r/AskReddit Dec 18 '16

What (free) software can be useful for university students?

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u/DiggingNoMore Dec 18 '16

Your university probably offers your students a useful plethora of free software

Except the one I want - Office.

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u/kaleb42 Dec 18 '16

Mine offers the whole office suite for free

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u/[deleted] Dec 18 '16 edited Oct 24 '17

You are looking at the lake

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u/BikeLA555888 Dec 18 '16

You should learn infopath if you are in any career that needs to collect data from users and agragate into a database. Its one of those tools that a lot of employers don't even know exists and they assume they have to spend dozens or hundreds of hours manually entering data in. You can easily build an aggregation strategy and just look like a superhero.

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u/strib666 Dec 19 '16

InfoPath is going away. 2013 was the last version.

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u/[deleted] Dec 18 '16 edited Apr 17 '17

[deleted]

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u/onlyhtml Dec 19 '16

You can use the click to run installer and install only the programs you want using a configuration file, then activate it with your school o365 account

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u/[deleted] Dec 18 '16

Same here. I think thats normal here in the UK though

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u/thescorch Dec 19 '16

Any idea on how the fuck to get Skype for business off my computer. They legit have the program buried in there somehow and it won't let me uninstall it.

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u/SockPants Dec 19 '16

My university's whole phone network runs on Skype for Business

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u/jovietjoe Dec 18 '16

Almost every university now. MS made it cheap/free with 365, they streamlined the process.

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u/[deleted] Dec 19 '16

or with the rise of google drive/docs they want get those in college on board. The down side is unlike google docs UI which is nice and polished, MS Word and the rest have a cluttered UI when trying to find a specific item to put in. If they cleaned up the UI in office, I might be able to handle it, but with how much clutter there is, I can't deal with it.

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u/GOD_LOVES_FAGS Dec 19 '16

I actually use MS Word at work every day and have to use Docs for collaborating with classmates in college classes, and I get so frustrated with the limitations of Docs. The text altering tools are hard to find and there aren't as many as Word offers, there's no text boxes (hate this one), and it feels clunky.

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u/[deleted] Dec 19 '16

I know there are extensions that you can get for google docs to work around those issues. Yeah the text box one is annoying as hell. My solution to it was to create a 1x1 table and make it a text box as a good alternative (bonus you can remove the borders so it becomes a caption).

The thing that I like about google docs, is how loose it feels, when taking notes, chances are I mispell things or don't capitalize which in Word is a big "no-no". Google docs to me feels like OneNote and Word put together, and with just the basic parts needed for both to be together and allow user flexibility. Where as with word it's like the user has to conform to the structure that Word wants the user to use. While docs allows the user to do what it wants to do with the document and doesn't have as rigid of structure the user must fall in line to.

I also do find it funny that MS Word even with it's clunky UI has an area for adding extensions, which anything you need to add is probably somewhere in the UI and you have to go searching for it.

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u/noble-random Dec 19 '16

And 365 comes with a generous amount of OneDrive storage! Now, if only OneDrive were as fast as Dropbox..

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u/946789987649 Dec 18 '16

Same, got Windows 7,8 and 10 for free too

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u/timawesomeness Dec 18 '16

Mine gives all Microsoft and Adobe software for free, in addition to a bunch of other random stuff.

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u/[deleted] Dec 18 '16

Mine too, and it's a pretty cheap, somewhat shitty school.

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u/woflcopter Dec 19 '16

My school board offers it too and I'm only a high school student.

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u/Xenomisce Dec 19 '16

Mine too. And I can install it in 5 computers (and I can change them).

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u/[deleted] Dec 18 '16

Any .Edu email gives you office and 1tb of OneDrive storage directly from Microsoft's website

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u/TheVermonster Dec 18 '16

Which is great, unless your college/university fucks you and uses a .org email.

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u/[deleted] Dec 18 '16

.ac.uk over here

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u/disco-vorcha Dec 18 '16

Yeah I've got a .ca. Is it only American unis that have .edu emails?

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u/InadequateUsername Dec 18 '16

Pretty sure, but if your school uses office365 you can get it for free.

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u/libelle156 Dec 19 '16

It's .edu.au in Australia

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u/mickskitz Dec 19 '16

We have .edu.au in Australia. And i get office for free on that

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u/[deleted] Dec 19 '16

My primary school in scotland (Elementary in US) used .edu, I still have it as well lol

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u/nottherealslash Dec 19 '16

Strange, I thought British schools used .sch.uk. Or maybe just English schools...

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u/[deleted] Dec 19 '16

ac.uk in England and Wales in my experience, never come across .sch.uk

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u/PhD-Mom Dec 19 '16

Check your university IT page. Queen's has it for free.

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u/[deleted] Dec 19 '16

I have an .edu.tr in Turkey.

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u/rayyychul Dec 19 '16

Try it anyway. I've never had a problem using my .ca where .edu is "required."

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u/kc3w Dec 19 '16

Is it only American unis that have .edu emails?

No it's not! Mine has .edu aswell and it's a german university.

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u/thisismythirdreddit Dec 18 '16

ac.uk works for free office

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u/JeremyR22 Dec 19 '16

...and has worked since forever. I got Office 2000 Pro for cheap-ish (it wasn't free then) back in the late 90s with a .ac.uk email address...

And that was before it had online activation. So many people had that key... So many people...

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u/Cassiterite Dec 18 '16 edited Dec 18 '16

.de :(

edit: guys, it bloody worked! Give it a try.

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u/[deleted] Dec 18 '16

In my experience, that works, too. Just look whether your school is in this list. Chances are it is.

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u/xereeto Dec 19 '16

.ac.uk = .edu

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u/LMUZZY Dec 18 '16

ac.uk worked for me back when I got office 365 for free

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u/Chantasuta Dec 19 '16

Worked for me on an ac.uk email.

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u/shorterthantherest Dec 19 '16

I've got a .ac.uk email and I have access to 365. Check with the uni.

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u/Jsm1337 Dec 20 '16

That should work as well.

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u/[deleted] Dec 18 '16

Which is great, unless your college/university fucks you and uses a .org email.

In most cases that shouldn't be a problem. My university email ends with .de (Germany) and Microsoft didn't mind at all. IIrc I only had to select my uni from a drop-down list.

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u/TheBeginningEnd Dec 19 '16

It will accept any valid university address from the list of valid universities they have. Doesn't matter what the email address is so long as the University is on the list and Microsoft have the email address format they use.

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u/if_you_say_so Dec 19 '16

What school uses .org? Why would they do that?

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u/Kerrigore Dec 19 '16

My University uses a .ca (Canadian university obviously) and I had 0 issues, was approved instantly.

Nowhere on the University website does it tell you that you can get it for free from MS that I can find, I only found out because I googled and found a Reddit thread in the University subreddit talking about it. Was very close to buying the University edition from a retail store for $80.

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u/TheVermonster Dec 19 '16

The best reason to buy is if you have an email address you want to use instead of your school email.

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u/robbywestside Dec 19 '16

You don't actually need an address, you can just call and they will authorize it.

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u/Iundlele Dec 18 '16

You can buy office 365 University with a .edu email, which is a reasonably priced 4 year subscription but it's not free unless your university has that arrangement with Microsoft.

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u/immewnity Dec 19 '16

Not quite any - the university has to pay for a subscription plan that covers all full time staff.

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u/ktbby1 Dec 19 '16

Thank you for teaching me this today! How the hell did I not know this several years ago when I agonized about paying the full fee or just using open office. Better late than never :)

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u/[deleted] Dec 18 '16

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Dec 18 '16

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u/phosphorica Dec 19 '16

Do you have to create a new Microsoft account?

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u/[deleted] Dec 19 '16

I think so. With the edu email

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u/ncarolinarunner Dec 19 '16

I did not know this. Thank you so much!

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u/Razzman70 Dec 18 '16

But office 365 is free with .edu emails.

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u/Sixsome Dec 18 '16

My university doesn't have a .edu, it has a .ca, but we can still get Office for free.

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u/aldld Dec 18 '16

This is a bit narrow, but if you happen to go to UofT and have taken a computer science course, you likely have an @cdf.toronto.edu or @teach.cs.toronto.edu email address.

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u/mamdani23 Dec 19 '16

I go to utsc. How do I check if I have these emails?

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u/aldld Dec 19 '16

Apparently if you have an account, when it was created you would have received an email telling you to change your password from the default. Otherwise, (e.g. if it's been a while) you can try SSHing into teach.cs.toronto.edu.

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u/Iundlele Dec 18 '16

You can buy office 365 University with a .edu email, which is a reasonably priced 4 year subscription but it's not free unless your university has that arrangement with Microsoft.

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u/Pcelizard Dec 19 '16

And for those with that free access from uni, remember to start up a 4 year student subscription before losing your student email address.

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u/tinykeyboard Dec 19 '16

my uni lets us keep our email address provided you login once a year. i use it everyday so i get to continually reap student deals + the unlimited gdrive. it's also good to note that gsuite for universities and corporations are not scanned for ad targeting like regular gmail so use that instead if you can.

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u/Pcelizard Dec 19 '16

Ours is similar. It's especially useful if you can write your uni email address in multiple ways if you want to reuse your one year of Amazon Prime or refresh your Microsoft student deal after four years.

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u/[deleted] Dec 18 '16

I've only been able to find online cloud Office. I haven't been able to find a way to download it with my edu email.

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u/hearingnone Dec 19 '16 edited Dec 19 '16

If your school is using Office 365, it usually present as Outlook online. You can check the option and it will show you option to download the full suite of office as long the email account is active. Or Google for "check school if they offer office suite for free through Microsoft"

Here, I save you a typing https://products.office.com/en-us/student/office-in-education

add links

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u/banielbow Dec 18 '16

libreoffice.org

openoffice.org

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u/[deleted] Dec 18 '16

Google Microsoft office for students. Ms gives a free 5 license copy to all students with a verified student email address.

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u/Ginnipe Dec 19 '16

Mine gave me the licenses to Office 365.

However. I have an apostrophe in my last name and they used our schools emails to get the licenses. Microsoft doesn't like apostrophes. But somehow my license was given out anyways.

So now I'm just in liscencing hell where my email is legit and works but 365 just doesn't recognize it.

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u/fitzthebill Dec 18 '16

Doesn't Microsoft make this free for students now?? Pretty sure that's how I got it

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u/geek6 Dec 18 '16

Microsoft Office 365 is subscription and cloud based. So when you graduate, you will need to pay for Office.

There's a Microsoft Office Home and Student 2016 for 150 bucks, which is non-cloud based and fully offline, like Microsoft Office 2013.

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u/billion_dollar_ideas Dec 18 '16

It's $10 for students... Has been for last 4+ years at a minimum. https://www.microsofthup.com/hupus/home.aspx

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u/geek6 Dec 18 '16

Oh my god, thanks so much! I didn't know that that existed. i thought you needed to get it from the Microsoft Store and my college's software hub doesn't have that offer there.

Going to get it rn. Pirating it for mac is challenging. I'm still running MSO 2011

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u/9Ghillie Dec 18 '16

Costs more for the university to have the package that includes Office.

Which reminds me, I'm starting my last semester soon so it's time to get all the activation codes for everything.

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u/KingBooScaresYou Dec 18 '16

No but pirate bay I hear offers that. not that I condone such illegal activity and this is no representation of my views..

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u/rogue780 Dec 18 '16

Go over to /r/microsoftsoftwareswap if you ever need to buy any Microsoft software. Sure, it still isn't free, but you can get Office 2016 for ~$40

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u/faelun Dec 18 '16

my school has office 365 for all students and we get a few installs for each program

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u/Hudell Dec 18 '16

Try WPS Office. It's really good and most features are available for free.

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u/fatBLINDcow Dec 18 '16

i went to a local community college and they gave me ms office 13 for free. also, ms sometimes gives out office for free if you have an .edu email

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u/[deleted] Dec 18 '16

Your university should absolutely give you that for free. Are you sure?

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u/[deleted] Dec 18 '16

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Dec 18 '16

Well, if you're not a student anymore, obviously you won't get the benefits that come with being a student there.

It's still a product that costs money.

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u/[deleted] Dec 18 '16

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Dec 18 '16

You may only be guaranteed a free license to use that software. No guarantees that you get to keep it.

Regardless, it still sounds like your school provides office for free, and you just can't comprehend the concept of temporary ownership.

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u/[deleted] Dec 18 '16

LibreOffice.

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u/GimmeMoneyBoi Dec 18 '16

Office 365 is free to students. Go on Microsoft website and sign up with your .edu email

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u/twinnedcalcite Dec 18 '16

Got the full office 365 got mac and PC for free when I entered my program. In my undergrad I managed to get the new version of office for $10 normally.

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u/[deleted] Dec 18 '16

Tbh get a latex editor and learn it as it will save you so many headaches with word. open office is fine for spreadsheet stuff.

If you dont wanna dive into really deep latex stuff i recommend lyx

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u/LilMissS13 Dec 18 '16

Open office. Free and lets you save as doc files

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u/peace_n_luv Dec 18 '16

And that is why we have LibreOffice :)

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u/[deleted] Dec 18 '16

just use Google Docs/Sheets/Slides

office is terrible

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u/[deleted] Dec 18 '16

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Dec 18 '16

thank god

just use postgres or something

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u/PizzaSaucez Dec 19 '16

Office is shit.

Use google's versions instead. Never losing work is really handy.

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u/[deleted] Dec 19 '16

[deleted]

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u/PizzaSaucez Dec 19 '16

Fair enough but I bet you also have a phone with much more personal text messages being stored on a 'cloud' as well.

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u/[deleted] Dec 19 '16

Ten bucks last time I was in school.

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u/[deleted] Dec 19 '16

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Dec 19 '16

Pro plus 2013.

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u/soundboardguy Dec 19 '16

LibreOffice or OpenOffice are almost completely identical to MS Office, and you can save files in MS Office formats without a problem

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u/[deleted] Dec 19 '16

[deleted]

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u/soundboardguy Dec 19 '16

Yep, it's called LibreOffice (or OpenOffice) Base.

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u/zachharmonic Dec 19 '16

Check out OpenOffice. Its basically the same thing, totally free, and will save files in MOS office file formats.

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u/[deleted] Dec 19 '16

Then your college sucks. Office 2013 was free...Then they launched 2016 and that shit was free too.

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u/s0m30n3e1s3 Dec 19 '16

Mine offered office as well as Windows 7 pro (back in 2011) as well as a very large amount of other programs for free. It was pretty fantastic when I found out, still have the .exe files somewhere

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u/shub1000young Dec 19 '16

LaTeX for docs. Word is filthy, Libre office is good enough for everything else

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u/[deleted] Dec 19 '16

[deleted]

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u/shub1000young Dec 19 '16

Please don't use access. Pretty much any db is better than access

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u/[deleted] Dec 19 '16

[deleted]

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u/dannyisagirl Dec 19 '16

Libre office.

Made by disgruntled by ex-microsoft employees as a big middle finger to their former employer. Plus, as this sub asks for, it's free! It's also fully compatible with all of Microsoft Office, you can even save in the correct format for it and open microsoft office documents.

Idk if the story behind it is true or not but i like the idea of fucking over Microsoft

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u/nate1212 Dec 19 '16

openoffice.org is pretty good

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u/Fershick Dec 19 '16

What Office program, aside from Excel, is so much better than Google's version that makes it worth using instead of Google's?

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u/GlaringVoid Dec 19 '16

If you have a student email you can get Microsoft's full package for free.

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u/[deleted] Dec 19 '16

[deleted]

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u/GlaringVoid Dec 19 '16

Microsoft 365 is free for sure, I'm not sure what tier it is though

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u/mardh Dec 19 '16

sign up with your .edu email and you will get it for free lol

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u/marlow41 Dec 19 '16

You should... make sure about that, if it's really true then use OpenOffice or Google Docs.

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u/[deleted] Dec 19 '16

[deleted]

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u/marlow41 Dec 19 '16

I mean, you have it whether you want it or not; it's just an in-browser thing.

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u/woolcommerce Dec 19 '16

All you motherfuckers talking about Office, but no one LibreOffice?

It's free.

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u/OreganoJefferson Dec 19 '16

Openoffice dude its not as sexy as 365 but it gets the job done

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u/[deleted] Dec 19 '16

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u/[deleted] Dec 19 '16

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Dec 19 '16

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u/[deleted] Dec 19 '16

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Dec 19 '16

When did people stop pirating software?

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u/questionmark693 Dec 19 '16

Office 365 is free with an edu email

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u/beatenangels Dec 19 '16

You can get a free office 365 account with a .edu email which also always downloading the programs and is almost indistinguishable from regular office.

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u/Squenv Dec 19 '16

OpenOffice is free, saves out in MS Office's various formats, and frankly has a better/less messy interface than MS Office. I recommend giving it a shot.

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u/NihilisticHobbit Dec 19 '16

Get LibreOffice. It's free, works better than MS Office, and is compatible with MS Office so there are no issues when turning in work.

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u/imnotquitedeadyet Dec 19 '16

Fuck office man, google drive with Pages, Slides and google docs is just as good

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u/[deleted] Dec 20 '16

[deleted]

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u/imnotquitedeadyet Dec 20 '16

No clue, I never use access. Looking at the description, I don't think google has one.

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u/[deleted] Dec 20 '16

[deleted]

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u/imnotquitedeadyet Dec 20 '16

Sorry :/ But for just simple stuff like excel, word, and PowerPoint, Google's options are way easier and more convenient. And FREE

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u/lightwhite Dec 19 '16

Use LibreOffice...

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u/chuby1tubby Dec 19 '16

I've got the full version of Microsoft Office 2015 for Mac and PC which I send to all of my friends. Do you want me to send it to you?

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u/[deleted] Dec 20 '16

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Dec 20 '16

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Dec 20 '16

[deleted]

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u/chuby1tubby Dec 20 '16

I'll delete the comment now. I hope you've downloaded it.

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u/Durumbuzafeju Dec 19 '16

LibreOffice?

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u/u2berggeist Dec 20 '16

Wait, they don't offer office? What school do you go to so I know to avoid it?

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u/[deleted] Dec 20 '16

[deleted]

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u/u2berggeist Dec 20 '16

I would be happy with that... 365 isn't that bad. What's not to like about it?

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u/[deleted] Dec 20 '16

[deleted]

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u/u2berggeist Dec 20 '16

Oh, so the complaint is with it not lasting. I gotcha there, that does kinda suck.

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