got family a macbook air m2 and need to get office (word / excel) prefer non subscription, one off,
just for CVs and a few spreadsheets, to clear down our work laptops of personal files etc.
general web browsing, tv etc.

anyone recommend a cheap copy of office for macbook, and company selling them

a quick google and it can be had fairly cheap (like £12), are these copies legit, or am i opening myself up for hassle down the line.
if i went this way, presumably they send you to a site to download and enter a key/code

https://www.gamers-outlet.net/en/buy-office-2021-home-and-business-cd-key?currency=GBP&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI_-jdovfz_AIV09_tCh2nbQIeEAYYAiABEgJy2_D_BwE

thanks in advance, not very tech savvy,

Pretty sure there’s been one or two threads about this lately if you search

Alternatively, if your needs are very basic, think the Apple word processor/spreadsheet (Pages & Numbers respectively) are available free on App Store? Probably work the same as Word/Excel for simple stuff, doubt it’d take more than a few minutes to get the hang of it. Would also have the advantage of using iCloud by default for sharing/backups etc whereas Word/Excel would push you into using OneDrive.
Also Google Docs/Sheets available free online as another option.

You need an M2-powered Air and full MS Office for a CV, file storage and a bit of web browsing? And you’re agonising over twelve quid?

There’s plenty of those arguably ‘grey’ keys about in various corners of the Internet, I posted one a little while ago. I’m sure you’ll be fine. MS don’t give two shits about monetising the consumer market any more, they’re more interested in market saturation than raw dollars.

Pages and Numbers are free and will open any word / XL document. By default it saves in its own proprietary format but will export to .doc and .xls.

You can sometimes get some funny shinnanigans is the stuff you’re opening has some unusually formatting or fictionality but for most uses its fine. If you’re batting documented back and forth between other authors you just have to be on top of remembering to save in a MS format when you send it back

I also have a copy of Open Office which again is free and opens and saves MS documents – clunkier and uglier than Pages / Numbers but sometime deals with odd formatted documents better. Sometimes just opening and then resaving in Open Office seems to debug them and they then behave fine in Pages / Numbers. It seems to most often be a problem when someone has re hashed and re hashed and rehashed a document. I work on a lot of TV productions and timesheets always seem to cause issues because they’ve been put together from lots of copy and paste excel elements

So given the plethora of free options – including ones designed specifically for your machine / OS I’d only consider paying for MS is there were some sort of  regular unsurmountable barrier – I haven’t found one yet.

If it’s just for one-off stuff why not use Pages and Numbers?

Both are very good apps in their own right.

Got one from Productcodes recently, redeemed through MS website, all good.

A free account at box.com gives you 10GB of document storage and online access to ms word and excel. I’ve started using it for school governor stuff on MacBook air and it seems less hassle than pages/numbers etc. You can then simply download the documents to store local copy.

I have it on very good source that gamers outlet site does indeed provide keys that work on mac and windows.

A free account at box.com gives you 10GB of document storage and online access to ms word and excel

Online access to MS Word and Excel is already free, no further accounts required.

Got one from Productcodes recently, redeemed through MS website, all good.

Similar to when I got a copy from “Fast Software” back in 2020. MS Home and Business for 25 quid looks good to me.

My Excel on a mac? Well in my case I’m used to Excel and I find it easier to use than Numbers.

I to got one from gamers outlet, a few weeks ago. Redeemed off Ms website. All good it seems. I’m a luddite too, but felt pretty down with the kids after that.

That very one you linked to I think.

Online access to MS Word and Excel is already free, no further accounts required.

Oooh, I didn’t know that and have just had a play – Thanks!

Do I need to leave the forum in shame now after this embarrassing show of IT feckwittery……….

I have purchased the product linked above. They will send a link, I had to remind them to send it. To download it you will need a Microsoft account. You can set one up for free.

The issue I now have is that I cannot get get it to install. A quick google and I find out that there are well documented installation issues. Here are the work arounds/things to check Linky

thanks all, i’ll give the cheapo one a go..
i want to lift and shift excel docs and word docs i already have with no formatting/ error issues, hence the need for excel & word, @maccruiskeen i have a few spreadsheets, mortgage/ investments etc, that i dont need to hassle of having to rebuild, or error.

@cougar, yes i’m yorkshire tight, gotta save money were you can, i got a 20% off code on mac so thought why not..
can’t spend it when you are dead :0)

By that logic, you could use LibreOffice and save 100% 😁

never heard of that @COUGAR any good :0)
for £15-20 im happy to pay, i just dont want to pay £70+ a year. hence my post.

We have a Macbook pro for our family laptop (Hardly gets used tbh). I am pretty sure we used one of our kids details through their school and got the full MS office package free of charge.

It was probably 5 years ago but is that not the case anymore with school age kids getting it free?

never heard of that @COUGAR any good :0)

LibreOffice is a fork of OpenOffice. It’s a better choice from the two for most home users.

It is mostly compatible with MS Office. Worth a look? You could always install it again if it doesn’t do what you need.

paid my £12 for a microsoft key off that link, signed into hotmail/microsoft 365 and entered key, downloaded software and installed, all far more straightforward than i expected, if only my works IT function was as easy.

@whatyadoinsucka I’m jealous that you have managed to install it without issues. I’m sat at mrs asbooks’ I mac doing a fresh OS install as I can’t get office to install.

These Microsoft keys, are they only for the year? I purchased one this time last year to install mrs asbrooks I Mac. It’s been running great no real issues.
This weekend all hell has let loose as she can’t now edit any Microsoft documents. I go into the office 365 portal and it looks like the subscription has expired. Any of you that have bought through gamers outlet having the same issues?

These Microsoft keys, are they only for the year? I purchased one this time last year to install mrs asbrooks I Mac. It’s been running great no real issues.
This weekend all hell has let loose as she can’t now edit any Microsoft documents. I go into the office 365 portal and it looks like the subscription has expired. Any of you that have bought through gamers outlet having the same issues?

With Microsoft trying to force people online, then ‘grey market’ keys might have this issue, it’s always a risk…you basically have 3 choices..

1) Buy another grey market key, but an older, none online version…but if you want full cloud integration blah-blah it probably won’t work properly in that aspect.

2) Buy MS Office properly for £££££££££££…lol, don’t do this.

3) Download Libre office, it ain’t as pretty, but unless you are a ‘power user’ it’s fine, and fully compatible.

Personally these days I just use Libre office, and Google drive/office for online stuff, it’s free, and I don’t have to worry about licencing, as I already have a Google account anyway, as you basically have to have one if you use an android phone.

For the majority of my document and spreadsheet needs nowadays, I turn to LibreOffice as my go-to solution. On the few occasions where I require an alternative, I utilize Google Docs/Sheets, so I can work seamlessly across any device for work. Microsoft Office online is another free option I’ll consider if needed.

@mattyfez If it were for me, I totally agree you. However, it’s for my other half who is quite challenged when it comes to these things.

Basically she works in education across 3 trust sites all of which have different MS cloud accounts, she is issued with 3 different (crappy) laptops associated to whichever site she is working on at that time.  She is constantly having to switch laptops, it’s driving her (and me) crazy.

So in an attempt to make her life (and mine) a bit easier, I used one of these licences for her I Mac. It should be the trust she works for trying to sort this out.. But each site has a different policy.. blah blah blah!

Anyway I have emailed the supplier, if I have to purchase another licence then so be it. It’s a small price to pay for a peaceful house hold.

2) Buy MS Office properly for £££££££££££…lol, don’t do this.

In the grand scheme of things I wouldn’t say that Office is £££££. The annual subscription model is either £60 for a personal subscription or £70 for a family subscription where you can install the office apps on up to 6 machines. It will be a bit pricier of you want the “permanent” license and that will only cover you for the current version. You won’t get the upgrades or newer versions with that approach. Nor the extra OneDrive storage – if that’s important to you.
I would be hesitant about using the grey sites though, personally.

Cant you just rent microsoft 365 for £5.99 a month anymore?

Basically she works in education across 3 trust sites all of which have different MS cloud accounts, she is issued with 3 different (crappy) laptops associated to whichever site she is working on at that time.  She is constantly having to switch laptops, it’s driving her (and me) crazy.

A lot of educational work licences allows you to use the same account log in for a MS cloud copy on a personal machine – that’s what I do with mine. 

I’ve used Google Docs/Sheets etc for the last few years – no issues and works well across all devices/platforms and saves having to have Microsoft stuff cluttering up your Mac.