Microsoft Word and other MS Office products are something that nearly every college student these days is familiar with.\u00c2\u00a0 From the hours spent toiling over a research paper in Word, to the cool charts you can make up in Excel, students these days almost need to have Microsoft Office.\u00c2\u00a0 However, there’s one little problem – it costs money.<\/p>\n
Most Windows-based computers sold today do not come pre-installed with Microsoft Office.\u00c2\u00a0 It comes with a trial version that allows you to try it out for a month or so before you need to buy it to continue using it.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got “Wordpad” though, but it’s not as robust as Office.\u00c2\u00a0 But buying Office just isn’t within your budget.\u00c2\u00a0 So what are you to do?<\/p>\n
You could find a pirated version and install that, but that I do not recommend.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s more hassle than it’s worth, and it’s illegal.\u00c2\u00a0 The other option you now have is to use\u00c2\u00a0either\u00c2\u00a0online or open source office applications.<\/p>\n
Online office applications are document creation programs that are available online.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s no need for downloads and installations on your computer.\u00c2\u00a0 When you want to write, you simply go to the site, log in, and start up a new document (or pull up a saved one).<\/p>\n
Open source office applications are free to use, and require a download.\u00c2\u00a0 They work much in the same way as the Microsoft Office products, and even allow you to save document files in a form that can also be pulled up in the appropriate Microsoft program.<\/p>\n
Some online office programs that I recommend are ZohoWriter<\/a> & Google Docs & Spreadsheets<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 ZohoWriter offers online word processing, spreadsheets, and PowerPoint-like programs.\u00c2\u00a0 Google Docs & Spreadsheets, for now, allows you to do word processing and spreadsheets. They are all free, and allows you to save documents in a variety of formats.<\/p>\n