office 2013 alternative: what do you use?

I just use office web apps these days, its free and does everything i need.

 

I don't know about global stats, but OOXML is far more popular in my university. I rarely see a .doc file.

 

Thanks for mentioning the free MS web apps as I had forgotten about those. I went to my skydrive and tried to edit a .doc document using chrome browser but some of my keyboard keys did not work properly, such as the tab key which is extremely important in my line of work. Being MS products I'm assuming the web apps are optimized for Internet Explorer. Have you used the MS web apps a lot and can you make comment about your experience with them?

 

LibreOffice 4 has the option to use custom skins and icon sets.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccFUl7RlgjE
http://www.webupd8.org/2011/07/faenza-icons-for-libreoffice-toolbar.html

Panagiotis

 

that video just shows the firefox persona's which i already mentioned. imo those are not real "skins" as they only change the top bar and do not change the style / font colors / menu styles etc. all that does is add the backround to the menu bar which in many cases imo is just stupid because you cant change the font color and with the darker persona's the font remains black and you flat out cant see it. im talking about a full styled skin with different menu bar, fonts, buttons etc..

 

This doesn't sound like the reality that I deal with on a daily basis.

 

Yeah lol. My IT department insisted on sending files in .docx. When I inquired to send me documents in .rtf or .doc the guy laughed at me and told me to get my computer updated. Eventually I filed a complaint and things got changed.
But yeah some places insist on .docx, I have no idea why.

 

Because OOXML is the default for latest Microsoft Office suites. These are not "bad news". OOXML has several advantages and is more transparent for other office suites to properly support. OOXML is standardized by ECMA, ISO and IEC. It was also included in the OSP.

 

Sure but there is no need to send class schedule in .docx format and force students to buy newest office 2010 because the IT feels like it. I am not business major or statistics, etc.. It was just stupid stuff that they required .docx for.

 

It's easy to work with OOXML without any problems with older MS Office suites.

See: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=3

This compatibility pack adds full support to OOXML for MS Office 2000, MS Office XP and MS Office 2003.

MS Office 2007, MS Office 2010 and MS Office 2013 already come with full support to OOXML.

So, nobody is really "forcing" students to buy newest MS Office. That was an ignorant statement from the IT guy.

 

I dont use office software that much but if i do then i use kingsoft office.

 

I tried Kingsoft Office free last night but you can't save a document as a docx file. To my understanding it can open a docx file but not save it as docx. I wish it could for it would save me several hundred megabytes over LibreOffice 4.0 which I'm currently using. This is on Win 8 not Ubuntu.

Later...

 

Neither Office 2007 or 2010 have full ISO/IEC 29500 support.

Office 2007 is not entirely compliant with the current version (only the first version, transitional).
Office 2010 only fully supports the transitional (more relaxed rule) not strict (cant write strict, only read).

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/gg607163(v=office.14).aspx

Office 2013 AKAIK should be the first version to be fully compliant with ISO/IEC 29500.

Cheers, Nick

 

They changed their mind, only locked every 90 days

http://blogs.office.com/b/office-news/archive/2013/03/06/office-2013-retail-license-agreement-now-transferable.aspx

 

I'm using Office 2010 and I simply don't have any valid reason to even consider Office 2013. I'm not one to crave the need for 'the latest and greatest' Microsoft releases (that goes for Windows as well as for Office). I prefer to use versions that have been 'out there' for a while and have been refined. I really don't see very much in the way of advancements in any of Microsoft's releases (I would still be using WinXP and Office 2003 if only those products were still supported).

Cruise

 

im actually still using libre and have yet to have any real issues yet...

 

I'm trying Ashampoo Office 2010, that is from SoftMaker. No annoyances for now.

It allows to do a portable version in USB pendrive. It seems I'll do that later...