The Microsoft Office Burden
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Term papers in Microsoft Word, lab reports in Microsoft Excel, presentations in Microsoft PowerPoint — if one set of software has become increasingly essential in a student’s world, it is the Microsoft Office suite. Unfortunately, Microsoft Office is certainly not free, and can at first glance seem incredibly expensive, especially to a student on a budget. There are steps that can be taken, however, to minimize the financial impact.
Do You Need Microsoft Office?
The first question to ask is whether or not you even need Microsoft Office. Almost every student should have an office productivity suite of some kind in order to perform various commonplace tasks; however, there are several free alternatives to Microsoft Office out there that might suit your needs just as well as the expensive alternative. Consider:
- OpenOffice – OpenOffice is a completely free product of the Open Source community. Once you get past the name differences, you’ll find an extremely powerful word processor, spreadsheet manager, and presentation designer, all of which interact almost seamlessly with Microsoft Office. For the types of tasks most students perform, OpenOffice should work great — only seriously power users of Microsoft Office products are likely to notice significant differences. Read PC Magazine’s Review or download OpenOffice at OpenOffice.org.
- Google Docs — Google Docs is a rather impressive service that operates entirely online. Google Docs can create presentations, spreadsheets, or presentations. While many of its features are still quite limited–especially its presentation service–it is becoming more and more comprehensive. In particular, it is quite strong at sharing documents with other users. It also makes it quite easy to upload or save copies to your computer. Check it out at http://docs.google.com/.
One thing to keep in mind when deciding whether or not either of these products would work as an alternative to Microsoft Office is that almost all schools provide free computer labs with free access to Microsoft Office. If that is the case for you, consider whether or not either of these services would work most of the time; if that is the case, you could do most of your work using your free alternative on your computer, and whenever you run into something OpenOffice or Google Doc can’t handle, you can run over to your computer lab.
If You Must Purchase Microsoft Office…
However, I will fully admit that Open Office or Google Docs are not for everyone, and that, for some people, Microsoft Office is a better fit. If that’s the case for you, read on…
- First, find out which Office products you need. It used to be mildly confusing when Microsoft Office came in a couple different versions. As of Office 2007, things have gotten more confusing — eight different versions! You can compare here, but for most students, Microsoft Office Home & Student will do the job, which includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote — but does not include Outlook.
- Check out Microsoft’s tip page for students. It has some useful information, but I think this page is more helpful!
- In most cases do not buy it with your computer. Just because its packaged with your brand new computer does not mean you are getting the best deal. The last time I checked Dell, they wanted $149 for the Home & Student version with a new laptop, which is the full price, and as you’ll see, definitely not the best deal.
- If you can wait until August, and are a student, take advantage of Microsoft’s The Ultimate Steal program. It just ended for the academic year, but the program will be back again in the fall and offers the full Ultimate Edition for $60. This is -by far- the best deal for students, so if you can wait until it returns, do so!
- Your next best bet is to check your school’s IT department for school discounts - many schools offer the full Microsoft Office Standard Suite for $65 - $70 dollars through one of their online partners like e-Academy or JourneyEd. This is the route I went, and it worked out well.
- Also, check your school’s campus bookstore - but only after checking your school’s official resources. At my school, the bookstore is not affiliated with the University, and while it offers a Microsoft Office discount, it is not as nice as what my school’s IT department offers.
- If you can’t find a suitable educational discount, you can always buy it at full retail — but check around for the best price. The full retail price for Microsoft Office Home & Student is $149, but Amazon.com has it for $110 (plus, you can use an appropriate credit card to save 5% at Amazon!)
- Finally, and this is not so much a frugality tip as an ethical one - resist the temptation to steal Microsoft Office. I know plenty of college students do this, but regardless of how you try to justify it, it is wrong. Don’t compromise your ethics.
Hopefully these tips can come in handy. Anyone else have any tips for saving on Microsoft Office?
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Another option, if you have a job (maybe a summer internship) with a larger company that has a per-seat license for Office, is Microsoft’s “Home Use” program. It lets you buy a copy of Office that you can use as long as you’re employed by that company for about $20. Check with HR or the Tech department for details.
EA - I had completely forgotten about that! I don’t currently have access to the Home Use program, but I did during a summer internship a few summers back. Definitely a nice way to get Office if its available to you. (Although I don’t remember it being $20 — that’s quite a deal!)