Get Microsoft Office For Free

Office is one of the most popular productivity suites in the world, which means you're likely going to come across Office documents at some point. If you need to open, edit, or create Office documents but don't want to pay for Office, there are several options available. You can use the free trial to gain access to all of Office's features for a full month. You can also use Office web apps for free to create and edit documents online. There are free Office apps available for mobile devices, and you can use alternatives that support Office formats.

Steps

Getting an Office Trial

  1. Use the trial to try out Office 365 for a month. You can use Office for free for one month by downloading the Office 365 trial. This includes the Office 2016 versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and other Office programs. Office 365 is the only version of Office with a free trial available.
    • Signing up for the free trial will require a valid credit card, but you will not be charged until the start of the second month. Canceling before the end of the first month will prevent any charges and allow you to use the trial for the entire first month.
  2. Visit the Office trial website. You can download the trial from the official Office website. Visit products.office.com/try to open the trial page.
  3. Click the "Try 1-month free" button. This will begin the sign-up process.
  4. Log in with your Microsoft account, or create one. You'll be prompted to log in with your Microsoft account. You can use any Hotmail, Live.com, or Outlook.com email address to sign in, or you can create a new account for free. Creating an account is required for the trial.
  5. Enter in a valid credit card. You'll need to enter a credit or debit card in order to start your trial. This card will not be charged immediately, but you will be charged the monthly Office 365 fee if you don't cancel by the end of the trial.
  6. Download the Office 365 installer. After creating your account and entering your credit card information, you'll be given a link to download the Office 365 installer. The installer itself is very small, and should only take a few moments to download.
  7. Run the installer after downloading it. Once the installer has downloaded, run it to begin the actual download and installation of Office. You may be prompted to enter your Microsoft account again before the download begins.
    • During installation, you'll be given the option to select which Office products you want to install. You can save time and hard drive space by deselecting the programs you won't be using. You can always install them again later if you end up needing them.
    • The installation process will take a fair amount of time, especially if you have a slow internet connection.
  8. Start your Office programs. You'll be able to find your newly-installed Office programs in your Start menu. You can use all of the features of the programs for your entire trial.

Using Free Office Web Apps

  1. Visit the Office website. Microsoft offers Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other Office apps for free online. These versions aren't quite as powerful as the desktop versions, but you can still do just about anything you'd need to without installing or paying for anything. Visit office.com to view the available web apps.
  2. Click the Office program you want to start. You can see the available programs by scrolling down a little on the Office website. Click the on you want to launch.
  3. Sign in with a Microsoft account. You'll need to either sign in with your personal Microsoft account, or with your work or school account. Once you're signed in, you can start using the selected program. If you don't have a Microsoft account, you can create one for free. This will give you 5 GB of free OneDrive storage, where your documents will be saved for access on any computer or device.
  4. Use the program. The layout of the web app will be nearly identical to the desktop version. Use the tabs at the top to switch between different editing options. You may notice some features are missing or limited. You'll need the desktop program to access all of the advanced features. See this Microsoft support page for a complete rundown on the differences between the web and desktop versions of Word.[1]
  5. Save your document. The web apps do not auto-save, so make sure to save manually from time to time. You can save your document by clicking the "File" tab and selecting "Save As."
    • When you save your document, it will be saved to your OneDrive storage.
    • You can also choose to download the document to your computer from the Save As menu. There are several format options, including PDF and open formats.
  6. Upload documents to your OneDrive storage to open them with the web apps. If you've received an Office document from someone, you can view it in the web app by uploading it to your OneDrive storage.
    • Visit onedrive.live.com in your browser. You can also use the OneDrive app if you're on a mobile device.
    • Drag your file into the browser window to upload it to your OneDrive storage. Small documents should only take a moment to upload, large PowerPoint presentations may take longer.
    • Click the uploaded document in OneDrive to launch the Office web app. This will let you view and edit the document (if the document is not protected).

Using the Office Mobile Apps

  1. Download the Office mobile apps on your iOS or Android device. Microsoft has free Office apps available for Android and iOS. You can download them from the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store. The free versions of the apps provide basic editing and creation features. Using an Office 365 subscription gives you access to more advanced features.
  2. Allow the Office apps to access your device storage. When you launch the apps for the first time, you may be prompted to grant access to your device's storage. Allow access so that you can easily save and load files.
  3. Sign in with a Microsoft account to connect to OneDrive. You'll be prompted to sign in with a Microsoft account when you first launch the app. While you can skip this, signing in or creating a free account will give you 5 GB of OneDrive storage and will allow you to sync Office files across your devices.
  4. Tap "Open" to open files from various locations. You can open files that have been downloaded to your device, documents stored in Google Drive or Dropbox, your OneDrive files, and more. The Office apps support all of the normally compatible formats (i.e. the Word app can open DOC, DOCX, and TXT files).
  5. Tap "New" to create a new document. At the top of the New screen, you'll see a menu to select where you want to create a document. If you're signed in with your Microsoft account, your OneDrive Personal folder will be the default selection. You can also save to your device.
  6. Use the buttons at the top to access formatting tools. The "A" button with a pencil will open the formatting frame. You can select basic editing and formatting tools from the familiar Office tabs in this frame. Tap the "Home" button to view the different tabs you can switch between. You can scroll the formatting frame up and down to view all of the available options.
    • When the keyboard is open, you can swipe the bar above it left and right to view quick-access formatting tools.
  7. Tap the "Save" button to save. Your document will save automatically at regular intervals, but you can tap the Save button that appears to create an instant save. You can also tap the Menu button in the upper-left corner and select "Save" at any time.

Using Office Alternatives

  1. Check out the available desktop Office replacements. There are several programs available that can give you most of the features found in Office, and even some that Office doesn't have. These programs are all able to open and edit Office documents, as well as a variety of open formats. The most popular suites are FreeOffice, OpenOffice, and LibreOffice.[2]
    • FreeOffice is considered the most user-friendly of the options, while OpenOffice and LibreOffice are more powerful. If you are familiar with Office, consider FreeOffice or LibreOffice.
  2. Download the software. Once you've settled on a choice, you can download the installer for the program you want. Visit the following sites to download the installer for your chosen program:
    • LibreOffice - libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-fresh/
    • FreeOffice - freeoffice.com/en/download
    • OpenOffice - openoffice.org/download/index.html
  3. Run the installer. You'll be given the option to choose which of the productivity programs you want to install. By only selecting the ones you plan to use, you can cut down on installation time and hard disk space.
  4. Get acquainted with your new program. All three Office alternatives listed above look and behave differently, and they are all full-featured software programs. As such, they'll all have a bit of a learning curve, especially if you're used to using Office. The basic features should be fairly straightforward, and you can look on YouTube or here on wikiHow for instructions on performing more advanced tasks.
    • See Use OpenOffice.org Writer for details on using Writer, the OpenOffice Word alternative.
    • See Use LibreOffice for tips on getting familiar with the LibreOffice word processor.
  5. Consider cloud-based Office alternatives. As online tools become more powerful, there is less and less need for installing productivity programs on your computer. Besides the Office web apps detailed above, there are several other cloud-based productivity suites you can use. All of these services allow you to upload and then edit Office documents.[3]
    • Google Docs is the most famous of the cloud-based options. You can create and edit documents, spreadsheets, and presentations using Google's online tools. You can access everything from Google Drive, where your documents will be stored. If you have a Gmail account, you have access to Google Docs. See Use Google Drive for details on creating and editing documents.
    • Zoho is another cloud-based Office replacement. Its interface is much more similar to the Office interface than Google Docs. Like Google Docs, you can create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. See Use Zoho Docs for instructions on using Zoho.
    • OnlyOffice is an online Office alternative that allows you to create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.

Related Articles

  • Be Able to Edit Microsoft Office Documents in Google Drive

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Differences-between-using-a-document-in-the-browser-and-in-Word-90fac46c-2b8e-4fa1-b997-4e55ce4ed754
  2. ↑ http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/best-microsoft-office-alternatives/
  3. ↑ http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/best-google-docs-alternatives/3/
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