Strongly second going to OpenOffice. The main download site is here. It's a big program (95 MB, last time I checked) but then, so is MSOffice. After downloading, installing is just a matter of double-clicking on the icon, like most Windows programs. Support is through user forums, which seems crazy until you try it. It works a lot better than useless commercial technical "support" lines. (List of OO forums. The one I've used on the two occasions I needed help was The OpenOffice Forum.)
I've used OpenOffice sporadically since about 1999, and exclusively since about 2004. OOWriter 2.0+ (=MSWord) works seamlessly with .doc formats and saves in .doc format too. (Default is native .sxw format, but that can be changed in preferences.) OOCalc (=Excel) also works seamlessly. OOImpress (=Powerpoint) used to have some annoying font issues (ie it would change the fonts and mess up your slides), but I seem to remember they finally fixed that. I don't have any experience with their database (OOBase).
With XP, Microsoft began moving to a system where registering your software is not optional. If you don't register Office XP, then a counter starts tracking the number of times you use the software, and after some interval, I think fifty times, it makes the software inaccessible until you register. I'm not saying that is the problem you're having now (since presumably you've used Excel much more than 50 times in three years), and I think that it's some stupid registry problem, as the other commenters said. I mention it, though, because the prospect of having my computer continually whispering to Bill was what finally jogged me to switch over to OpenOffice entirely. My bet is that Microsoft's behavior is only going to get worse. Meanwhile, open source keeps getting better. |
