How to Use Microsoft Office for Free

Office is one of the most popular product suites in the world, which means you’ll easily find Office documents anywhere. If you need to open, edit, or create Office documents but don’t want to spend money on the suite, there are a few ways you can do it. Use the free trial version to access Office features for 1 month. Or use the Office web apps to create and edit documents online. There are also Office apps on mobile devices, or alternative apps that support the same format as Office.

Table of Contents

Get a trial version of Office

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Use a 1-month trial of Office 365. You can use Office for free for 1 month by downloading the Office 365 trial. The suite includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and other programs of the Office 2016 version. Office 365 is the only version of Office. There is a trial version available.

You need a credit card to sign up for the free trial, if you continue to use it, the 2nd month will start charging. You can cancel your subscription before the end of the first month so that you won’t be charged and still use it until the end of the month.

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Go to the Office trial page. You can download a trial version at the Office website. Go to products.office.com/try to open the trial page.

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Click on the “Try 1-month free” button (1-month free trial). This is the start of the registration process.

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Sign in with your Microsoft account or create a new account. You are asked to sign in with your Microsoft account. You can use Hotmail, Live.com or Outlook.com email to sign in, or create a new account for free. You must create a new account to try it out.

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Enter a valid credit card. You must enter a credit or debit card to start the trial. Your card won’t be charged immediately, but if you don’t cancel your subscription by the trial’s deadline, you’ll be charged a monthly fee.

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Download the Office 365 installer. After creating an account and entering your credit card information, you’ll be provided with a link to download the Office 365 installer. The installer is small so it’s quick to download.

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Run the installer after downloading. Once downloaded, run the installer to officially download and install Office. You may be asked to sign in with your Microsoft account before starting the download.

During installation, you get to choose which Office product you want to install. You can save time and hard drive space by unchecking unused programs. You can install it later if needed.
The installation process will take quite a while, especially when the network speed is slow.

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Start the Office program. You’ll find your recently installed Office programs in the Start menu. You can use all the features of the program during the trial period.

Use Office Apps Online for Free

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Go to the Office website. Microsoft offers Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other Office applications for free online. These versions are not as performant as the desktop versions, but are still enough to use without installation or payment. Visit office.com to see available apps.

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Click on the Office program you want to use. You can see the available programs by scrolling down the Office page. Click on the program you want to launch.

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Sign in with your Microsoft account. You can sign in to your personal Microsoft account, work or study account. After logging in, you can proceed to use the selected program. If you don’t have a Microsoft account, you can sign up for free. New accounts come with 5GB of free OneDrive storage, a document storage service accessible from computers and multiple devices.

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Use the program. The interface of the web application is almost identical to the desktop version. Use the tabs at the top to switch between editing options. Some apps are missing or limited. You must use the desktop version to access advanced features. Read the Microsoft support page to learn the differences between the desktop and web versions of Word. ^{[1] X Research Source}

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Save document. The web app doesn’t automatically save documents, so you have to repeatedly hit save manually. You can save the document by clicking the “File” tab and selecting “Save As”.

When you hit save, the document will be saved on the OneDrive storage service.
You can download documents to your computer from the Save As menu. There are several format options including PDF and other open formats.

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Upload documents with OneDrive to open on the web app. If you receive Office documents from someone else, you can view them on the web app by uploading them to OneDrive.

Go to onedrive.live.com on a web browser. You can use the OneDrive mobile app.
Drag the file into the browser window to upload to OneDrive. The document is small, so the loading time is very fast, the PowerPoint presentation file takes longer.
Click on the document you just uploaded to OneDrive to start the Office web app. The application allows you to view and edit documents (if the document is not protected).

Use Office apps on mobile devices

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Get the Office apps for iOS or Android mobile devices. Microsoft develops free Office apps on Android and iOS. You can download the app from the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store. The free version of the app offers basic creation and editing features. You must have an Office 365 subscription to use advanced features.

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Allow Office apps to access your device’s storage. When you first launch the app, you are asked for permission to access your device’s storage. Choose OK to store and download files easily.

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Sign in with your Microsoft account to connect to OneDrive. You are asked to sign in with your Microsoft account when you first open the app. You can skip this step, but by logging in or creating a free account, you will be given 5GB of free storage on OneDrive and allow to sync Office files through the device.

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Click “Open” to open the file in various locations. You can open files you just downloaded to your device, documents saved on Google Drive or Dropbox, OneDrive files, etc. Office apps support all the usual formats respectively (for example, Word apps can open). DOC, DOCX and TXT files).

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Click “New” to create a new document. At the top of the New screen will appear a menu for you to choose to create a new document. If signed in with a Microsoft account, the OneDrive Personal folder will be the default choice. You can save to the device.

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Use the button at the top of the page to access the formatting tools. The “A” button with the shape of a pencil opens the formatting page. You can select basic adjustments and formatting tools from the Office tabs on this page. Press the “Home” button to view different tabs. You can scroll up and down the intended view page to see the available options.

With the keyboard open, you can swipe the upper slider left and right to reveal quick access to the formatting tools.

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Press the “Save” button to save. The document is automatically saved at regular intervals, however you can press the Save button to save it immediately. You can press the Menu button in the upper-left corner of the screen and select “Save” at any time.

Use Office Alternatives

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Check out the available replacements for Office. There are some programs that give you most of the features that are supported on Office, and some features that Office doesn’t even have. These programs can open and edit Office documents as well as many other open formats. Here are some popular product suites: FreeOffice, OpenOffice, and LibreOffice. ^{[2] X Research Source}

FreeOffice is considered a program with many user-friendly options, while OpenOffice and LibreOffice are more powerful. If you are familiar with Office, you can try FreeOffice or LibreOffice.

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Download software. After making your choice, you can load the installer of the program you want. Visit the following website to download the installer for the respective program:

LibreOffice – libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-fresh/
FreeOffice – freeoffice.com/en/download
OpenOffice – openoffice.org/download/index.html

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Run the installer. You can choose which program you want to install in the kit. Only choose the programs you will use to reduce installation time and save space on your hard drive.

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Get used to the new program. The three Office alternatives listed above have different looks and uses, they are all fully functional programs. So, you will have to ” tinker” a bit, especially when you are used to using Office. The basic functions are quite simple; For advanced functions, you can find it on Youtube or right at wikiHow.

Refer to more articles online to know how to use Writer, OpenOffice.
Refer to more articles online to familiarize yourself with LibreOffice word processing software.

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Consider cloud-based Office alternatives. As the online tools grow, the less you need to install programs on your computer. In addition to the Office web apps mentioned above, you can use cloud computing product suites. Every service allows you to upload and edit Office documents. ^{[3] X Research Sources}

Google Docs is the most famous option. You can create and edit documents, spreadsheets, and presentations using Google’s online tools. You can access everything from Google Drive, where documents are stored. If you have a Gmail account, you’ll be able to access Google Docs. See Use Google Drive to learn more about creating and editing documents.
Zoho is another cloud computing program that can replace Office. The interface resembles Office more than Google Docs. Similar to Google Docs, you can create documents, spreadsheets, and slideshows. See more articles online to learn how to use Zoho.
OnlyOffice is an online replacement for Office that allows you to create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.

Steps

Get a trial version of Office

Use Office Apps Online for Free

Use Office apps on mobile devices

Use Office Alternatives

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