[mysoul]

WİNDOWS 7 HOME PREMİUM X64

Hi All,

Libre Office,has been a not too satisfying an experience,

so i'm looking for recommendations here,for a FREE alternative,

that will do the basics.

Nothing fancy with plenty of features,

just want a good and stable program.

İ just got forced by M/soft,to aquire an Outlook e-mail address

( i was left with no choice)so i'm in need of good news,thanks.

This post has been edited by mysoul: 26 August 2012 - 12:47 AM

[LiveBrianD]

How did Microsoft force you to acquire an outlook email address?

Anyway, libreoffice (which came from openoffice) is usually considered the best free office suite you can get. (that said, I use office 2010 because of the UI) I've also heard of kingsoft office, but haven't tried it.

[mysoul]

LiveBrianD, on 26 August 2012 - 07:09 AM, said:

How did Microsoft force you to acquire an outlook email address?

Anyway, libreoffice (which came from openoffice) is usually considered the best free office suite you can get. (that said, I use office 2010 because of the UI) I've also heard of kingsoft office, but haven't tried it.

Hi,

thanks for the reply and suggestion.

İ have decided on Kingsoft office,got good recommendations.

Re.M/soft,it was mostly circumstancial,you don't want to hear details

and i certainly don't want to relive the experience,by talking about it....grrrr(first time i ever cursed them,silently of course)

Thanks again.

Appreciated.

[aaparsan]

mysoul, on 26 August 2012 - 12:45 AM, said:

WİNDOWS 7 HOME PREMİUM X64

Hi All,

Libre Office,has been a not too satisfying an experience,

so i'm looking for recommendations here,for a FREE alternative,

that will do the basics.

Nothing fancy with plenty of features,

just want a good and stable program.

İ just got forced by M/soft,to aquire an Outlook e-mail address

( i was left with no choice)so i'm in need of good news,thanks.

I have LibreOfice Portable on my Flash Drive, Kingsoft Office on Windows XP and Windows 7 and OpenOffice 3.2 as a backup on Windows 7.Actually I just haven't got around to uninstalling it yet.

Oh Yes:How did Microsoft force you to have an Outlook Email?

This post has been edited by aaparsan: 27 August 2012 - 04:24 PM

[mysoul]

aaparsan, on 27 August 2012 - 04:24 PM, said:

mysoul, on 26 August 2012 - 12:45 AM, said:

WİNDOWS 7 HOME PREMİUM X64

Hi All,

Libre Office,has been a not too satisfying an experience,

so i'm looking for recommendations here,for a FREE alternative,

that will do the basics.

Nothing fancy with plenty of features,

just want a good and stable program.

İ just got forced by M/soft,to aquire an Outlook e-mail address

( i was left with no choice)so i'm in need of good news,thanks.

I have LibreOfice Portable on my Flash Drive, Kingsoft Office on Windows XP and Windows 7 and OpenOffice 3.2 as a backup on Windows 7.Actually I just haven't got around to uninstalling it yet.

Oh Yes:How did Microsoft force you to have an Outlook Email?

Re M/soft:i should have said,circumstances created mainly by them,

left me with no choice.

Harrowing experience.

End of story.

Thanks for the reply and suggestions

İ've installed Kingsoft office

and so far so good.

İ have Libre office on my XP machine,

but on my W.7 laptop it gave me a lot of trouble.

There must have been a conflict there,somewhere.Anyway that's history.

[LiveBrianD]

I still don't get the outlook part - I've NEVER heard of a company doing that. What did they do, point a gun to your head and demand you create an outlook account? (JK)

[mysoul]

LiveBrianD, on 28 August 2012 - 02:51 PM, said:

I still don't get the outlook part - I've NEVER heard of a company doing that. What did they do, point a gun to your head and demand you create an outlook account? (JK)

İt was an unfortunate remark,

said when distressed,THAT İ FULLY WİTHDRAW!!!

Enough of that thanks.

[brainout]

mysoul, on 26 August 2012 - 12:45 AM, said:

WİNDOWS 7 HOME PREMİUM X64

Hi All,

Libre Office,has been a not too satisfying an experience,

so i'm looking for recommendations here,for a FREE alternative,

that will do the basics.

Nothing fancy with plenty of features,

just want a good and stable program.

İ just got forced by M/soft,to aquire an Outlook e-mail address

( i was left with no choice)so i'm in need of good news,thanks.

Yeah, in Win7 you are forced to Outlook and Windows Live Mail. As far as an alternative to LibreOffice, though I can't say it's much better: Lotus Symphony is free. I didn't like it, and uninstalled. I'm not sure it will work in Win7. Probably won't. Almost nothing works, in 64-bit. Of the three (Open, Libre and Symphony), Libre is the better of them. But not to my taste. It is VERY much like older versions of Word.

There's another alternative, though not free. Search in Amazon on a paid program you want, some of the vendors will sell new or used-but-uninstalled versions of the program at very low prices. Be careful to verify that the program is NOT 'oem' (meaning, bundled with the sale of someone's computer), and not an 'upgrade', and that you'll be getting the product key. I just did that for a bunch of other programs I'm trying out.

Win7 might not run it. MS wants you to buy its later versions. On Home Premium you often cannot run older Windows programs, even if it's 32-bit, let alone 64-bit. Suggest you go to MS Answer forums and search on a program you want, see if it's compatible in Win7 64-bit. Probably nothing but Office 2010+, and I'm not even sure of that. I didn't like those programs, either, even if they were free (and they aren't).

But there is some good news: Outlook is a pretty decent program, though its later versions aren't as good as 2000-2002, which you cannot run in Win7. High learning curve in Outlook, but it can be helpful. It will do email, organize, let you structure notes and events and many other things.

The other thing you can do is google on '64-bit programs for Windows 7' and see what you get.

This post has been edited by brainout: 30 August 2012 - 11:53 PM

[compnovo]

brainout, on 30 August 2012 - 11:49 PM, said:

On Home Premium you often cannot run older Windows programs, even if it's 32-bit, let alone 64-bit.

Simply not true. My wife and son are running Office 2003 on Win7 HP 32-bit. On my desktop I am running Office 2007 on Win8 RP 64-bit, was running it on Win7 HP 64-bit. On my Acer Aspire netbook I am running Office 2007 on Win8 RTM, was running it on Win7 HP 32-bit. My wife is even running an old Corel Paint program and Microsoft PictureIt! from the Win98 days.

That's four different PCs with a number of different configurations, all successful, and I know I'm not unique.

This post has been edited by compnovo: 31 August 2012 - 04:56 AM

[brainout]

compnovo, on 31 August 2012 - 04:54 AM, said:

brainout, on 30 August 2012 - 11:49 PM, said:

On Home Premium you often cannot run older Windows programs, even if it's 32-bit, let alone 64-bit.

Simply not true. My wife and son are running Office 2003 on Win7 HP 32-bit. On my desktop I am running Office 2007 on Win8 RP 64-bit, was running it on Win7 HP 64-bit. On my Acer Aspire netbook I am running Office 2007 on Win8 RTM, was running it on Win7 HP 32-bit. My wife is even running an old Corel Paint program and Microsoft PictureIt! from the Win98 days.

That's four different PCs with a number of different configurations, all successful, and I know I'm not unique.

All of those are OFFICE programs. And notice that Office 2003 is run on 32-bit, not 64. Same for Corel and MS Picture It (which is a wonderful program, I just bought three more). But it won't run on 64-bit.

My point was that on 64-bit OS, it won't run. MS Answers tells you that as well, which was the source of my post. MS products get some backwards-compatibility, but only on some products. Again, go visit the MS Answers forums, see the problems people have.

I just bought an HP 64-bit workstation (the 6400), and had to decide what OS to put on it. Chose XP 32-bit over Win7 in either 32-bit or 64-bit, and over Win8, because of the lack of compatibility with earlier hardware and software that I still use (mainly MS Office 2000-2002, and DOS, plus Corel and Picture It 9). I wish MS wouldn't remove backwards-compatibility, but they do. Adobe is doing the same thing, and so does Corel. They have finally removed backwards-compatibility with WP5.1, which was a staple in the industry. So that's why I have to keep my 18 other computers, which are all XP and prior, down to 286.

So if you have older computers, do keep them. Get a new one if you can afford it, rather than updating the old. Will come a day when you'll need its older technology, especially if like so many, you've gone paperless.

This post has been edited by brainout: 31 August 2012 - 12:16 PM

[compnovo]

I just installed Office 2003 on my desktop: Win8 RP, 64-bit. Running great.

[compnovo]

And finally, I just installed Office 2000 Premium on the same desktop; runs flawlessly (Clippy sends his regards). Gotta stop, I'm tired of Office 2007 having to repair itself every time I uninstall one of the older versions. Besides, I no longer have my Office '97 disc.

Edit: Besides, I've gone way off topic (apologies to the OP).

This post has been edited by compnovo: 31 August 2012 - 06:15 PM

[brainout]

compnovo, on 31 August 2012 - 05:19 PM, said:

And finally, I just installed Office 2000 Premium on the same desktop; runs flawlessly (Clippy sends his regards). Gotta stop, I'm tired of Office 2007 having to repair itself every time I uninstall one of the older versions. Besides, I no longer have my Office '97 disc.

Edit: Besides, I've gone way off topic (apologies to the OP).

You're not off-topic. These programs you cite (well, 2003 anyway) can be had at Amazon for very low prices (less than $50, sometimes). If they work on 64-bit, that's great. I'm only reporting what I saw in MS Answer forums and from other articles I read. So you're helping explain the alternatives to Libre. It's not as if MS Answer forums will always have correct answers. But I based my own buying and OS configuration decision at 32-bit, due to needing Office 2003 and prior. (Actually, I found that 2002 was better than 2003, and 2000 has the best version of Outlook.) Every law firm I know of uses Office97-2003 formats to transmit legal documents. Ergo the need to stay away from later versions, because MS says it is removing backwards-compatibility, and Adobe said the same thing in its grid comparison of Acrobat X and prior. I have to maintain backwards-compatibility all the way back to Multimate II (DOS) and WordPerfect 5.1 (DOS), and sometimes even earlier than that.

Legal stuff has to be kept for generations, not just a decade or two. Alternatives like Works are even cheaper (which I reviewed here), as low as six bucks! And I reviewed the 2000 versus 2002, and 2003 Office versions here and here. Notice how even those prices range from $6 to $200. Next, Acrobat 9's phasing out I reviewed here. Acrobat compatibility changes referenced in that review, is in this second chart. (I wasn't allowed to put the link in the Amazon review.) I just bought a bunch of these, in case my existing discs go bad. They won't be available, forever.

This post has been edited by brainout: 01 September 2012 - 01:17 AM

[brainout]

You can get that Office '97 back for less money than originally (as low as three bucks), here. I still have my originals, so I understand your concern.

compnovo, on 31 August 2012 - 05:19 PM, said:

And finally, I just installed Office 2000 Premium on the same desktop; runs flawlessly (Clippy sends his regards). Gotta stop, I'm tired of Office 2007 having to repair itself every time I uninstall one of the older versions. Besides, I no longer have my Office '97 disc.

Edit: Besides, I've gone way off topic (apologies to the OP).

This post has been edited by brainout: 01 September 2012 - 02:27 AM

[smax013]

brainout, on 01 September 2012 - 12:45 AM, said:

Ergo the need to stay away from later versions, because MS says it is removing backwards-compatibility

Don't know where you get that. Office 2011 for the Mac still reads and writes Office 97-2003 file formats (aka doc, xls, ppt, etc) just fine in my experience. So does Office 2007 for Windows. I would assume Office 2010 for Windows does as well, but have not directly used it yet myself...but since Office 2011 for Mac does, I have to believe the the "older" Office 2010 for Windows does as well.

[compnovo]

smax013, on 03 September 2012 - 08:26 PM, said:

brainout, on 01 September 2012 - 12:45 AM, said:

Ergo the need to stay away from later versions, because MS says it is removing backwards-compatibility

Don't know where you get that. Office 2011 for the Mac still reads and writes Office 97-2003 file formats (aka doc, xls, ppt, etc) just fine in my experience. So does Office 2007 for Windows. I would assume Office 2010 for Windows does as well, but have not directly used it yet myself...but since Office 2011 for Mac does, I have to believe the the "older" Office 2010 for Windows does as well.

I can confirm that, I use 2010 at work.

[brainout]

smax013, on 03 September 2012 - 08:26 PM, said:

brainout, on 01 September 2012 - 12:45 AM, said:

Ergo the need to stay away from later versions, because MS says it is removing backwards-compatibility

Don't know where you get that. Office 2011 for the Mac still reads and writes Office 97-2003 file formats (aka doc, xls, ppt, etc) just fine in my experience. So does Office 2007 for Windows. I would assume Office 2010 for Windows does as well, but have not directly used it yet myself...but since Office 2011 for Mac does, I have to believe the the "older" Office 2010 for Windows does as well.

Yes, the Mac version is somewhat behind the MS Windows versions. I'm getting the information from MS' own documentation and from running those programs on my Windows machines. The files you speak of are all MS files, but I was referring to the difference in FILE CONVERSION between versions. For example, versions of MS Excel prior to 2003, can convert WordPerfect and DOS files that versions 2003 et seq, cannot. So, if in Excel 2003 or later you try to call up a Lotus 1-2-3 wk1 file, it cannot be read. As a consequence, I had to uninstall my two copies of Office 2003, because they are not compatible.

Win 7 is not compatible with Office 2002 and prior, per MS Answers forums. I posted links to their statements about it, last night, but I forget which threads in this forum I used. You can find them if you search on my profile, or just go to MS Answers forums and look for 'brainout'. So that's another example of lack of backwards-compatibility, at the program level.

Lotus Symphony has the same problem, and Adobe is reducing backwards-compatiblity with MS Office, too. Again, I posted links about this, so just search on those terms plus my nickname in Google (search engine within PC World doesn't always work), to find the posts.

This post has been edited by brainout: 04 September 2012 - 08:41 AM

[LiveBrianD]

compnovo, on 04 September 2012 - 04:46 AM, said:

smax013, on 03 September 2012 - 08:26 PM, said:

brainout, on 01 September 2012 - 12:45 AM, said:

Ergo the need to stay away from later versions, because MS says it is removing backwards-compatibility

Don't know where you get that. Office 2011 for the Mac still reads and writes Office 97-2003 file formats (aka doc, xls, ppt, etc) just fine in my experience. So does Office 2007 for Windows. I would assume Office 2010 for Windows does as well, but have not directly used it yet myself...but since Office 2011 for Mac does, I have to believe the the "older" Office 2010 for Windows does as well.

I can confirm that, I use 2010 at work.

Agreed, 2010 is just as compatible as 2007. (I use 2010 at home.)

[brainout]

aaparsan, on 27 August 2012 - 04:24 PM, said:

I have LibreOfice Portable on my Flash Drive, Kingsoft Office on Windows XP and Windows 7 and OpenOffice 3.2 as a backup on Windows 7.Actually I just haven't got around to uninstalling it yet.

Would you let me know if Kingsoft Office limits the number of merge fields in a merge document? And, can it read a spreadsheet range as a database, if the first row in that range are the field names? I'm in the market for any word processing program which can do this. I just got a bunch of SmartSuites, and they SEEM to do it, but who knows. Since KO is so inexpensive, I wanted to try it. But since you already have it, would you look up the merge stuff in its help, and tell me if those two features are true?

If my query annoys you, just ignore it. Thank you for your time!

[brainout]

LiveBrianD, on 04 September 2012 - 03:32 PM, said:

compnovo, on 04 September 2012 - 04:46 AM, said:

smax013, on 03 September 2012 - 08:26 PM, said:

brainout, on 01 September 2012 - 12:45 AM, said:

Ergo the need to stay away from later versions, because MS says it is removing backwards-compatibility

Don't know where you get that. Office 2011 for the Mac still reads and writes Office 97-2003 file formats (aka doc, xls, ppt, etc) just fine in my experience. So does Office 2007 for Windows. I would assume Office 2010 for Windows does as well, but have not directly used it yet myself...but since Office 2011 for Mac does, I have to believe the the "older" Office 2010 for Windows does as well.

I can confirm that, I use 2010 at work.

Agreed, 2010 is just as compatible as 2007. (I use 2010 at home.)

MS Answers Forum and also the Windows 7 Upgrade advisor executable program I downloaded last night from Microsoft both say that Office 2002 and prior are NOT compatible with Win7. The executable told me also that Picture It 9! wasn't compatible. (I just bought three more copies of that old program, because I like it so much.) The program tested my machine's innards three times, and said the same thing each time (click here and read the links in that post, live screenshots of what the program told me). Go figure.

So if you get them to play on your Win8 anyway, well I'm happy for you. Word 2003 et seq are compatible, same sources.

This post has been edited by brainout: 04 September 2012 - 05:33 PM