I got tired of forgetting my cd key when installing ms office on different comps, awhile back I found this prog. --> http://www.openoffice.org/ It is a free program that allows you to open/create any office files; excel, powerpoint, word and save them in the same format.

i used to use open office exclusively. It was a great substitute to paying the price for MS products. But recently i've had the opportunity to buy the MS office suite for 15 bucks and thus i've switched over to the mainstream products. Although open office mimics things pretty well, it still caused me some annoyances with formatting and compatibility with other people running MS office.

If you're not an MS Office power user, Open Office will do you just fine. Plus, Open Office does have some advantages, including ODF, plus near instantaneous load after the suite loads (which is good if you're in heavy office abuse mode).

That said, if you're an MS Office power user - like, say, you rely on all the tricksy Excel trickery - you're going to have trouble with Open Office. ESPECIALLY if you're an Excel addict.

Is that worth paying the outrageous cost for MS Office? Arguable. But if you're a student and can get it for cheap and/or free (hurray for MSDNAA!), go for MS Office. If you're a chap who just wants to occasionally open other people's crud, Open is arguably the better choice regardless of price, due to the (remote) possibility you'll be sent an ODF file.

MSDNAA got me many a swoftware that costs 1000's or 100's of dollars for FREE.

Legal licenses too... lolz microgay.

anyone play around with office 2007 yet? they got it at my new work, and i just can't get used to it. too many frills for me.

Yeah shit sucks.

I thought there would be a setting to change it back to "oldschool" and after poking around in there for a bit, I realized there wasn't.

I almost cried.