Is there a MS office replacement that....

[iknowjohnny]

.....will open and use my existing excel and words files? Office 2013 has been PITA in many ways and all i do with it is use word and excel and do nothing complicated with them. But i have a ton of excel and word files i can't lose. So is there a app that will allow me to uninstall office and then associate itself with my existing word and excel documents ?

 

[Barman58]

There are lots of them ...

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/best-microsoft-office-alternatives/

I've always found slight issues with the ones I've used, mostly minor differences in accurate positional layouts, but others find them adequate for their needs

 

[iknowjohnny]

Thanks. I'll give that freeoffice2016 a shot and if it seems to work well then i'll uninstall MS office.

 

[iknowjohnny]

It just hit me....i use outlook for email and i really don't want to change that for a number of reasons. Can i uninstall all of office except outlook? I can't tell by trying to uninstall it because it asks me if i want to uninstall office and if i hit yes and i find it doesn't give me the option of uninstalling everything but office then i'll have to reinstall it which will present other problems.

 

[Barman58]

I'm not sure with office 2013, the various applications in office used to be separate entities, But as I always install everything I cannot say what the options will do. There used to be a Change option included with the MS Office Suites that if it's available with 2013 it should allow the removal of only certain applications.

If not I would, at least at this stage, not worry about removing Office until you have checked out the alternatives and are happy that one will suit your needs. You may have to save your Outlook data, uninstall everything, and then selectively install just outlook and reintegrate the previously saved data

 

[iknowjohnny]

I already tried freeoffice and it works fine, so i can remove office as long as i can keep outlook. I'll try googling it.

 

[Ranger4]

It just hit me....i use outlook for email and i really don't want to change that for a number of reasons. Can i uninstall all of office except outlook? I can't tell by trying to uninstall it because it asks me if i want to uninstall office and if i hit yes and i find it doesn't give me the option of uninstalling everything but office then i'll have to reinstall it which will present other problems.

No I don't think you can. Office 2013 is a Click to Run installation method, which means most of the installation comes via the internet & there is no option to install program items piecemeal. So if you wish to keep using Office 2013's Outlook you will have to keep Office.

I use Office 2013 & I am very happy with it. I mostly use Excel & Access & Outlook. I have tried some of the other Office alternative programs & I have never really been happy with them, so I stick to Microsoft Office.

Just as a matter of interest why do you find Office 2013 a PITA.

 

[HiTechCoach]

No I don't think you can. Office 2013 is a Click to Run installation method,

That is NOT correct. I have all the complete versons of Ofgice through 2016 and NONE are click to run.

 

[HiTechCoach]

It just hit me....i use outlook for email and i really don't want to change that for a number of reasons. Can i uninstall all of office except outlook? I can't tell by trying to uninstall it because it asks me if i want to uninstall office and if i hit yes and i find it doesn't give me the option of uninstalling everything but office then i'll have to reinstall it which will present other problems.

Trying going into Control Panel to "uninstall a program".

Find Micrsoft Office XXX 2013. Right click on it and select CHANGE. This will allow you to add or remove selected applications and components.

 

[Barman58]

The Professional Plus version of Office 2013 is a regular installer but other versions use Click to run. ( I always use the P+ version so was not sure )

All is not lost however as there is a method to control what is installed as explained here ...

How to customize a Microsoft Office Click-to-Run install - Spiceworks

It would be a lot easier if the same functionality was available for Change or Uninstall but one the suitable replacement is installed it should be possible to completely uninstall the Office 2013 and then reload just the options required (obviously if you are running the P+ Version this is not needed)