You are about to start a new job and the one who will soon become your boss has already warned you about the need to manipulate text documents, presentations, spreadsheets and other office files. Since there are no Office programs on your computer yet , you want to remedy this before you are even caught unprepared, which is why you are here on my website, hoping to get help with that.
Well, if this is the way things are, I am happy to let you know that you are in the right place, at the right time! In fact, below I will list the best office suites for Windows, macOS, Android and iPad / iPhone, giving you an overview of the characteristics of each of them and some valid indications for downloading them.
So, without waiting any longer, make yourself comfortable and read in one breath what I have to explain on the subject: I’m sure that, at the end of reading this guide, you will be perfectly able to identify (and download) the most suitable programs for your needs. Happy reading and good work!
Index
- Office programs for Windows 10
- Microsoft Office
- LibreOffice
- Other Office programs for Windows 10
- Office programs for Mac
- iWork
- Microsoft Office
- LibreOffice
- Other Office for Mac programs
- Office programs for Android
- Google applications
- Microsoft Office
- AndrOpenOffice
- Other Office programs for Android
- Office programs for iPad
- iWork
- Microsoft Office
- Other Office programs for iPad
Office programs for Windows 10
There are so many programs for Windows 10 and later versions of the Microsoft operating system that can be used to create, edit and archive the most commonly used documents in the workplace: below you will list the ones that, in my opinion, represent the best.
Microsoft Office
It’s really hard to never have heard of Microsoft Office : it is the most used suite of all when it comes to managing and processing office documents.
To be precise, it includes a large number of software, each of which is delegated to a specific purpose: Word is the program that allows you to create and edit more or less elaborate text documents; Excel is the software designed for the processing of spreadsheets, equipped with extremely advanced management functions; PowerPoint is an excellent software dedicated to the creation of presentations and slides of various types: Publisher , then, is used to create printable drawings and documents; and Access , finally, is the software specifically dedicated to databases.
How do you say? Were you hoping to find an Office organization chart program specifically dedicated to the purpose? Do not worry: you can add SmartArt elements (the equivalent, in fact, of the organization charts) in most Office programs, simply by accessing the Insert tab and pressing the appropriate button.
Microsoft Office is not free, however, and can be obtained by activating a subscription plan to Microsoft 365 : it is a service offered by the big Redmond which, at the starting price of 7 € / month for the Personal plan or 10 € / month for the Family plan , allows you to get access to all Microsoft programs, to unlock the Premium features of Office for smartphones and tablets, to get up to 6 TB of cloud storage space and to take advantage of 60 minutes of free monthly Skype calls.
To be precise, by subscribing to the Microsoft 365 Personal plan you are entitled to 1 TB of additional space on OneDrive and a single personal license, which can be used on a maximum of 1 computer at a time; the Microsoft 365 Family plan, on the other hand, grants access for up to 6 people, with the possibility of using the subscription on up to 5 devices at the same time, as well as 1 TB of cloud storage per person. More info here .
Alternatively, you can purchase a one-time license of Office Home & Student or Office Home & Business : these versions are purchased only once, can be installed on a single computer and do not include Premium benefits for mobile apps, nor the space of storage on OneDrive, let alone the free minutes on Skype.
The official cost of the two licenses is € 149 and € 299 , respectively , without any free trial period; however, to save money, you can buy a license for Office from Mr Key Shop , an online store that, in a perfectly legal way, resells unused licenses from companies and companies that have switched to the cloud and / or subscription services, at extremely lower prices.
If you are interested in learning more about the subject, I refer you to reading my guide on how to download Office , in which I have explained everything to you in great detail.
LibreOffice
One of the best free alternatives to Microsoft Office is LibreOffice . It is a complete office suite, born from a “rib” of Apache OpenOffice, which integrates a whole series of programs capable of managing and manipulating different categories of documents: Writer , for text files; Calc , for spreadsheets; Impress , for presentations; Draw , for drawings and printables; Math , for mathematical formulas; and Base , for databases.
Although the interface of the various components of LibreOffice is not exactly the best in terms of aesthetics, all the programs included in the suite integrate a large number of features, which makes them almost equivalent to the more noble Microsoft counterparts.
LibreOffice allows you to open, manipulate and save documents both in the native Office formats and in the open formats provided for the various categories of documents; moreover, thanks to the strong support of the development community, the suite is updated regularly and can be expanded in terms of available functions, thanks to practical plugins that can be downloaded freely. For further information, I refer you to reading my tutorial on how to download LibreOffice .
Other Office programs for Windows 10
If you feel that the programs I have told you about so far are not suitable for your needs, you can consider one of the alternatives that I am going to list below.
- Microsoft Office Online: If you don’t have the ability to install programs on your computer, you’ll be pleased to know that Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote can be used directly through your browser, without the need to install anything. The “online” versions of the software offer a limited feature set compared to their desktop counterparts, but can be used for free – as long as you have a Microsoft account.
- Google Drive : the famous Google productivity suite, perfect for creating collaborative documents, but not only. It works directly from the browser, is free and includes powerful tools for creating documents, presentations, spreadsheets, forms and more. Read more here .
- OnlyOffice Desktop Editor: excellent collection of office programs that can be downloaded for free and dedicated to the creation of texts, presentations and worksheets.
Office programs for Mac
And on Mac ? Also in this case, you will be pleased to know that there are numerous Office programs able to satisfy all needs, some of which are distributed for free by Apple itself. Read on to learn more.
iWork
If you had never heard of it, iWork is the office suite produced and distributed by Apple, designed as an alternative – albeit quite basic – to Microsoft Office. It consists of three applications: Pages , Numbers and Keynote .
Pages is the program dedicated to word processing, equipped with an intuitive interface that allows you to customize your work, thanks to the integrated and easily accessible tools. Pages lacks some of the advanced features found in Word, but it’s more than enough for non-professional use.
Numbers , on the other hand, is dedicated to spreadsheets: the strong point of the program is the very simple interface, although equipped with the bare essentials for processing data and mathematical models of various types. This is not a software comparable to Excel in terms of functionality, but for a basic use it is just fine.
Finally, Keynote allows you to create various types of presentations: unlike its “brothers”, Keynote is equipped with decidedly advanced design and implementation features, superior, in some ways, to those present in the more famous PowerPoint. This, however, does not make the program complex to use, on the contrary: thanks to its interface, it is possible to access all the most important features (but not only) in a couple of clicks.
All the programs listed are capable of handling most native Microsoft Office file formats and can be downloaded for free from the Mac App Store; It should be noted that Pages, Numbers and Keynote are capable of storing and synchronizing files via iCloud . For further information, you can take a look at my guide on how to download iWork , in which I have explained everything to you in great detail.
Microsoft Office
It would have been unthinkable until a few years ago, but Microsoft Office for Mac is now a well-established and consolidated reality in the office programs scene: the big Redmond, in fact, allows you to use most of the programs belonging to the suite (Word , Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote) also on macOS; the latter, moreover, have functionality in all respects similar to their respective counterparts for Windows .
Even the methods of purchasing the various programs are similar to what has already been said above: you can subscribe to a subscription to Microsoft 365 , with prices starting from € 7 / month for the Personal plan (license valid for one computer only), or at 10 € / month for the Family plan (license valid for 6 computers). Either way, you can activate a 30-day free trial .
You can download Office applications directly from the Mac App Store (either as separate packages for Word , Excel , PowerPoint , OneNote , Outlook and OneDrive or as a single Microsoft 365 package ; knowing that single applications still require an active Microsoft 365 subscription to be used), or from the Microsoft website . For more information on downloading Office for Mac, you can take a look at the specific tutorial I dedicated to the topic.
LibreOffice
Even LibreOffice , the same free and open source productivity suite that I told you about in the chapter dedicated to Windows , can be installed on macOS with extreme ease.
Except for the small graphic differences, the LibreOffice software for macOS work in the same way as those already seen for Windows and are practically the same: Writer (documents), Calc (spreadsheets), Impress (presentations), Math (formulas ), Base (database) and Draw , the office program for designing flyers, posters, brochures, business cards and so on.
The LibreOffice suite for macOS can be downloaded for free from the official website ; if you need a step-by-step guide that shows you how to proceed, take a look in the dedicated chapter of my tutorial on free writing programs , in which you will find everything explained in detail.
Other Office for Mac programs
Have you found the solutions I have proposed so far interesting, but would it be convenient for you to know additional ones that you can use as needed? In this case, you can consider the alternatives that I list below.
- iWork / iCloud online: this is the web version of the aforementioned iWork suite, accessible via any compatible web browser. If you’ve turned on iCloud saving of documents, you’ll be able to open them in just one click.
- Apache OpenOffice: this is the free office suite, managed by the Apache Software Foundation, from which LibreOffice derives. Unlike the latter, OpenOffice programs are updated less frequently. More info here .
- Calligra: it is a complete office suite, completely free to download, equipped with software for word processing (Words), for processing spreadsheets (Sheets), presentations (Stage), vector drawings ( Karbon), projects (Plan) and database management (Kexi). Calligra is also available for Windows and Linux.
Office programs for Android
Do you usually work from your tablet or Android smartphone and would it be convenient for you to have applications dedicated to document processing? Then this is the most suitable section for your case, in which I will list some of the best solutions of this type.
Google applications
If your device has the Play Store , and in general, the services Google , you can quickly create text documents, spreadsheets and presentations Benefit from support of the Google app dedicated purpose: Google Docs , Google Sheets , and Slides app . The latter can be used absolutely free, as long as you have a Google account with which to log in.
All three apps are able to process files in native format or from Microsoft Office; the strength of the Google apps is the deep integration with Drive : the documents created are saved directly in the cloud, updated in real time and can be shared with other users or downloaded in memory, at any time.
Google apps are generally pre-installed on all Android devices equipped with “Big G” services but, if necessary, they can be downloaded for free from the Play Store. To learn more, I refer you to reading my guide on how to create a Google document , in which I explained the topic in detail.
Microsoft Office
If, on the other hand, you need full compatibility with documents generated through Microsoft Office, you will be happy to know that Word , Excel , PowerPoint and Outlook are also available in the form of applications for Android, which can be downloaded for free both from the Play Store and from alternative markets. present on devices not equipped with Google services.
They allow you to work both offline and in the cloud (combined with OneDrive or Google Drive cloud services ), individually or in collaboration with other users and have a very intuitive user interface, very similar – especially on tablets – to that of Word, Excel and PowerPoint for desktop.
It should be emphasized that the apps in question can be used for free on all devices whose screen does not exceed 10.1 “diagonal; in order to overcome this limit, as well as to unlock some Premium functions on devices from small screens, it is necessary to subscribe to one of the paid plans of the Microsoft 365 service.
I also point out the availability of the complete Microsoft Office package for Android, which allows you to get all the Office apps in one go and to take advantage of additional functions such as scanning documents through the camera, signing and converting into PDF documents. and much more. To find out more, I refer you to reading my guide dedicated to Office for Android .
AndrOpenOffice
Another excellent office suite dedicated to Android smartphones and tablets is AndrOpenOffice : in practice, it is a re-adaptation for Android of the aforementioned OpenOffice suite, from which it inherits flexibility and power.
Although AndrOpenOffice is a complete and totally free application, I must point out that its interface may not be very comfortable if used by devices with a small screen (as it is extremely similar to its desktop counterpart) and that, on some devices, it may not be particularly stable.
Using the applications included in the suite, you can create, view and edit text documents, presentations, spreadsheets, formulas, databases and drawings; It should also be noted the availability of add-ons , which can be downloaded directly from the Play Store, which allow for additional functions, such as importing documents in PDF format or multilingual spell checking.
Other Office programs for Android
In addition to the applications I have told you about so far, you must know that on the Play Store , as well as on the alternative and proven markets for Android, there are numerous other solutions dedicated to the management of office documents. Here are some of them.
- WPS Office: is a free suite that allows you to create and view Word, PowerPoint, Excel and PDF files. Files can be opened from memory, from the most well-known cloud storage services (OneDrive, Google Drive and Dropbox, just to name a few) and from WebDAV / FTP servers and saved in the same locations, using multiple formats.
- Polaris Office: This is another productivity application that is fully compatible with Microsoft Office format documents. It is available in two versions: one free, with basic functionality and one paid (with prices starting from around € 6.50 / month), which allows you to edit PDF files, protect documents with a password and activate app sync on up to 15 devices.
- OfficeSuite: another application compatible with documents in Office format, characterized by a user interface completely in Italian and easy to use. You can upload and save files both locally and in the cloud, even without signing up for the app. OfficeSuite is available in two versions: a free one with basic functionality and a paid one, which has additional features (eg the ability to install other fonts or sign documents).
Office programs for iPad
If you use the iPad to work, it will help you to know that the App Store is teeming with apps and office suites, each suited to one purpose rather than another. Below you will list the best in the category (which can also be downloaded and used on iPhone ).
iWork
I have already told you about the iWork suite in the section dedicated to Office for Mac but what I have not told you is that the Pages , Numbers and Keynote applications are also available for free on the iPad (and iPhone) App Store and clearly follow the graphical interface, functions and ease of use of their respective desktop counterparts.
All the apps in question are compatible with Office files and can be used both in offline mode and after integration with iCloud ; moreover, the apps of the iWork suite are compatible with other cloud storage services such as Google Drive, or Mega.
Microsoft Office
In addition to Android, the applications of Word , Excel , PowerPoint , OneNote and Outlook , together with the Microsoft Office package that contains them all, are also available for download through the Apple App Store and compatible with both iPad and iPhone. . Documents created through them can be stored and shared on OneDrive , even collaboratively, or on cloud storage services such as Dropbox and Box.
Also in this case, all the applications in the package can be used for free on Apple-branded tablets and smartphones with screens smaller than 10.1 “; to overcome this limitation, as well as to obtain a series of additional Premium features, it is necessary to subscribe a subscription to one of the available Microsoft 365 plans. Learn more here .
Other Office programs for iPad
As an alternative to iWork and Microsoft Office iPad, you can consider the use of other apps available, even free of charge, on the App Store installed on Apple-branded devices. Here are some of them.
- Polaris Office: is one of the most popular applications for iPad and iPhone, which allows you to view, edit and save the vast majority of documents stored in Office format (.doc / .docx, .xsl / .xlsx, .ppt / .pptx and so on). It is available in two versions: free, with basic editing functions and paid, which adds some additional features (including the ability to synchronize data and settings on multiple devices).
- WPS Office: the tools offered by WPS Office allow you to easily create, edit and save, both in memory and in the cloud on the Internet, Word, PowerPoint, Excel and PDF files. WPS Office is basically a free app, but additional functions can be unlocked by subscribing to a monthly, quarterly or annual paid subscription.
- Google Apps: If you need to access and edit documents stored in Google Drive (but not only), you’ll be pleased to know that applications Documents , Spreadsheets , and Google Presentations can also be downloaded for free on iPad and iPhone.
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