i´m trying to buy a microsoft office package...

[piggynose]

but what to do. i was about to buy it from Amazon at Discounted price of 68 quid, then i found a student website, where you get it a lot cheaper at 39 quid instead of they say 310 quid. of course the student website would mean stretching the truth, as i am not a student.
what would you do? Amazon? or have i overlooked another option?
piggy

[TTG]

Open Office is good. Similar to Microsoft Office. It can save/edit Microsoft files as well.

Most important, it's free!

[piggynose]

well thanx 4 the advice, i´ve actually downloaded OO a few weeks ago, i now remember reading the instructions on how to make it work with MS, but it still doesn´t work for me, as all the people i know who i´ve sent documents to cannot open them. is there something i need to know, or a possible oversight??

[koster]

Hello Piggy,

With Open Office, you can save your documents in Microsoft Word format. You should do this for any document that you might email. You could do this each time, but it's much easier to set Open Office to save in Microsoft Word format by default. There are instructions here:
http://www.twistedeth...ve-as-doc-by-default/

Regarding Microsoft Office, you can download the beta version of Office 2010 for free from the Microsoft Office website. The beta version of Office 2010 will expire in October 2010, so you will have until then to make your mind up about purchasing Microsoft Office or using Open Office.
http://us2.office2010...lt.aspx?culture=en-US
Although it is a beta, I use it frequently and have had no problems at all.

Open Office does most of what Microsoft Office does. If you're adept at using Microsoft Office you will need a little time to work out where all the equivalent functions are. For the vast majority of documents, the compatibility of documents between the two programs will be seamless, but with complex layouts you will encounter instances where the document does not appear exactly as intended in the other program.