Alternatives to Microsoft Office

Our license with Microsoft no longer allows for teachers to install Office on their personal computers, only on district computers. Teachers have asked me what their options are if they don't want to pay for their own version of Microsoft Office to use at home. Here are the best choices that I know of:

1. Google Docs

Google Apps can convert Office documents to native Google format, but now it can also edit Office documents directly, as well. There may be some formatting changes if you convert back and forth, but the content should convert pretty well overall. This should probably be your first option for working with Office documents.

I find that I do most of my work directly in Google Apps these days. The only time I need to use Word specifically is if I need to do a complex table layout, with merged cells and odd borders. Everything else I can do with Google Docs.

2. Free Alternatives

There are two sets of programs that are free and open-source, and compatible with all Office documents. You can download and install either of these on Windows or Mac computers.

• Apache Open Office - www.openoffice.org
• LibreOffice - www.libreoffice.org

3. Educational Pricing for Microsoft Office

If you absolutely need to have Microsoft, not an alternative, you can probably get educational pricing with a teacher ID, paystub, or letter from your principal. There are lots of places that will sell software at educational pricing; probably the largest is Academic Superstore (www.academicsuperstore.com). As of today, they are listing a copy of Microsoft Office 2013 for $140 or a subscription to Office 365 for $70 per year. (What's the difference? Read this to learn.)