Free and Legal Access to MS Word, Excel, Office

Light users can save themselves $100 with these resources. (Curious what I’m doing here?)

Need to get access to Microsoft Office for a new PC, but don’t have the cash on hand to get the latest version just yet? Try these free and legal options:

1. Microsoft Starter 2010 – Free “light” versions of Word and Excel. This software was originally pre-installed into certain laptops and computers. Intended for Operating Systems earlier than Windows 8, only. It won’t have all features, for example you can’t run Macros in Excel, and it has a mandatory ad in the corner taking up screen space. But it can do in a pinch. Intro to Excel Starter, Missing features
2. Open Office, a freeware alternative
3. Libre Office, another alternative

Open and Libre office are very comparable to each other in features. They replicate almost all of office, but you may feel the absence if you run a lot of Macros, Excel Add-ins, etc.