I had a month free trial of Microsoft Office 7, now it says I need a product key

[Riss]

To use the facility.I entered a product key to get the months trial,but to buy another key for the full version is very expensive.Dont Microsoft earn enough money without charging ridiculous fees to use their products?

[bednobs]

how do you think they earn their money?

[Jan1957]

Have you tried Open Office? You can download it for free and it's very similiar to MO.

[Riss]

Is Bill that skint he has to do that,greedy git!

[Riss]

Thanks Jan I'll try that now.

[bednobs]

you dont work for the nhs do you, or know someone who does? Via nhs dicounts you can get microsoft office enterprise for £8.95

[Riss]

Wow,£8.95! No sadly I am a social worker but in the criminal field.

[bednobs]

yes i downloaded it the other day via nHS discounts - it has powerpoint, word, xl, access, one note, outlook, groove, info path and publisher. Bargainous!

[Riss]

So you are in the nhs?

[bednobs]

yes - you need to find a firend who is. In some areas if you join your local NHS foundation trust, or health network you can get membership of NHS discounts

[Answerprancer]

If your objection to supporting Microsoft is very strong, you could consider a Linux based OS (eg. Ubuntu).

[VHG]

>Dont Microsoft earn enough money without charging ridiculous fees to use their products?

Nobody forces you to use Microsoft Office or any other product. If you think it is too expensive dont use it.

(I happen to think Microsoft Office IS overpriced for most of the packages, but that is up to them. If people stopped buying it they would lower the price)

[bibblebub]

"Nobody forces you to use Microsoft Office or any other product."

If only it were that simple - I've just about completed an ECDL for the use of software that is used in an office (word processor, spreadsheet, presentation) and the programs you have to use are all Microsoft. So even though it is a general qualification you are forced to use Microsoft Office for the course.

[canalman]

MS Office 2007 Home Edition (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and something else which I don't need and can't remember) is around £50 discounted price from Ebuyer (don't confuse with Ebay...!) with a licence to use on THREE machines.
I think that's not a bad deal and I now have it on my desktop and laptop. If that suits, maybe you can come to an arrangement with 2 friends (tho' I think you are supposed to own all 3 machines, in theory).
I expect you now know that Office 2007 has new 'ribbon' menus, which take a bit of getting used to - did you know that you can download (free) from MS an 'old to new' guide for Word, and for Excel (and Powerpoint?) which I've found invaluable?

[mjwman]

As already stated Go for OPEN OFFICE...IT IS FREE. end of.