Free or low-cost Word Processing software for Mac?

Barryboy

Barryboy

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Rob
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Hi...

A friend's daughter is going to Uni and has been given a pretty new Apple Mac and she needs a WP package such as Microsoft Word or something similar. Now money is a bit tight in their house so paying about a hundred pounds for MS Word for Mac is out of the question. I was wondering if anyone could recommend something free/open source (preferably) or low-cost that would do the trick. I use Windows myself and know absolutely zip about all things Apple. I have been pointed towards Apache Open Office but in truth have no experience whatsoever of it.

Can anyone help please?

Rob
 
I use pages on mac for word processing which admittedly isn't free, although on the windows partition of my mac laptop I use open office and have done for years without issue, they also make a macintosh version so go for that.
 
It depends on the OS on the Mac but have a look at OpenOffice which is free and good. When saving files it default is to its own format but you can choose to save in Word format. For basic word processing and spreadsheet work it is excellent.

Dave
 
I use Open office on my laptop and PC. They do it for Mac too.
Pretty much the same as Word, Excel etc.

http://www.openoffice.org/porting/mac/

Edit, as Dave said, remember to save as Word Document or no-one else can open it!
 
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depends on the Mac OS

OS X Yosemite has pages free
 
Use Open Office, as it is free. She should really wait until she gets to Uni before buying any software. There are some insane deals for students/academics and all totally legit. But she will need her student ID and probably need to login via University servers to get the best deals.

Software4Students.com does some good deals for registered students dependent upon what she needs.
 
If the Mac is fairly new it should already have Pages etc on it as they are free now. I prefer LibreOffice to OpenOffice but they are basically the same. Isn't MS Office for students more like £60? She really ought to find out what the course requires first though.
 
The university may have its own software agreement with microsoft and may be able to offer ms office or ms office online at a discount or even free.
 
Thanks for all the replies, guys. Now sorted - one of the guys on the TZ-UK watch forum (one of a couple I frequent) has kindly donated a MS Office licence.

Rob
 
Barryboy said:
Thanks for all the replies, guys. Now sorted - one of the guys on the TZ-UK watch forum (one of a couple I frequent) has kindly donated a MS Office licence.

Rob
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Awesome. It will still be worth seeing what the uni will provide as they may have the most up to date versions for free, including access to one drive and office online.
 
Rapscallion said:
Awesome. It will still be worth seeing what the uni will provide as they may have the most up to date versions for free, including access to one drive and office online.
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+1 here some of the open source software like Open Office just doesn't talk to word - besides the student versions ar for nothing
 
the uni might provide I went out to get one of my kids MS word when she got to Uni they offer her a version :(
 
For info the other open source option is libreoffice. This was the original "offspring" of OpenOffice when Oracle took ownership.
 
I don't see what the problem is.
Open Office and Word are pretty much the same. Open Office does everything I require at no expense . It can be saved as a Word document and opened by anyone.
 
sphexx said:
If the Mac is fairly new it should already have Pages etc on it as they are free now. I prefer LibreOffice to OpenOffice but they are basically the same. Isn't MS Office for students more like £60? She really ought to find out what the course requires first though.
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Yeah £60 for a four year licence, pretty good deal I think
 
Adobe and Microsoft do educational deals for student's all that is needed is proof that student is enrolled with an educational establishment; check adobe site for details.
 
Barryboy said:
Thanks for all the replies, guys. Now sorted - one of the guys on the TZ-UK watch forum (one of a couple I frequent) has kindly donated a MS Office licence.

Rob
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Might be worth checking whether she has an iPhone - if she does, Pages could be a better option. Her docs could be available on her phone too in a very user-friendly way.
 
paulcamcas said:
Might be worth checking whether she has an iPhone - if she does, Pages could be a better option. Her docs could be available on her phone too in a very user-friendly way.
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Iphone link??? Ha!! I'm the one first in the consultation line whenever there's technology problems in that family so I don't think I'll mention that one to her, Paul!

Rob
 
Some Uni's and a large amount of colleges and secondary schools are now utilising Office 365, enabling the students access to the entire Office 2013/2016 suite for the duration of their education on their device (PC/Laptop/Tablet).

I know you said you've got this resolved now but thought I would chip-in anyways lol, and a donated license isn't necessarily legal ;)
 
You should try Libreoffice, it is more regularly updated compared to open office, and was started by a group that defected when openoffice was bought up by sun
 
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