Alternatives to Microsoft Office
The Problem
My students who use Macs seem not to have a fully-licensed version of Microsoft 365 (a.k.a. Office 365).
They have to install CoPilot and can only access the apps from Office through CoPilot.
This means that they cannot use the apps offline.
I do not know why the license is so restrictive.
I have heard rumors and I make conjectures, none of which will help in any way to make the crippled license more useful to my class.
I want to receive student writing in .docx format, track changes, make comments, change formatting, etc., etc.
If the students open the docx file in some of these programs, they will not see the work I have done.
And their own work may not look right to me because Microsoft interprets their document differently.
OUCH!
Potential Solutions
Five free alternatives to Microsoft 365
I tested Libre Office and WPS Office from this list.
Neither preserved the crucial features of my document.
WPS added things to my system that were very difficult to remove.
Libre Office
I have installed many versions of Libre Office on my computers in the past.
I found it useful for some projects.
In this case, it failed to import a .docx file correctly.
The page size and layout were completely neglected: margins, page header location, paper size.
I quit at that point. There may be many other features poorly supported that are available in the .docx format, especially sections and headings.
WPS Office
I saw this package installed on two student Macs.
I was able to install the Windows version on my machine.
It, too, failed to import a .docx file directly.
I removed it within twelve hours of installing it because it changed my default file associations without mentioning it to me and presented me with an ad when I booted my computer the next morning.
I also very much dislike its file management routines. I am perfectly at home with Libre Office and Open Office because they use native function calls to list and select files.
WPS also silently installed an add-in to Microsoft Word to give itself its own tab and accompanying ribbon.
When I uninstalled WPS, the add-in remained in Word!
How to remove WPS PDF add-in from Word
The crucial path to follow is:
- File / Options / Add-ins / Manage COM Add-ins / select WPS PDF and then select remove
Open Office
Correctly set the page size to A4 with 3 cm margins all around.
Threw away all of the section breaks and unique headers for each section.
Threw away all of the styles I had created or modified for the PUG style.
Google Docs offline
How to use Google Docs offline
When I opened a sample Word .docx file through Google Docs, I immediate received warnings.
- "Some Word features can't be displayed and will be dropped if you make any changes."
- "If you continue to edit, the following features will be removed or replaced in the file: Even and Odd section behavior will be removed."
Two "Learn more" links led to this moderately comprehensive page:
It seems pretty clear that Google mangles my Word Documents.
Cloud version of Word (Teams)
Teams opens an debilitated version of Word that allows "quick changes" but is not fully functional.
Is that the same as the CoPilot / Cloud version on the Mac?