Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Michael Goff

Suspended
Original poster
Jul 5, 2012
13,329
7,422
Let's start this off by saying: Yes, I know I can get Office cheaper because I'm a student.

That being said, is there a good alternative to it? And does that alternative ugly? It might seem strange, but I don't like using a program I can't stand looking at.
 
Most of those are ugly, though.

I guess I'll just go with iWork, least ugly option (and not 100$)
 
Most of those are ugly, though.

I guess I'll just go with iWork, least ugly option (and not 100$)

I use LibreOffice almost exclusively. Give it a chance. It sometimes does better at compatibility than iWork though sometimes iWork is better.

I got Office 2008 (or was it 2011?) for $10 through a "home use" program at my job. I put it on my wife's machine because a bunch of MS-centric nincompoops at my daughter's school were sending documents that refused to open properly in iWork or LibreOffice. It was a bear to install and activate (compared to iWork). The last time I entered a CD key for an Apple product was some time in 2007. The last time I entered a CD key for a MS product was about less than 2 years ago when I put it on my wife's machine. When I installed it, OpenOffice abruptly stopped working. Great. All these years on a Mac and the one thing I hate most about Windows happens when I stoop to put MS software on one of my Macs: One program interferes with the proper operation of another (competing) program. :mad: I reinstalled OpenOffice and all was well again. And MS Office still worked, if you can call adding half a dozen useless dock items and slowing down everything on my wife's Mac working.

Her HDD crashed, partly my fault during a Lion install. In restoring it, I somehow forgot to bring back MS Office and she never asked. ;) We still have the DVD sitting around somewhere... maybe it's near the cat's litterbox. :p I just wish I could get my ten bucks back from Microsoft.

BTW, if you absolutely need 100 percent compatibility then I reluctantly admit it's worth considering MS Office. As I mentioned earlier, both LibreOffice and iWork sometimes have problems opening Office docs. I should also mention that iWork makes you "export" things to save them in MS Office formats while LibreOffice (and its predecessor OpenOffice) allow you to save in MS formats by default.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.