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How to replace Word and Excel (my Office). Analogs, online editors

All the best!

One of the most important programs for most users (by the way, for which many people buy computers) is Microsoft Word (a text editor).

With it, you can create and prepare any text work: an abstract, report, term paper, etc. But Microsoft Office has one drawback - the program is paid, and therefore it is not available on every computer ...

In this article, I want to give options for free analogues of Word and Excel, and how you can work with text documents and spreadsheets without having such software on your PC. I think it will be very useful for a wide audience 👌.

So...

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Free analogues of Word and Excel

WordPad

Note: this editor is built into Windows (below is how to find and open it).

Free, simple, lightweight and user-friendly text editor built into Windows. For some reason, many users are not even aware of its existence ...

Meanwhile, it allows you to perform all the basic actions with text: highlighting, underlining, font selection, font size, indents, inserting pictures, etc.

Basically, if you don't have any big tasks for editing documents, this editor is more than enough!

WordPad in Windows 10 - editing the text of this article

Cons of WordPad (in my opinion 👀):

  1. cannot open documents created in Word (for those that open - the document markup may shift);
  2. there is no table editor (at least a very simple one). Of course, you can insert a table from Excel, but if you have Microsoft Office installed on your PC, then why WordPad ?!

How to find and open WordPad

I will offer a universal method for all Windows: press the combination of buttons Win + R , then type in the line "Open" command wordpad and press Enter.

How to open WordPad

Openoffice

Website: //www.openoffice.org/ru/

An excellent and free replacement for Word and Excel (and PowerPoint with its presentations). Allows you to work with tables, text documents, pictures, presentations, formulas, etc.

After installing and launching the program, you will have 1 icon on your desktop, by opening which you will get access to all these applications (see the screenshot below).

Text and spreadsheet editors // OpenOffice

The counterpart to Word in OpenOffice is called Writer. Very similar in design to the old Word (circa 2003). By and large, all the basic functions necessary for most users are here and work with dignity. The program fully supports the Russian language!

I also want to note that in the program you can open and edit any files created in Word (doc, docx, rtf, etc.).

Writer - editing a document

As far as Excel is concerned, OpenOffice has a Calc program. It also allows you to open tables developed in Excel (xlsx, xls formats). An example of working in Calc - you can see in the screenshot below.

Complete replacement for Excel

Among the shortcomings of the package, I will highlight the following:

  1. as for replacing Excel: although the Calc program allows you to work with formulas, some of them work "crookedly", there are certain inconveniences in this regard;
  2. the old interface, from which Microsoft Office users are already weaned;
  3. the markup of documents created in Microsoft Office may change slightly when you open them in OpenOffice. It is not critical for small documents, but if you have a whole book of several hundred pages, the "picture" is nowhere more sad ...

In general, to summarize, I will say that there is hardly a better replacement for (free!) Word and Excel ...

LibreOffice

Website: //ru.libreoffice.org/download/

Free open source office suite. Works in Windows, Linux, Mac OS X. The package is very light and fast, it includes:

  • Writer - a program for working with text files, an alternative to Word;
  • Calc - an analogue of Excel, allows you to view and edit tables;
  • Impress - an application for creating presentations (analogous to MS Power Point);
  • Draw - work with drawings;
  • Math - working with formulas;
  • Base - working with databases.

LibreOffice Main Window

By the way, LibreOffice allows you to open documents created in Word and Excel, supports the following formats: xlsx, xls, doc, docx, etc.

An example of how Writer works is shown in the screenshot below. All the basic functions of a good text editor are presented in the taskbar at the top.

Writer from LibreOffice

As for the cons - they are the same as OpenOffice: "old-fashioned" design, some documents created in Word, when opened, lose their original formatting. But compared to the same MS Office - LibreOffice works an order of magnitude faster, the editor opens almost instantly!

WPS Office

Website: //www.wps.com/ru-GB/

Free and very powerful office suite from Chinese developers. Contains a text and spreadsheet editor, software for working with presentations and PDF-files (you need a paid version to edit them).

WPS Office Home Page

As for the files created in classic Word (* .doc, * .docx, * .rtf, * .txt, etc.) - WPS Office easily opens them (and even the markup in the vast majority of cases does not go anywhere ... ).

By the way, pay attention to the screenshot of the text editor window (👇) - the software interface is not much different from Word (it's easy and pleasant to work!).

Text editor in WPS Office

Key Features:

  1. the presence of a text and spreadsheet editor, a built-in tool for working with presentations and PDF-files;
  2. support for all formats of MS Office and text documents;
  3. classic design;
  4. the ability to install on Windows, Android, iOS, Linux and other platforms;
  5. there are ready-made document templates;
  6. relatively low system requirements (useful for old weak PCs);
  7. support for several languages ​​(Russian and English including).

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Addition

As a supplement, I also recommend paying attention to the free AbiWord and Lotus Symphony packages.

True, the first is a very simple editor, although it is a replacement for Word, but in terms of functionality it does not outperform WordPad - and therefore, why is it needed if WordPad is already in Windows ?!

As for Lotus Symphony, the program does not support the Russian language (although, it seems, there were Russifiers, but they translate "crookedly"), and therefore I do not consider this program to be a full replacement ...

Note!

By the way, if freeness is not paramount for you, and you are looking for a cheaper product than MS Office, then you can pay attention to the following products: Calligra Suite, SoftMaker Office, Ashampoo Office.

The price of these products is lower than MS Office, and there are also "cut-down" trial (free) versions.

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Online editors Word, Excel

Google docs

Website: //docs.google.com

A very convenient online text and spreadsheet editor. Of course, in terms of functionality, it loses to MS Office, but it is available from any device connected to the Internet, it is unnecessary to install, update, and it is free!

Google Disk - presentations

I'm not even talking about file security: for most users, files in Google Docs will be more secure than those on their hard drive. And then one unsuccessful reinstallation of Windows can lead to the complete loss of all documents on the hard drive ...

In Google Docs, you can view and edit documents created in MS Word, Excel, Power Point.

Perhaps, if we talk about the shortcomings, then these are: the need for registration, and not as advanced functionality as in MS Office.

I ndex-Disk

Website: //disk.yandex.ru/

Instructions for working with Yandex disk - //ocomp.info/yandeks-disk-kak-polzovatsya.html

An excellent alternative to Google Docs from Yandex. You can store a lot of files on Yandex disk (in the cloud) without fear of losing them. In addition, documents created in Word, Excel and Power Point can be viewed and edited. An example is shown below in the screenshot.

In general, there are no big advantages or disadvantages in comparison with Google Docs, everything that is said about the first is also relevant for Yandex-disk.

Perhaps, I will only add that Yandex has additional goodies: take screenshots, create albums, view the history of working with a disc, etc. In general, all this functionality has nothing to do with today's topic ...

Cloud from Mail.ru

Website: //cloud.mail.ru/

Instructions for creating and using a cloud from mail.ru - //ocomp.info/oblako-mail-ru.html

In general, a very similar service to Yandex Drive and Google Drive. True, there are differences ...

For example, Mail.ru has a very well implemented application for Windows: a cloud disk is practically no different from a regular HDD (ie, you can go to it directly from Explorer and, as if nothing had happened, "command" ...).

Create spreadsheet, document, presentation

By default, after registration, about 8 GB of space is given (however, there are promotions and for installing a mobile application they can "add" free space 👌).

Disk from Mail.ru

By the way, it is also worth noting that other cloud services can be connected to the Mail.ru drive: Yandex drive, Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.

Connect cloud

Writer Zoho

Website: //writer.zoho.com/

Lightweight and simple online editor. To register, it is enough to indicate only your E-mail and you can immediately start working. Compared to Google Docs and Yandex Disk, it has more functionality (you can see for yourself partly by looking at the screenshot below).

Zoho Online Editor

By the way, Zoho has a pretty good spelling checker: all missing commas and misspelled words, the editor will underline and tell you how to correct these places in the text.

Writer Bighugelabs

Website: //writer.bighugelabs.com/

A slightly unusual online editor, made in a contrasting black and green color (as for real hackers). However, if you don't like the default color scheme, you can change it. In general, the editor is very simple, lightweight, it is a pleasure to work in it.

To get started, you need to register (you just need to specify your e-mail). Documents can be edited, sent to a printer, uploaded, downloaded, converted to PDF, etc.

Sample Text in Writer Bighugelabs

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I think the above options are enough to feel confident when working with text files and tables. This concludes the article.

For additions on the topic - I will be grateful!

Good luck!

👣

First publication: 15.04.2017

Article revised: 01/15/2020

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