I currently have MS Office 2003, but I have recently been offered some work that requires me to have Word 2007 (SP3) or higher. Money is very tight. Can anyone suggest to me what might be the cheapest legal way to upgrade? Is it possible to upgrade just Word rather than the whole suite, and will that be cheaper? Is it possible (and cheaper) to upgrade just to 2007 (or 2010, or whatever) or must I get the latest version?
Actually, I am not sure what the latest version is. I see from the Microsoft site that there is now an Office 2013 and something called Office 365. What is the difference?
I am in the UK if that makes a difference., and I am running Windows 7. I don’t think my computer will have any problem with running a more recent version of Word.
A quick Google search has found me a downloadable copy of “Microsoft Office Home & Student 2010” for £69.99 (which still seems like a lot of money to me - note that it is pounds, not dollars) from a company that I have never heard of with the rather tacky seeming name of Vegas Cart. Is this legit? Should I be able to do better if I search more thoroughly?
Another issues that concerns me is that, as part of my current suite, I have MS Access 2003, and I make quite extensive use of it. If I upgrade to a newer version of Office that does not include Access, is there a danger that it will wipe out my Access 2003, or render it somehow unuseable? As I understand it, a new suite with a new version of Access would be a lot more expensive than one without it, and I do not really need an upgrade there. I do not much care about any other components of the Office suite, however.
Office 2013 is the latest iteration of the installable suite; Office 365 is the same, kinda, but only accessible online, as a rival to Google Docs. And requires a subscription.
Vegas Cart seems to be dodgy: Google Reviews has a mention from 2 weeks ago which starts:
I have to give a big fat ZERO stars to this company. I purchased MS Office home and business in October 2013, got the instructions to download the product, and they didn’t work. Took me to some sort of MS trial area. Anyway I contacted the company and after a couple of E mails they agreed that they could not help me out and stated that they would issue a full refund.
I may be wrong but I use “Kingsoft” and it seems to look and behave like Microsoft Office, and it’s free. http://www.kingsoftstore.com/
It won’t harm to check it out.
if you miss the outlook email that comes with office you can use Thunderbird instead.
As you mentioned needing the software for work, note that the Home and Student software is not licensed for “commercial, nonprofit, or revenue-generating activities.” Instead, you might look at Office Home and Business 2013, which is licensed for commercial use. It’s available on Amazon.co.uk for £183.99. You can also get just Microsoft Word 2013 for £92.
Edited to add that if you really want Microsoft Office Home & Student 2010, Amazon.co.uk has it for £70.41.
No, I don’t specifically want that version, but, in any case, it does not appear to be the program itself but a “product key” for unlocking the program if you have it pre-installed. (Maybe the VegasCart version is the same but they are not making it so clear.)
And to me, it is still a lot of money.
Is that stuff really legal? Would I be properly licensed if I bought a copy from some guy on eBay? (I don’t have any experience with eBay, and it, frankly, makes me a bit nervous, but maybe it is what I need to do.)
Some years ago I bought a “legitimate” copy of Win XP on eBay which turned out to not be really legitimate but a very good fake which would not authenticate. I filed a complaint with ebay and got my money back. Then I sent the fake to MS and they sent me a really legitimate disk and key for free. It was a PITA but I got an XP license for “free” (if you don’t consider time and effort worth anything).
I don’t know how many companies this works for, but as a federal employee I’m allowed to buy the same version of Office that we use at work for $10. We had to ask the IT department for the proper link and use a work email, but I was able to get it no problem.
This is called the Microsoft Home User Program, and is available to organizations who pay for it. This typically includes only large organizations. I do not know the cost but I have worked for two companies who offer it, and as a federal contractor for Dept. of Ed. I am also entitled to it (you just need to have a US government email address although I don’t know if all agencies offer it).
Keep in mind that if someone is requiring you to use Word 2007, what they are really requiring is that you can read and write files that can be used with Word 2007.
The Compatibility Pack recommend by sailor will probably solve (nearly all of) your needs. It is free and allows Word 2003 to open and save files in the format used from 2007 forwards. In general the differences between 2003 and later versions have to do with how features work from the user interface and the format of the file. (In contrast, for example, Excel 2007 has formatting options that are lost if you save a file in an earlier file format.) I used the compatibility pack for a couple of years before upgrading.
Other possibilities include other products that are also compatible with docx files, such as OpenOffice or Google Docs. However, they might not support all the features that you need, depending on the complexity of your editing tasks.
They’re selling a product key but provide a link to a site from which you can download the software. So you do need a fast internet connection to do so. You don’t need to have it pre-installed.
Depending on what products you actually need.
Office 365 is an annual subscription base version that has the same as the Office Professional package: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, Outlook, OneNote… additional it has a 20GB SkyDrive (cloud storage) and 60 min Skype calls free per month.
The cost is €99 or £65
You can run it on up to 5 devices…… you do not need to subscribe, but it stops working aftter 1 year, if you do not renew for €99 or £65.
Current version is Office 2013, but you’re eligible for any upgrade while you have an current subscription.
If you are a college student, there’s some deep discounts available. You have to provide your college ID to get them. For example you can get Microsoft Office Home and Student edition for about $139.
If you aren’t a college student, sign up for a cheap 1 semester hour class at a community college and become one!
You don’t need to be a student to buy Microsoft Office Home and Student edition. And $139 is about the regular retail price. But as I said, it’s not licensed for commercial use.
My wife solved a similar problem by installing OpenOffice. It does all that she wants. And it is free.
(And if you are like me and dislike the ribbon interface foisted upon us by MS in all versions since 2003, then you get to keep the menus and buttons that you are used to.)
The absolute cheapest (legal) way? Get your hands on Microsoft Word 2010 Starter. It’s free, albeit no longer officially supported by Microsoft (meaning no update to make it compatible with Windows 8.1). They don’t list it on their regular website, but you can download an installer program that will download all the necessary files from Microsoft. (If you have regular Windows 8, you should install this update first.)
For Office 2012 and later, Microsoft replaced this edition with the free online version of Office, which you can also try.
Thanks for all the suggestions, folks. However, I rather doubt that free software like Kingsoft or LibreOffice are going to satisfy the people I am working with, who are making a fuss about the difference between Word 2003 and 2007. The issue isn’t anything to do with missing features (and I have the free add-on that allows you to import .docx files into 2003). What they say is that there is some sort of minor file incompatibility between Word 2003 and 2007 and higher which occasionally causes some of the spaces between words to be lost when transferring files between different versions. () It sounds unlikely to me (and I have never noticed any problem when I import .docx files), but I have to do things the way they want. I will be editing their files and then sending them back, and I quite understand why they do not want to risk that sort of thing getting screwed up.
I bought my copy of Office 2003 for a discounted price back when I was working at a university, but I am not any more, I am just unemployed, and I do not think I am able to get any discounts for that (now I really need it).
I will look into BigT’s suggestions in more detail. Are these full featured versions, though? I need the Track Changes feature to be fully operational (though I don’t think I need any other advanced features). Track Changes is in 2003 as well as in 2007, but, as I say, they tell me there is this minor, occasional problem with the spaces.
Actually, I think I had MS Office Starter (or something like that) pre-installed on this computer when I bought it last year, but I took it off because it was interfering with my use of my full featured Office 2003. It is gone now. The fact that they interfered is what makes me concerned that I might wipe out my access to Access if I install a new version of Office.
) It sounds unlikely to me (and I have never noticed any problem when I import .docx files), but I have to do things the way they want. I will be editing their files and then sending them back, and I quite understand why they do not want to risk that sort of thing getting screwed up.
The fact that they interfered is what makes me concerned that I might wipe out my access to Access if I install a new version of Office.