# Any legal way to get Excel for free home use?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-legal-way-to-get-excel-for-free-home-use/67833>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 6, 2001, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-legal-way-to-get-excel-for-free-home-use/67833 "2001-06-06T19:34:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![red\_dragon60](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ce73a5/32.png) [@red\_dragon60](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/red_dragon60)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2001, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-legal-way-to-get-excel-for-free-home-use/67833/1 "2001-06-06T19:34:54Z")

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I have a few documents that I want to use, but they are in Excel. Is there any way to get a trial version of Excel for reading these? For free? Any other programs that would work?

Thanks!

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**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2001, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-legal-way-to-get-excel-for-free-home-use/67833/2 "2001-06-06T19:54:55Z")

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If all you, want to do is read and print it, MS provides a free viewer you can download:

[http://www.microsoft.com/Office/000/viewers.htm](http://www.microsoft.com/Office/000/viewers.htm)

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**Author:** ![Joe\_Cool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecb155/32.png) [@Joe\_Cool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joe_Cool)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2001, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-legal-way-to-get-excel-for-free-home-use/67833/3 "2001-06-06T21:35:25Z")

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If, on the other hand, you want to get something from Microsoft for nothing, BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! erm, I mean, good luck.

You might try getting a copy of Sun’s [StarOffice Suite](http://www.sun.com/staroffice/). Its spreadsheet (StarCalc, I believe) is supposed to read & write Excel files. It’s entirely free (GPL), runs on a variety of operating systems (including windows), and is available for download, if you have time for a big download.

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**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2001, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-legal-way-to-get-excel-for-free-home-use/67833/4 "2001-06-06T23:32:43Z")

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For what type of computer? Anyway, try [download.com](http://download.com) search for ‘excel’ you should find a program you can read them with for a PC or Mac.