12 replies to this topic

[Vlad Yvhv]

Alright, here's the problem: I have a new computer and it wants me to have to buy MS Office and I don't have the money. Also, I have a 31k dialup connection that will only allow me to stay online for 12 hours at a time. All of my story files and RPG notes and stuff are stored in .doc files. Also, for whatever reasons, I can't figure out how to reconfigure Windows 8.1 to let installer programs download files. So, here's what I'm looking for. Anyhthing that doesn't match this criteria will be ignored or will get you yelled at.

1. Program must be completely free. No free trial crap. No non-free programs.
2. Program must be something I can download with the help of a download manager, like DownloadThemAll. Some large files don't like this sort of program and regularly come up as corrupted, forcing me to re-download them.
3. Program must not be a "file downloader", which tries to access the internet and download components itself. These keep telling me to turn off the Windows Firewall, even after I've already done that. Unless you can help me fix this problem, don't suggest one of these.
4. Program must at least be capable of opening .doc files. I don't care about save formats.

[Captain Sorzo]

While I've never used Windows 8 myself, I assume that it comes with WordPad, which can open .doc files. You might lose any fancy formatting done in Word, but otherwise you'd be fine.

 

Let us know if you don't have WordPad and can't download it. We'll work from there, though unless you reply soon I won't be able to respond until late tomorrow. I've been having computer issues myself lately and am relegated to university machines until Tuesday at the earliest. Said reliance on university machines also means that I'm hesitant to look at websites I don't know for sure I can trust, so my looking into questions about WordPad and the like is mostly limited to Microsoft's official website.

[chief]

Apache Open Office.

Used it for years

[NeonBlack]

Apache Open Office.

Used it for years

LibreOffice is OpenOffice's community-driven successor and it's also fantastic (and 100% free/open source).

It's a hefty download (around 300MB if memory serves correctly), but you can torrent it instead - that way you can download it a chunk at a time without any corruption problems. They have torrent links on their download page.

[Vlad Yvhv]

While I've never used Windows 8 myself, I assume that it comes with WordPad, which can open .doc files. You might lose any fancy formatting done in Word, but otherwise you'd be fine.

 

Let us know if you don't have WordPad and can't download it. We'll work from there, though unless you reply soon I won't be able to respond until late tomorrow. I've been having computer issues myself lately and am relegated to university machines until Tuesday at the earliest. Said reliance on university machines also means that I'm hesitant to look at websites I don't know for sure I can trust, so my looking into questions about WordPad and the like is mostly limited to Microsoft's official website.

I have WordPad, but it can't open .doc files. All it does when trying ot do one is display the liscenseing info. It will not display any of the text in the document.

 

Apache Open Office.

Used it for years

I tried that first. The installer can't connet to the internet. Please pay attetion, people.

 

 

Apache Open Office.

Used it for years

LibreOffice is OpenOffice's community-driven successor and it's also fantastic (and 100% free/open source).

It's a hefty download (around 300MB if memory serves correctly), but you can torrent it instead - that way you can download it a chunk at a time without any corruption problems. They have torrent links on their download page.

 

I have no idea how to "torrent" things. Everythign I've seen that directs to torrents, requires some sort of paid subscritpion to use their stuff. So, I've not bothered to mess around with that avenu. I'll try this one, but it may take a while to let y'all know if it works...

[NeonBlack]

I have no idea how to "torrent" things. Everythign I've seen that directs to torrents, requires some sort of paid subscritpion to use their stuff. So, I've not bothered to mess around with that avenu. I'll try this one, but it may take a while to let y'all know if it works...

You just need a torrent client installed to run torrents. I recommend qBitTorrent (linky - this is free and open source too) - install it, get the torrent from the LibreOffice site and open it with qBitTorrent. Don't forget to stop the torrent once it's finished downloading, if you're concerned about internet usage..

EDIT: After noticing the speed of your connection, you might want to consider ordering a DVD instead. Or if you're torrenting, make sure you go into qBitTorrent's settings and throttle your upload speed to zero to make sure uploading doesn't throttle your downloading.

[furrykef]

I tried that first. The installer can't connet to the internet. Please pay attetion, people.

Most people who have stuff like OpenOffice and LibreOffice installed it years ago and have no recollection of what the installer's like. You can't really blame them for not knowing.

[NeonBlack]

Another suggestion you might want to consider: Abiword.

It's rough as guts, but it's free (as in freedom), it's extremely lightweight (8MB download) and it opens Word docs.

Also keep in mind the built-in Windows program WordPad can edit .doc files... barely.

[Vlad Yvhv]

Open Office is out. Torrents are out, because that's beyond my techinical knowledge. And Libre Office is out, because it keeps telling me it's an invalid installer.

 

I tried that first. The installer can't connet to the internet. Please pay attetion, people.

Most people who have stuff like OpenOffice and LibreOffice installed it years ago and have no recollection of what the installer's like. You can't really blame them for not knowing.

 

Shutup, Foo!    I already explained that problem in the first posting, and warned people against directing me to such installers. They're not helping and you're not helping.

 

Another suggestion you might want to consider: Abiword.

It's rough as guts, but it's free (as in freedom), it's extremely lightweight (8MB download) and it opens Word docs.

Also keep in mind the built-in Windows program WordPad can edit .doc files... barely.

WordPad won't do shit. I think they lobotomized it for Windows 8.1. On XP, it was smart eough to at least throw in a ton of boxes and nonsense around the chunk of text that's the real meat and bones of the file. Now, it just shows a bunch of inverted Ts and my name. It doens't show any of the file's contents. I'll know if Abiword is a viable option in about half an hour.

 

EDIT: Abiword works! Search Over. Topic can now be discarded.

[NeonBlack]

Glad to hear it was some help.

[Vlad Yvhv]

Goes ta show ya: Trust the whatever the hell that thing is over a smarmy green duck...

[NeonBlack]

A Shambler can be trusted to do three things:

• Mutilate and disembowel your body with razor-sharp claws and gouts of ethereal lightning
• Plunge your mind and soul into the deepest depths of eldritch terror
• Whip up a pretty good spaghetti bolognaise

[Vlad Yvhv]

So, in essence it would be good prey for Vlad. Good to know. The duck, though... That character is too shady to risk assimilating...