Laptop / software help needed please!

[Bibiboo]

Okay so we've got dh the much needed laptop for Christmas - me and the mil that is. So I get started on it last night, making sure it's all working and there are not bits missing, only to find there's not stuff on it!

It's running Windows XP but Word, Excel, Access, Powerpoint etc aren't there. I rung the shop and they explained it's rare nowadays to get this stuff ready-installed on a laptop and we'dahve to buy it. When we parted with the cash though, they were giving it all "yes, it will be IDEAL for your teacher husband, it's got Windows XP and everything" - failing to mention that there are no applications on there (is that the right term "applications").

Anyway, how do I get them, what are they called and is this going to cost me loads? I can't even search ont he net because I don't honestly know what I'm looking for. The home PC came with them all on.

TIA!

not very techy myself but i have never heard of a pc or laptop brand new without those things - is it brand new from a shop?

Yeah, we bought it new from Currys last night and it wasn't cheap.

word, excel aren't standard

what you should have is microsoft works (look in your programs bit) - a far weaker version of the normal microsoft office (so it has a database and a spreadsheet program e.g.)

you have to buy office if you want all those things and it is expensive

bugger. how expensive is expensive?

he may be able to get a student licence which is cheaper

can his work not give it to him?

I'll see if I can find it online for you

if your dh is a teacher, you can get the microsoft products at a big discount. Have to run to do school-run, will try and post a link tonight of where to find out about it!

Nearly £300 on amazon. A lot of people borrow the disc from friends and then download a hack code from kazaa. It is soo expensive.

prices here I have the Student & teacher edition which you can put on up to 3 pcs - you can probably get it for less than £120 though

Thank you all! Help much appreciated. I can't ask him if he can get it from school as it's meant to be a surprise, so he'll have to wait until the new year if that's the case.

Bilbiboo --

Here it is at PCWorld for £89.99 on line price.

Office Teacher Ed

Microsoft Office 2003 includes the core Office products of Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint, as well as a range of other applications. Many schools, colleges and universities are already using Office 2003 to help them inspire students and pupils, improve communications and save time.

you should get word as standard on any pc

You can buy the student software and then register it at a later date.

All they require is proof that the person is in fulltime eduation.
I did this for DS .... and sent the software comapany a photocopy of his passport ( to prove his DOB ) and a leter from the school saying that he studied there.

Fairly simple
HTH

dont buy
go to limewire (google it) download for free (just dont do any updates! cos that illegal....) lol

thank you everyone for your help!

Okay...as I'm such a numpty, time to ressurect this thread. This limewire amalrkey, I've got it on my pc, what do I do now? If I serach for Microsoft Office I get a list of them to download, but when I tried to download one it appeared to be downloading a list of songs! Where am I going wrong?

malarkey

I am afraid that it is pretty standard nowadays not to have "office" applications pre-installed. You may find that it comes with basic things like Microsoft works but really what you want is Microsoft Office. The full version will cost around £210-220 but as you mention that he is a teacher, you can get the Office 2003 Teacher & Student version for £89 or so. This does not have MS Access though. If that is really something you need, then the MS Office 2003 full version will actually be cheaper as Access on its own can be £160+.

Check out www.pcworld.co.uk (search for Office 2003) or look on Amazon or Dabs.

Hope that helps

Hi
You can get all the office programs online free from open office.Sorry can't do links but the web addy is www.openoffice.org.It's all free and you just visit the website and download it.I'm on Linux,rather than Windows and run it on my pc and its just as good as microsoft office.
Personally I would'nt go out and buy something or in fact download it from Limewire-you can't be sure it wouldn't be infected with a virus etc.This site is reputable and well known,think it would be your best bet.

hope that helps x

Thanks again everyone.

got to go with openoffice.org it's free, it is totally compatible with Microsoft office, and it's free!

Also it's free