Homework software - office word

[Cantabile]

In order to access her homework, dd needs Microsoft Office Word on her laptop, which she does not have.

Software 4 Students will sell MS Word 365 for a tad over 50quid, which is still far in excess of what I think is reasonable for a school to expect us to pay simply for a pupil to open the work that is set.

She can open it on my computer but sometimes it is a long text which takes a lot of time to read through and mark up, so it is not always OK for her to use my m/c. She has a laptop for this, but it can't open these documents.

Is there a cheaper way of getting the software she needs? The school have not sent a note or mentioned this at all.

Open office is free, works in the same way as msWord. Might be a few formatting issues, but I have used it for uni work in the past.

There is a spreadsheet thaw will open excel files too.

Try
OpenOffice.org.

Or try Libre office.

Another vote for OpenOffice here. Works just as well as MS Office. Actually I think it's better because you can save things directly in PDF format.

Open office is good and you can open and save office documents. My kids tend to use Google docs more.

If the school really need things handing in in the .doc format you could always do the work in open office, then open it in msWord on your computer and save as a .doc. I used to do this in situations when open office format wasn't acceptable.

Open Office will work provided you don't need any of the more advanced features of MS Word.

Another option is to go to www.skydrive.com, create an account (if you haven't already got a Microsoft ID) and upload the document. You can then view and edit it in your browser without needing MS Office or Open Office. Again, if some of the more advanced features of MS Word are needed this may not work.

rosey76 - Recent versions of MS Office also allow you to save documents directly in PDF format.

Punny, there are a lot of families around here who don't have MS Office Word. It is expensive, and as vast swathes of Ruralshire are still in the depths of economic recession, therefore huge numbers of families who barely have the werewithal to buy food let alone software, I think it is entirely unreasonable of any school to assume that their pupils can easily get a piece of software which is no longer installed as standard.

We did have Open Office on her machine but it no longer is - no idea why. I shall have a look at Libre Office too. I posted on Geeky stuff too, and they say that having a Google account or a Miscrosoft or Outlook account gives access to various things which would have opened her document.

Luckily, it is just this subject though - all the other teachers seem to put things on the site in a format which hasn't caused problems.

As per my last post a Microsoft account gives you access to Outlook.com and Skydrive.com, both of which allow you to read and edit Office documents online without MS Office installed on the PC.

It may also be worth approaching the school and asking them to use a different format.

Yeah, ask at the school - they at least need to be aware that for some people this requirement is a bit of a hassle and they maybe need to organise a way of giving out the software that's needed - what do kids do who don't have a computer at home at all?

Also I don't know what MN policy on piracy is... but do ask any techie friends or friends of friends you may have. Somebody I know could usually sort out some kind of version of Word for me if I really needed one, for free.

They run a homework club at lunchtimes, but that's no good in the holidays. Usually this particular problem doesn't occur. I think perhaps this was a mistake - it is a particularly long text, which required close scrutiny as they have the first of 2 GCSEs in the subject this year, so do have a lot of work to fit in.

Most of the texts they've had so far in any subject have required no more than 1/2 hr's reading. I think some children use their local libraries, and some get their friends to take screenshots which are then texted (not sure about that).

This particular text was 100+ pages long, so heaven knows what pupils without computers did. It wouldn't have been a problem for dd excep I'm studying too, and have software installed on my m/c for that, which I have needed for my assigment due on Wed.

Our school offer discounts on some software if we buy it through them.