scans them. The software suite also offers the ability to collaborate with documents, including PC users (though they also have to register an Apple ID).
A distinctive feature of this package is the use of proprietary “chips” of Apple technology, like the Apple Pencil on the iPad. Also, the “apple” office suite’s interface is very different from Microsoft Office – for example, in spreadsheets, you will see not a table but a blank sheet. This will take some getting used to.
LibreOffice
Platforms: Windows, Linux, macOS, Android, iOS
The most famous “Linux” office document editor, developed by volunteers from the Open Document Foundation and preinstalled on the widespread Ubuntu distribution, is available for almost all desktop and mobile platforms. But the web version, as well as co-editing capabilities, it does not have – it is a product for individual work with documents.
But it provides analogs of almost all popular elements of the MS Office package: Writer (Word), Calc (Excel), Impress (PowerPoint), Base (Access), Draw (Visio), as well as the Libre Office Math formula editor, which is equivalent in MS Office no. By default, LibreOffice works with the free OpenDocument formats, but can read MS Office documents and export your work to them.
What the modern user might not like is the old-fashioned editor interface that brings to mind Office 2003. The lack of collaboration capabilities is also not very happy in 2019. And the saddest thing is the LibreOffice mobile applications, which are only capable of viewing files: they cannot be edited. This can be attributed to development voluntarily, but it isn’t easy to compete with such opportunities.
OnlyOffice
Platforms: Web, Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, Android
The most exciting project OnlyOffice seems to have set itself the goal of embracing the immensity. We think so, but OnlyOffice just decided to create a free office suite that is 100% compatible with the official Microsoft formats: Docx, xlsx, and pptx. Any file (for example, ODF) that gets into the OnlyOffice editors is converted into one. Moreover, the software itself is open-source. It can even be “forked” on GitHub.
The project is interesting for its cross-platform nature. First, you can collaborate with documents, presentations, and spreadsheets through a browser. Secondly, the desktop versions have a modern interface similar to the new MS Office. Thirdly, mobile apps are full-featured editors – not like the previous package.
Both plus and minus at the same time: the online version of the office suite, in turn, is a simple electronic document management system – a solution for business. You need to register as a company representative, and in the long term – pay for a place in the cloud. The same goes for mobile apps. Only desktop editors are entirely open and free.
WPS Office
Platforms: Windows, Linux, Android, iOS
This office suite is familiar to many users of inexpensive Chinese-made phones. The fact is that this is indeed a Chinese copy of Microsoft Office, and quite close to the original. The rule “if there is something good in the West will appear in the Middle Kingdom” here works 100%.
The package includes an editor for documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and programs for working with PDF, including a converter. Collaboration is not provided – this is also an exclusively individual solution. But the synchronization of changes on the desktop and mobile devices is available, as in Google Docs.
But at the same time closed – whether to take a closed-source Chinese program on your computer or mobile depends on your paranoia level. Although, looking at the list of supported formats, you can close your eyes to this.
Openoffice
Platforms: Windows, Linux, Mac OS
Let’s write about this editor out of respect because it is the first competitor to MS Office on the Linux platform. Now he “lives” under the wing of the Apache Foundation, although how to say he lives – the key developers left the project long ago, and his state had changed little since the end of the 2000s, when he just “took off”.
The package is intended to be installed exclusively on the desktop. No collaboration capabilities are provided. But the set of editors is like Libre Office, that is, databases, diagrams, presentations, and mathematics.
OpenOffice works great with ODF formats – and is designed for them. Support for Microsoft Office formats is average. The older the format, the better it is supported. But interface – welcome to 2003. This project is more than twenty years old, it is highly respected, and many continue to use it. Perhaps you are among them?
