Simple question as title really. I bought m&s office a few yrs ago from an online download site. My mate is after it now and I can’t remember where I got it. It was cheap and quick and I had no issues. Anyone got any good recent experience?

Unless it really, really, really has to be MS Office then point your mate towards the Libre Office website.

It’s free. I’ve used it for years now, I’ve never once had any compatibility issues and I can’t think of anything it lacks over MS Office.

I got MS office through work for about £10, worth an ask? The company was in the MS home use program or something

Cheapest = Libre Office (free).

Cheap = MS HUP as dmorts says (sub-£10).

Cheapish = Academic licence if you / someone in your family has a .AC.UK email address. http://www.software4students.co.uk/t/categories/microsoft-office

Or there’s Office 365 if you want a subscription model (£8/month IIRC).

Wifes in her 3rd year at Uni, & only just announced that she gets Office 365 on up to 5 pc’s. 🙄
Do you know anyone at uni ?

H&B 2016 is about £200 nowadays I think – what aspect of Home and Business do you need over the home version?

I ask because MS are still really pushing 365 so even the most basic 365 subscription (365 personal – £6 a month) comes with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, outlook, Publisher and Access – plus 1tb of OneDrive Storage.

It would take nearly 3 years of subscriptions to pay the same as standalone H&B.

Libre / OpenOffice etc – okay if you want “okay” compatibility, and don’t have to deal with anyone using modern versions of Office, especially Excel, and aren’t bothered with any formatting looking different in real Office or broken the other way, and if you don’t mind it taking an age to start. Basic stuff it’s fairly compatible. Complex spreadsheets from my accountants however do struggle and are messed up royally saving back to an Excel compatible format. Presentations you prepare and then load in PowerPoint on site can be very embarrassing! (I talk from experience). Oh, and the UI is still based on Windows 95 😉

Other than that, as suggested above. Also note an Office 365 Home subscription includes 1TB of OneDrive storage, although business versions (and maybe academic?) don’t give you that as personal storage. You do get business storage though but that goes to the business. Just something to consider if you get Office via a company you work for that isn’t your company.

If you’re self employed with a one-man (or very few) business, also look into Microsoft Action Pack. Now this isn’t under the “cheap” bracket for Office itself at some £300 a year, but it includes everything you need to run the IT of the business. Multiple licences for operating systems, databases, Office, servers, Azure, and if you’re a softy into development you get development software also. If you use it all it’s well worth the money. If you just want Office, then not.

we’ve just bought office 07 from amazon for 32 quid.

I’ve just had to upgrade after fixing a bad install of 7 on the office PC.
There was nothing cheaper than 365 from Amazon – £60’ish for 5 users each with 1gb online storage of their own.
Then next year its only £9’ish per month all in.
No brainer and I’m tight when it comes to software.