Trial Version of Office Expired, Looking for Advice
 

Hello my tech-savvy friends,

As the title hinted, the version of Microsoft Office Standard Edition 2003 that came with my Toshiba Satellite S-226 was apparently a trial version and has expired. I learned of this development upon attempting to use office outlook and have since noticed that it also affects Word. I suppose "affects" isn't a great word to use, the programs are not just affected, they are completely locked up.

So I'm searching for a little advice here. I see my options at this point as being A) pay $150 for the 25 character key or B) finding some other programs to replace the ones I've lost use of.

Plan A isn't overally apealing to me at this point so perhaps someone could tell me about other programs they use instead of Outlook and especially Word, which I use quite frequently. I'm not sure what other programs I have lost use of, but Outlook and Word are probably going to affect me the most as I use them often.

Any general advice or ideas welcome.

Thanks in advance,

Dostoevsky

My advice, pony up.
I paid $160 for Office2003 Professional from Newegg, retail for $300+.

There are things like Open Office that are free and you can always use Outlook express for email (it should already be on your machine) but I like Office so I'd go with buying it..

Open office? personally I would pay however you can use the free ones like open office, which is apparently very good...

http://www.openoffice.org/ Its free and I use http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/ for my mail I like it.

go for Open Office

Between work and home, I use Office '97, 2000 and Open Office. I'd say Open Office 1.1.3 is almost to the level of Office 2000. Some features are better, especially for Word. If Word is your focus for a suite, I'd just go with Open Office.

I've not used Thunderbird (I use a PocketPC and have to use Outlook) but have several friends who use it and rant and rave about it.

wait, you bought a brand new laptop and it only has the 'trial version' of office? how long have you had it? If its new then there should be copies of the software that came with the laptop and a OEM copy of office should be with it.

Not necessarily dksuddeth...

My dad recently bought a toshiba laptop that only shipped with a trial version of Office. Kinda shitty.. but then.. the laptop was cheap ;)

another vote for open office.

Open Office is a good choice if you're unwilling to pony up the cash and willing to learn. ;)


If not, well, just make sure you have explored all your options. Do you have any friends that would be willing to sell you a copy of any of the office suites. I bought a copy of Office XP from a friend about a year ago for $25. It's not as flashy as the newer versions, but it's more than enough for what I require.

I also pick up quite a bit of software at flea market type expos in the area. Sometimes you get lucky. I bought a Windows 98 full install CD for $5 and purchased the XP upgrade for $90. I saved a bit of cash.

Deals are out there you just have to scrounge a bit.

I'd highly recommend OpenOffice if you're not willing to fork out a couple of hundred bucks.

Support open source! :) Go for openoffice

Well thanks for all the replies. I can afford the $150 if absolutely necessary, I just don't want to do it if there are other softwares out there that will work for me. I am going to check out open office and thunderbird. dksuddeth, my notebook is only a couple of months old. I didn't realize the software was only trial version upon purchase, but what are you gonna do?

Thanks all,

Dostoevsky

I have 2003 which I got from some buddies in the police force. It is nice to know that cops follow copyright rules...haha

OOo is a perfectly good suite. My dad transitioned to it within about 5 minutes and prefers parts of it. He uses Excel heavily and according to him OOo handles large spreadsheets much more smoothly.

Dostoevsky.
Do you have any buddies who are students?

There's usually good deals for student versions of the software. All the same functionality, just cheaper. Check the local uni bookstores too.
Maybe also buy a copy off ebay?

Open Office!

you can get office student and teacher edition for like $130 instead of the $199 for the normal version. I would reccomend this, open office, or if you don't care about legalities, crack it. And ya, nowadays they will only give you a trial version, it is actually the full version but in shareware form with the trial, so anyways. those are pretty much you options. Choose wisely.

Junk Office. It's a bloated POS. (<--In my professional opinion as a tech writer)

Open Office is perfect for almost every user.

Use OpenOffice, as many others have so noted. It opens Microsoft Word files quite readily and without major goof ups. You could try AbiWord or 602Suite as well.

I've tried OpenOffice.org, but it seems to break many of the documents that my office has developed over time, particularly if there are graphics incorporated. I'm hoping that OOo's 2.0 release will do better.

i suggest notepad, who needs that fancy formatting anyways. And if you absolutly need different fonts and new fangled tables then go for openoffice like everyone else has said. Also I remember a few years ago Sun had a free office quite called Star Office, not sure if its still aroudn though.

Staroffice is the father of Openoffice, as it provided the initial source code and still shares quite a bit. Sun charges the $70 or so for it because of the Wordperfect filters and a few other things that are not available under the GPL license.

M$ Works I believe has a fully working copy of Word. And unless you need the calendar and whatnot, Outlook Express may work for you.

You've got two choices as already explained:

1) Pay $150 for MS Office
2) Download Open Office

Personally, I feel MS Office is worth the $150. It's not worth the $400 full retail. I don't mind paying for software but the $150-200 is my limit.

As a heads up, MS is selling "Student / Teacher" versions of Office for the $150. I've gotten them at retail outlets with no questions asked. The license allows an install on 3 PCs - not bad if you need the MS product.

Add in one more vote for Open Office, it's the best option in my opinion.

I strongly agree with this. I don't know your situation, but Sun's StarOffice (the proprietary office suite which OpenOffice is based on) is available for free to students, researchers, staff, or faculty members of educational institutions. All you have to do is go here: http://www.sun.com/products-n-soluti...tml#StarOffice If this applies to you, I highly recommend you do it because StarOffice is theoretically *slightly* better than OpenOffice, and there is also web-based training available at http://www.sunacademic.com/

Now, to be honest, it works on the honor system, so even if you're not a student, etc, you could theoretically download StarOffice for free. Of course, then you wouldn't feel good about yourself breaking the licensing of the software when there's an open source and free alternative available that's 98% of what StarOffice is (OpenOffice). ;) :thumbsup:

I was wondering about this product. The box states that you must be a student or teacher to use this product but I'm not finding anything as to how they know. Do you need to send in a current report card or copy of your teachers license to keep the product?

The retailers are supposed to ask for proof when you purchase it.

Any laptop out now that has office is a 30-90 trial version. I know this, I used to work at Best Buy and had to deal with this. The standard version of Office bought at BBY or some place similar is $400+, but you can find this cheaper off of NewEgg I'm sure.

OpenOffice is one alternative for sure. Or, you can just go ahead and get the full version of MS Office. If you are a student or teacher, or have a child that is a student, you can buy the Students and Teachers Edition of MS Office. It is the exact same as the Retail Standard version, the license is just different.

StarOffice from Sun Microsystems is another alternative.

If you are looking for a word processor only, AbiWord is also another really good alternative.

download a bit-torrent that has the full version....

I'm not sure telling someone to go do something illegal on a public board is a good idea.

well, as others had written dl open office, but if u really want to use ms product just crack it .

here's my question. When you bought the laptop, did they say it came with a TRIAL version or did they say it came with Office? Because if they said it came with office, you can bitch to them that they used false advertising and they should try to make you happy.

You could renew your trial by backing up your files & restoring from your laptop's CD's. Not quite as shady as a crack and it would give you time to evaluate Oo and shop for the best office pricing without being under the gun.

I got a buddy of mine who just hit me up the other night about this exact same thing. New PC (I think it was a Compaq/HP) and the 60 day free tiral had just expired, however we were in luck because installed on the PC was MS Works which will open and edit the doc file he was afraid he had lost cause he was not willing to shell out the money for Office Full.

I purchased Office for Students and Teachers for my gf when I bought her a new laptop for her studies her freshman year in college, was not asked if I attended any College or University at Best Buy when I paid for it, and have only had one small problem (if you even wanna call it that) The laptop was a Dell and had an MS Works suite pre-installed, now whenever I do Office updates from MSoft they always ask me to insert the Works Install CD's that the laptop came with instead of the office CD which I purchased....Other than that no problems getting or using the MS Office for students and teachers

I call bull - shit.

I've been lurking around this board for a while and there was a link up in the past that directed you to free porn. And everybody loved it. Yet nobody denounced its illegal attributes. Now you can argue this till the cows come home, but bit-torrent isn't illegal. No matter what the right-wing government tells you.

I stand by my suggestion.

I honestly didn't like Open Office. It was very slow and the very basic documents I created and then sent to an MS Office user to try and open, didn't. If you are going to be sending your files elsewhere get MS Office. If you just need it for personal stuff then I'd give OO a shot.

Of course I say this having gotten MS Office for free under my companys license...

Board rules my friend "Requests and advice for warez or serial codes is forbidden"