How-To Geek
Ask the Readers: What Office Software are You Using on Your Computer?
If you have a computer then it is very likely that you use some kind of word processing or office software on a daily basis. What we want to know this week is what office software do you use?
Your needs have a large effect on the type of office software that you use on your computer. Do you only create the occasional word document or a multitude of different document types each day? Whether you are at home or work there will be word processing or office suite software of some kind installed. It could be something as simple as AbiWord and WordPad or be full featured like Microsoft Office and OpenOffice.org.
Your budget can also have a large impact on the software that you use. Some people are willing to purchase shareware regardless in order to have all the “extra features” while others feel that open source software fits their needs and budget nicely. In the end it is a matter of personal choice.
What office software do you use? Do you use the same or different software for home and work? Let us know in the comments!
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Comments (129)
Akemi Iwaya (Asian Angel) is our very own Firefox Fangirl who enjoys working with multiple browsers and loves 'old school' role-playing games. Visit her on Twitter and Google+.
- Published 06/30/10
Nowadays I do almost all of my documents in LaTeX, ’cause I’m hardcore like that. I keep Office 2007 around for when people send me stuff and I need to open it.
I use textedit or notepad depending on platform. I do have iWork ’09 installed and Office 2010, but I almost never use them unless I absolutely need to for some reason.
Unfortunately, M$FT Office. It’s too far and away the standard to use anything else unless you become a personal expert in said alternative. I’d like to use something else, but I don’t have the time or resources to become the expert I’d need to be.
I use Microsoft Office at my “day job,” but use Google Docs for my photography business and personal needs. I don’t miss the Office suite one bit, particularly now that I can open and edit Word documents with Google Docs.
I use Office 2007 at the moment but I might upgrade to Office 2010 soon.
MS Office ’07 at work and Google Docs at home for casual stuff. LaTeX? You are hardcore.
I use OpenOffice.org running on Ubuntu. However, I have another partition with XP and MS Office 2007 because oo.org isn’t good at handling .docx and .pptx files, and I receive a lot of those.
MS Office 2010 now. I’m a student so I was able to pick it up for a sweet price. I have openoffice.org installed on my system too; it is very useful for converting file formats for me. I use Google Docs often as well; I like the easy collaboration it offers.
I use OpenOffice. Took awhile to adjust to differences from MS Office, but for $150 in savings it didn’t take too long. Most of the software I use now is open source, or free, or both.
I use Microsoft Office 2003 and Google Docs. But just this morning, actually, I downloaded the MS Office 2010 trial and will evaluate it before (likely) buying it later this summer.
Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac. I tried using NeoOffice/OpenOffice and Apple Pages but the compatibility and formatting issue was too much to deal with. I was dumb enough to use NeoOffice and save as .doc format for a resume. When the recruiter received it, he said it was a “jumbled mess of formatting errors”.
After that, I caved and bought Office for the Mac.
Generally i like freeware, so i prefer OpenOffice and i also like google docs but it’s online
but since i’m not the only one who uses this computer,Dad installed office 2007 and he doesn’t want to change it
so it’s just Office 2007
On the Mac, nothing does it better than Scrivener. I also have Bean and OpenOffice, but I can’t remember the last time I used either one.
On the PC I have MS Office 2003. I bought it for a pleasantly low price on eBay and don’t have any plans to change.
Rockin’ Office 2010 on Win 7! Never tried and other office type software, never needed to.
Especially liking Outlook 2010 with the ribbon and updated UI. Also runs much faster than 2007, which took an age to open, now it takes seconds.
Nice work Microsoft.
Only problem with the suite is price. Most packages cost more than a new copy of Windows 7!
Jammin with Office 2007 on Win 7 Baby!
MS OFFICE 2010 Beta trial – works well and is free!
I am running Office 2002 at work, Office 2007 at home. The only thing that really irked me with 2002 was the lack of OneNote, so i got permission to buy and install it myself .
I am an Office 2010 guy now since I am a geek always wanting to have the “latest greatest”.
However, I have done my time with Abiword, IBM Symphony, OpenOffice, and plenty of cloud solutions like Google Docs and Zoho.
Overall though MS Office … Old habits are hard to break.
MS Officer here. It’s some pretty solid software, but most people seem to just hate it because Microsoft are the people behind the software. I like it, and I think 2010 is a fantastic piece of software. Initially it took a while to get used to the ribbon interface of 2007, but in the end it’s a pretty logical interface. Can’t wait to see it flourish further on into other Microsoft software products.
Office 2003 at work with OpenOffice on a USB for “emergencies”. OpenOffice, Office 2003, 2007 and 2010 and GoogleDocs at home – depending on what I’m doing. I had to get the new versions of Office at home for dev work but I really, really hate the new UI so I’ve got a cute add-in to give me my menus back…not perfect but at least part-way there!
OpenOffice is the future for me…until they ruin the UI like MS did!
I primarily use Open Office. My laptop only came with a trial of Office, and I urgently needed office software, so that’s where I went. I’ve since also added it to my desktop to replace the ancient MS Office I had on there. More recently I’ve obtained a free copy of MS Office 2010, which is useful for when I get the .docx and its friends. But as Mysticgeek said, old habits are hard to break, and Open Office still takes priority over the more advanced MS Office.
Office 2010 all the way.
I like a lot the Outlook and OneNote of the software suit.
I used OpenOffice.org Calc for now to keep up my movies list like DVDs I Own, DVDRs, Movies to buy, Movies to rent, etc… something like that. these are seperate by sheet. so I renamed all sheets that’s what I did. even I got Librarian Pro & Collectorz.com Movie Collector software too. you should also tell people about MoovieLive for free website profile about your movies collection online with others sharing information about you have, watched, review movies, rate movies, etc…
Open Office is installed but I never use it. I have no real need of office apps. 90% of my typing is done on websites just as I’m doing now. I use gedit to clean text (remove formatting) when working on websites. For notes to be kept I use Tomboy. That’s sync’ed over the different computers I use through Ubuntu One.
Office 2010 on Windows 7, Office 2007 on Windows XP, OpenOffice and Office 2007 (using Crossover) on Ubuntu, and Google Docs for occasional updating on the go.
MS Office 2003
Open Office, with Abiword on an older subsidiary computer. There was no way I was going to pay for no real benefit.
I use OpenOffice 3.2 beacuse it is free.
I have word but nine times out of ten I use serif page plus 2 as it’s much more user friendly
Personally i use MS Office 2007. I needed it for school back in, well 2008, to do coursework and other computer work, so my parents bought it for me, knowing that i needed it, and also because they don’t believe in free stuff, so they would not have liked me to use Open office anyway. Anyway since i got it, i loved it and personally i am going to stick with it rather than upgrade to 2010.
MS 2007 Home and Student cause its cheaper and dont need outlook
Used open office and others but just a pain when everyone else is using MS
MS Office but considering to change to something.
Office 2003 on Win 7 baby! lol guess im old school,
well actually i just haven’t spend any money on an upgrade so im still using 2003
Got MS Office 2k7 and 2k10 for $10 through my work and use them on my few remaining Windows machines. Otherwise I use Open Office 3 because it runs Linux and is free.
Office 2010 Now, Earlier Office 2007..
I do a lot of writing and I use Word 2000, I never warmed up the newer versions. On my computer I have Word Perfect and Open Office, as well as Word 2010 beta, but seldom use any thing but Word 2000.
LD
It’s great to hear that so many users are liking Office 2010! It has valuable new features, such as the ability to embed and edit video within a PowerPoint presentation. You should all check out the Win 2010 contest going on right now on Facebook. This week’s challenge is to write a Haiku about Office 2010. Winners will be selected to win a free copy of Office 2010.
Good luck!
Isabella
MSFT Office Outreach Team
Open office, Office 2010 (trial), and Abiword on the windows desktop. I most use Abiword but am really liking Office 2010 I may buy myself a license
NeoOffice the Mac
Microsoft Office 2003 & 2010, AbiWord, Jarte, EditPad Lite, Notepad, g-edit, and Zoho. ^__^
I use Office 2010 and still use 2007 on some computers, as well as the occasional cloud document in Google Docs, Office Web Apps, or (my personal favorite) Acrobat.com Buzzword.
Microsoft Office 2010 running on Win 7 is the way to go. I’ve tried openoffice and google docs and both are a piece of crap compared to Office 2010.
I use Office 2007, although I have tried others I continue to return to Microsoft. It just has everything I needed with plenty of options for me to learn and develop with. And now I have Office Live and Skydrive. What more could I need? Well, nothing. Thank you Microsoft.
Lotus Symphony, a free Office suite that saves files in Open Office formats.
Running Office 2007 on my main laptop. Still run Office 2k3 on a couple of older systems.
NeoOffice at home on my Mac. Office 2007 at work on a Windows XP laptop.
I use GoogleDocs almost exclusively, except when I just need to jot something down Right Now, I open up Notepad.
If I knew of something that was easy to use but had a live word count as you type, I’d use that in a heartbeat, but I would still probably put everything on GoogleDocs, due to the extensive collaboration capabilities.
Office 2010, is there anything else?
Used to use OpenOffice until multiple files I got from my professors wouldn’t work properly in it. Wasn’t going to head to the library or campus labs at 3am, so Microsoft Office 2007 is what I’m using now.
I usse Oo.org in both Windows and Linux (Linux Mint 9 Isadora). I also carry a portable version of Oo.org with me.
I use Google Docs for online editing. For editing *.*x files, I use Office Web Apps.
Office 2010
I like new FUI of Office 2010 and use then on Windows XP in that I always use Word, Excel, PowerPoint for home and office.
I use OpenOffice, although I’d like to use the Microsoft Office viewers as an alternative. I could use a geek article on how to do this nicely.
open office and zoho office
I use open office and abiword on both mi windows 7, vista and ubuntu machines.
Google Docs for day to day editing, Publisher ’00/’03 for newspapers/report covers. I have been trying to find an alternative to Publisher that’s open source, but closest is Scribus, which I can’t figure out.
@ home : all the computers (desktops and laptops) use OpenOffice
@ work : MS Office 2007
Office 2007 on my Windows 7 system. OpenOffice on my Linux Mint 9 system.
MS Office 2007
I use OpenOffice and AbiWord both. I really like OpenOffice because of its features and AbiWord for its simplicity and performance.
BTW, I work on Ubuntu Lucid.
I use MS Office 2010 at work and MS Office 2007 at home. On the road – Microsoft web application.
I’m still rocking Office 07 for now.
MS Office 2010… and want to say that it’s better than office 2007
I’m not a big user of Office suite components but I when I have the need….
iWork ’08 for creating.
QuickLook for looking things over.
Openoffice and Google Docs at home, Office 2007 at work.
Microsoft Office 2007 / 2010
I have used just 1 time open office and i HATED IT !
I just couldn’t stand all the mess it was to do the same as in word,
I only use Microsoft Office, i really luv 2010 version, rellay cool (:
so i’m happy with that, hate freebies.
I use office 2010 Pro. I am a Office Outlook user, so I needed this edition.
I use OpenOffice at home, but Microsoft office is provided at the school where I work.
I’m using OpenOffice for creating and editing documents, but I have Office 2007 in my VirtualBox with Windows XP Installed for opening Office 2007 documents. Note: I’m using Ubuntu Lucid only as my operating system
Office 2010 ….its superb !
Office 2010 pro.
At work I’m forced ;) to use MS-Office 2007, because the whole company (over 3000 people) uses it.
At home I’m a die-hard WordPerfect user. At the moment I have X3.
I use OpenOffice.org also because it’s free and because it’s available for Linux too. So I also installed OOo on my kid’s computers. Free remember? 8)
I als o have a plug-in installed into MS-Office that allowes MSO to read and write OOo docs.
Forgot to mention: I use OOo because of it’s portable version. I allways have my USB-stick with me, so I allways have my Office with me. I even have a bootable Linux stick which I carry around most of the time. That way I have a complete PC with me, including OOo.
open office
I use Open Office.
You don’t have to become an expert when you have Aunty Google nearby. Saying you need to become an expert as a reason not to use Office alternatives implies you are an expert with Office.
Tip: If you are worried about formatting etc especially with something like a cv which you don’t want anyone editing save or print it to pdf and anyone can open it with any pdf viewer.
I use iWork 09 almost exclusively. Sometimes I have to use MS Office at work or Uni but that’s rare as I take my laptop with me almost everywhere. I am considering buying MS Office 2011 for Mac when it comes out just for the odd time when I have to create a presentation and there’s no way of connecting my laptop to the projector (which is rare) but to be honest exporting from Keynote is so easy and it’s very rare there’s an issue (except for that time when I used lovely fonts etc, which then weren’t installed by default on Windows, doh!).
Like a number of commenters above, for work I have to use Office 2007. MS Word is still the standard in the publishing industry (along with pdfs). Most authors supply files in doc format (not even docx). Around here, kids are hooked on MS Office from an early age as it’s used in teaching in school.
Hopefully one day we’ll get away from this stranglehold and embrace other office products.
At Home
Microsoft Office 2007 Professional
At Work
Microsoft Office 2007 Standard
Microsoft Office 2003 Professional
Open office 3.2.1
Office 2010 Beta … it still works ;)
I use SoftMaker Office 2008. Excellent program that handles everything I require it to do. I’m retired and don’t need much office capability. I got it free during their promotion a while back.
Office 2007, soon 2010.
now Office 2010 Beta and it still works
Mostly LaTeX and iWork
I also have Office around for compatibility
Work:
MS Office 2003
Home:
Open Office – Newest
Office 2000. More than enough for me. Will stick with it until I switch over to Linux.
At work I use MS Office 2007. We might test Office 2010.
At home I use OpenOffice 3.2.
MSO 2007 & OOo 3.2.1
OOo because of Writer and compatibility with Linux docs..
MSO for productivity.. Excel is unbeatable by any yet..
Office 2007 @ office and Office 2010 @ home… I have tried others, but ease of use and ergonomics M$ rocks…
One this quote ‘be full featured like Microsoft Office and OpenOffice.org.’ i think OO.org has got the features of Office XP…. M$ office is way a head of others….
From the beginning i have graduated from every modification of Microsoft office now it is 2007 and they promise 2010 if I buy 2007office suit. i also try hard, to use, all other but uses only MS office suite
Most of the time, I’m in `vi` or `geany` – not really word processors. Email is 7-bit ASCII clean, like it should be. Not much need for a word-processor – we’re creating solutions, not documents here. Documentation is something that happens “later,” if ever. ;)
When I need .doc or .xls, I use OpenOffice until it breaks something or if I need 100% compatible formating to work with others. That doesn’t happen very often, but about 2% of the time I’m forced to use MS-Office 2003 or 2007. Those are both avoided as long as possible.
I hate the FU-bar in Office-2007. Give back the old menus that I’ve memorized since 1990. OTOH, MS-Visio is far and away the best technical diagramming tool available, I just wish there was a Linux port.
TheFu gives me a flashback of SciTE. Pure text procesor but you can export all shiny color code in rtf od pdf if you like.
Regards!
I use Office 2007 at work (I teach at a college, where we have it installed everywhere) but strictly Google Docs and OpenOffice at home. When the school upgrades to Office 2010 I’ll be able to get it cheap for home use (I’d never pay the outrageous retail price) but I’ll use it only for OneNote.
I keep it all together with Evernote and Dropbox.
Office 2010 is great.
Office 2010 and OpenOffice
What is the one that is really expensive and has just changed its file format to try and extort more money from the minions? I do not use that one.
I’m running Office 2007 on Ubuntu installed through Play on Linux
Office 2007 @ work. 3 years and I still can’t get used to the ribbon. I actually miss Office 2003.
WordPerfect continually since 1984! OpenOffice for spreadsheets and databases.
OOo, Notepad and Abiword.
Looking for an alternative to OOCalc.
Atlantis. Small program that will open .doc, .docx etc, but does all I want it to.
I used to use Open Office, but with MS Office 2007 gaining speed I switched to MS Office 2007 at work and home. 2007 has a more intuitive menu in comparison to Open Office or older versions of MS office. I’m interested to try Office 2010. I prefer Open source for obvious reasons, but MS Office is for once a step ahead of the game.
I use Office 2010 in Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit. I have always preferred Word Perfect but it has become a niche product. I also use Google docs and am looking forward to try Microsoft web offerings.
I had just been using Open Office but then my husband pointed out that his MS Office 2007 had multiple licenses, so I installed it too. I switch between them…trying to learn the 2007 changes to Office but sometimes the older formats are more comfortable.
Open Office on the PC but Zoho online.
I still use MS Office 2000 and once in a while, MS Works. Surprised not a single response mentioned MS Works which meets the needs of 90 percent of the public.
If I am the author, and it is something to share, I hand code basic HTML. It is easier than getting MS Word to do nested lists and tables correctly. If they really want a Word doc, Word will open it. If it is for print, I use LyX to make LaTeX, because the output is just so nice.
If someone sends me an MS Office file, I use Open Office because the ribbon interface drives me nuts.
Abiword + Gnumeric for most stuff. Does what I need and stops there. Full word processors annoy me =P. I will get on OO.o for presentations or occasionally for basic document editing with Draw. I use Google Doc to collaborate.
But out of actual programs Abiword wins out by amount of usage by far.
Using Office 2007 at the moment. but going to upgrade to Office 2010 pretty soon. :)
I am using Microsoft Office 2007 coz I tried OpenOffice but found some issues with the formatting. Files created in Word 2007 could not be opened properly in OpenOffice.
Office 2010. Sometimes, there is a reason that stuff is free and while *most* of what I use IS open-source, there’s such a difference between 2010 and OO that the choice isn’t hard. And if you’re using Office 2007 or before, it is probably because you haven’t tried Office 2010. Yep, it IS that much better.
Remember when Wordperfect was the standard?? Kinda sad, isn’t it, that those in charge destroyed what was once (virtually) ubiquitous?
I have always preferred WordPerfect, and use it more at home. At work I use Office 2007. It’s the first version of Office (ever) that I’ve actually semi-liked.
I use OO and Abiword both in Linux. I, in fact, dual boot with windows and use Office 2010 in windows partition. However, majority of the time, it is Open Office.
I use WordPerfect (X5), because I can make keyboard shortcuts to get characters that aren’t on the keyboard. They’re much easier to make with WP than with either MS Office or Open Office.
MS Office 2007 at work (because I have no choice), OpenOffice at home.
I always use MS Office 2003. I’m hoping to get my hands on MS Office 2010. I don’t use OpenOffice because it cannot render some documents correctly (especially MS Office ’07 docx files).
I love MS Office 2010…!!!! Its damn cool…..!!!!
And when you get Win 7 down there…..you need nothing else.
:)
MS office 2010, have used ms office since 97 so its very unlikely I will change now.
Office2010,-win
I use Go-oo.
A faster and souped-up “open source suite derived from OpenOffice.org” — as they call it –.also distributed with Ubuntu instead of OpenOffice.
Notepad++ and Office 2010. Excel and Word at work in the XLSX format and Notepad++ (CTRL+ Mouse Wheel to zoom is king!) because native notepad is a neglected red headed step child, and Wordpad just feels wrong. Maybe notepad and Wordpad can have a love child and we’ll call it notepad with a ribbon :)
I used MS Office 2010 beta for a while, but after that I now use SSuite Office’s Excalibur. No trails, no registering any personal information, and best of all, no Java or .NET.
Very small but efficient. :) – And no damn ribbon either! :D
I have Office 2007 but all I use is Word and, occasionally, Excel. The only time I use PowerPoint is to view the rare presentations I receive. I have Publisher but never needed it since I can accomplish everything I want with Word (from now on, I’ll get Home and Student). I checked out Open Office but apparently it doesn’t support Extended Meta Files, which I need and Word 2007 has.
I also use Adobe Acrobat 9 Standard. I got it with my scanner because it uses it to save scans as PDFs but now that I have it, I have found myself using it for PDFs other than the one my scanner spits out. I used to use virtual printers for creating PDFs from other files but Adobe Acrobat works much better for that.
I also use a music notation program called Finale Allegro 2007, a stripped down version of the full featured Finale. I upgraded to Finale 2010 earlier this year (they made me an offer I couldn’t refuse) but I haven’t gotten around to installing it yet since I have other, more pressing projects right now.
I also use a check printer program, a small program that helps with writing/modifying lyrics and Microsoft Works Picture It 7.0.
I use Open Office almost exclusively except when I maybe need to view a certain Microsoft Power Point document. For Power Point, I use the free Microsoft Power Point viewer. And as far as PDF’s go, OpenOffice has always let you print to a PDF (since version 2, anyway). Printing to a PDF was an ability that you had to pay extra for in previous versions of MSO (before MSO 2007, I believe).
Also, for simple PDF viewing I use Foxit. I DON’T USE ADOBE’S ACROBAT READER!!! Acrobat is full of potential security vulnerabilities to say nothing of it’s shear bloat. Yet, I’m still amazed at how many sheeple still use Acrobat, or for that matter, Microsoft Office!
Frankly, I can’t understand why anyone would pay money for something when there are perfectly good FREE alternatives. And when you consider security and resources, more often the pay programs or even just the standard defaults are worse! Either people who use programs like MS Office or Adobe Acrobat are too lazy to change or just don’t know any better. Then again, there are also a few idiots who simply have too much money and just need to spend it too. (If you have/use MSO then I’d be more curious to know which camp YOU fall into – the paying fools or the paying idiots.)
Lastly, I think I should state that if you do use free programs like Open Office that you might want to consider contributing a little money to the authors. You don’t have to contribute but it would be the ethical thing to do if you continue to use their products.
MS Office 2010 is the best
I use Open office.
I have Word 2007 or maybe it’s Office 2007. I type in Hebrew and classical Greek so the program is a Godsend for that kind of work. But I have not found a real good typing program for Greek which demands diacritical marks; typing Greek is slow and tedious, separate typing entries for each diacrtitical mark. I have yet to figure out the templates or macros. All I know: I turn on the computer and move from one language to another and presto-chango I can type in Greek and Hebrew. (Also Russian, but now I’m just showing off.) Word 20007 is a vast improvement over Word 2000 but not especially so; seems Word 2007 is lots more complicated than Word 2000. But in any event, they work. For college students, the price is huge and as far as I’m concerned should be built into the computer for a whole lot less cost.
I’ve been a die-hard fan of WordPerfect and Quattro Pro since the 80′s, and still find it superior to Word in many ways. I do have MS Office 2007 because I use OutLook and OneNote heavily, and I use Word and Excel frequently. I also was a practicing IT consultant for years and always had MS Office for those clients that used it. I agree with an earlier comment that Office 2007 is the first decent version from MS, and I have come to really like the new ribbon after getting used to it. But WordPerfect suite is far more reasonably priced and intuitive to use. I’ve tried OpenOffice, found it clumsy and difficult to do anything beyond the basics. I prefer to pay for a real suite that has a fully developed set of apps (word processing, spreadsheets, PIM, etc) and good help and support – its worth it to me.
Currently using MS 2003, 2010 is keyed in for Nov Budget Purchases. Have tried several versions of OO, however, I always find that it’s setup, which is kinda-sorta-of like MS Office, is cumberson for me.
I use office software, 2010 windows 7, office software2007, windows XP, open office and office 2007, (using crossover) Ubuntu, and google documents update.