Replacing Version of MS office that won’t be supported.
 

My current version of MS Office on my PC will no longer be supported after October. I am looking at alternatives to MS 365 and was wondering if other folks have used other vendors that offer an office suite of software. If so,
1) What are the pros and cons versus MS Office?
2) How secure is the software?
3) Is it open source or proprietary software?
4) Can you open Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents?

Up until now, I have purchased a version of MS Office and used it until it wasn’t supported and then purchased a newer version. As I look on line, I see that there are several sources for similar products but I am not sure of the quality of these products. I regularly use Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Thanks for any help you offer. (Well, maybe not the snide comments but any help is appreciated.)

I subscribe to Microsoft 365 for about $100 per year. It gives me access to all of the MS software programs on all of my devices, free updates, and 1TB of cloud storage using OneDrive. Also, all documents are accessible from any device. I know you can get compatible programs for free, but MS 365 works well for me, especially since I have about 600GB of music, photos, and other data stored in the cloud.

You can still buy the stand alone MSoffice product, I typically see it advertised for around $150, I am using the 2010 version, but will be upgrading when I get a new PC. I have no use to the cloud storage. As for your question, I have seen many reviews of alternatives which will probably answer your questions.

Why not continue to use your existing MS office. Just because it is not supported does not mean it will not work. I am still using my 2007 version of MS Office, and they quit supporting that in 2017. It still works but is not updated with improvements.

///

You can use Office 365 via the Edge browser. Not sure of the details, but recently got this:

Yes, for $150 you can download MS Office on one PC. But, if you have 5 devices, you can only use it on one device. With MS 365, I can use the programs on all 5 devices.

2 other non-MS options both work well for me:

If you prefer installed software, the free LibreOffice is very similar to MS Office and can be configured to use the same file extensions by default. I have used it for years with near zero issues.

If you are comfortable with or prefer cloud based apps, Google Drive is terrific if not superior. It requires a free Google account that includes 19GB of free storage. Then go to Google Drive: Sign-in and click on +New and you can start or process any MS Office file.

I use LibreOffice too. I stopped using MS Office in the early 2000s and switched to OpenOffice, but LibreOffice had some database functionality that I couldn't get with OpenOffice so I switched to that instead when it became available for beta-testing. LibreOffice has replaced OpenOffice at this point, it's the successor.

LibreOffice is open source, as secure as your computer (however secure you've set your computer to be), has around the same functionality as MS Office Professional (not home version, it's much more advanced than that), and will translate MS document, spreadsheet, and database extensions just fine. It's freeware, though they do accept donations. LibreOffice is hosted by the Document Foundation, which took over after Oracle retired OpenOffice. These are all derived from the original version founded by Star Division in 1985, and the public version released by Sun Microsystems in the late 1990s.

That's the best reason for sticking with what you know.

Most of their "improvements" are just complications and features that 95% of us will never use. Meanwhile, the ones that you do use often get hidden away.

Use a a program called Open Office for Word and Excel. Free and almost identical to the Microsoft program. Use the word Almost as I do not know if it has all of the nuances of the MS program

Good information but 99.9% of us are retired and a simple Word and Excel program is what 99.9% of us need

Google suite. You won't miss Microsoft at all and office suite software for purchase, is a thing of the past. Most everything is going to be web-based and the regular people will all be using "Apps".

Thanks for all of the comments. I will explore the options. I realize that I can still use the software that isn’t supported, I will eventually get a document created in a future version which I won’t be able to open. Just the old project manager in me who is planning for the future.

You do not have to buy anything. Your current MS Office will continue to work fine. Don't be pressured into 365.

LibreOffice and OpenOffice are both free alternatives. I prefer Open Office. A few different hotkeys, and it wants to save documents
in a different format, but you can manually select .docx, etc..
Bottom line, continue with your MS Office.