Help with Microsoft programs

[ATW Alex 101]

Hello again.

I am not very good at this sort of thing and was wondering what is the best way to renew my Microsoft programs. Basically, I had the Office 2010 since, well, 2010 and I needed Publisher for my schoolwork. I used a product key that I found on the internet and it worked, but the thing is it's overwritten all my Office 2010 and given me Publisher, but they all expire in 2 days.

I am just looking for some advice as to what is the cheapest way of getting all the Microsoft programs (Word, Excel, Powerpoint) AND Publisher. It's paramount that I have all those programs for my coursework.

They need to be the 2010 version and ideally £100 quid or less. I am not paying silly prices for them and would appreciate it if anybody could point me in the right direction how to get all them programs for under £100. I'm hopeless at this sort of thing and hours of internet searching has got me nowhere.

Cheers

 

[Crossover]

Office Home and Student is going to be your best option - retail price of £110.

Unfortunately it is only 2013 available now and I'm not aware of any legitimate way to downgrade it to 2010...trust me, I have tried with other variants of Office 2013. Unless you have a Volume Licence agreement, there is no downgrade rights.

That said, you may be lucky and be able to source a 2010 version, but make sure it is from a reputable source

EDIT: Just recalled that the "P" in Home and Student is PowerPoint, not Publisher. Publisher only comes bundled with the higher Office packages

 

[Morden Via CHX]

I seem to remember using this website to buy my version.

http://www.software4students.co.uk/t/categories/microsoft-office

There are probably better deals out there though. I'd hang on and see if anyone else can provide some information and then look at buying the above if you get absolutely desperate/

 

[Crossover]

I bought Office Pro Plus some time ago whilst at uni as part of the Ultimate Steal - but I think it is only open to Further and Higher Education students/staff and not all year round.

Be aware with the apparently cheap looking Office 365 that you are only granted a licence for a specified amount of time as they are subscription based. You never own the licence (perpetual licence as they are called) of the product

 

[table38]

If you don't find a better solution, Open Office may be worth a try, you've got nothing to lose because it's free!

 

[Mojo]

Many companies also have a deal that offers Office at a discounted rate to their employees. It's worth seeing if yours does.

 

[David]

Have you tried looking for genuine Microsoft software on eBay? You can buy a copy of office for £60-90 on there.

 

[telstarbox]

Download Open Office instead. It's free and will open and edit all your existing Microsoft Office files.

 

[maniacmartin]

If you find your Office 2010 CD and insert it, you should be able to repair your installation using your original serial key.

The later versions of Office will open files created with 2010.

Failing that, LibreOffice (the spiritual successor to OpenOffice) will suffice and is free. However this can't open Publisher files.

A free program that's like Publisher (but can't open its files) is Scribus.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Download Open Office instead. It's free and will open and edit all your existing Microsoft Office files.

but not Publisher

 

[DownSouth]

If you find your Office 2010 CD and insert it, you should be able to repair your installation using your original serial key.

And if you still have a genuine product key, you can even do that with a non-original source for the same product's installer.

It also works for *ahem* slightly less genuine product keys like the OP suggested they used previously so long as the keys in question haven't been blacklisted by Microsoft. Maybe this is why the OP's installation needs renewing?

 

[ATW Alex 101]

Well my Microsoft 2010 has expired today, had a look around for my original disk but can't find it. Is there any program that will open my existing publisher files?

 

[yorkie]

Does your school not give you a subscription to Office 365? They can give you free access if they want to. Perhaps it's worth asking them if they have plans to roll it out.

 

[table38]

Well my Microsoft 2010 has expired today, had a look around for my original disk but can't find it. Is there any program that will open my existing publisher files?

The latest incarnation of LibreOffice maybe?

Also maybe Zamzar to convert Publisher to .DOC?

I've not tried either so cannot vouch for them. Zamzar is web-based conversion service, so for all I know they may end up owning your content afterwards!

 

[maniacmartin]

I stand corrected. LibreOffice can now open Publisher files. Whether it does a good job at it I don't know

 

[richw]

For publisher I believe you need Microsoft Professional, as it isn't featured on the home version. The professional version is stupid money for a proper copy.

I'm still using Office 2007 myself and prefer to the newer versions. Is it possible for you to obtain an older version such as 2007 for less than the newer versions.

 

[Class172]

I stand corrected. LibreOffice can now open Publisher files. Whether it does a good job at it I don't know

Well if anyone's got a sample .pub file, I can test it out since my laptop has Libre Office as part of its Linux distro.

 

[table38]

Here's one I made earlier

 

[Class172]

Well, having opened up the installation, I cannot see .pub under the openable file types (as far as I know I have the newest version).

 

[maniacmartin]

The latest stable version on the website is 4.1.4. There is also a pre-release of 4.2.0

I have 4.0.3.3 and can open the Publisher file in LibreOffice Draw.
The file type is called "Microsoft Publisher 98-2010" and you have to scroll right down to below "PSD - Adobe Photoshop" to see it - or just you "All files" which worked for me.

The sample Publisher file opened fine, but as it has virtually no complex formatting it's not really the best test.

 

[Whistlekiller]

Does the free software then save the Publisher file in a different format? How would this affect the ability of Publisher to re-open it at a later date, particularly if the school wanted to open it using the original program?

 

[maniacmartin]

OpenOffice cannot save back out to Publisher format. It can export as PDF though.