steve_b_wales Posted December 10, 2014 Report Share Posted December 10, 2014 What free program can I install on my computer that is similar and compatible with Microsoft Word etc? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnphilip Posted December 10, 2014 Report Share Posted December 10, 2014 steve is word not all ready on your pc, most have it installed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deker Posted December 10, 2014 Report Share Posted December 10, 2014 you could try open office, I've never tried it but a few friends seem to like it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve_b_wales Posted December 10, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 10, 2014 steve is word not all ready on your pc, most have it installed. Believe it or not, it is'nt on there! Not happy to say the least. you could try open office, I've never tried it but a few friends seem to like it I think Open Office was on my other computer. I'll give it a try. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aris Posted December 10, 2014 Report Share Posted December 10, 2014 If you need something very basic, Windows includes something called Wordpad. Not a fully fledged word processor, but it can do the basics. Alternatively you can try Google Docs - which is an online word processor https://docs.google.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keg Posted December 10, 2014 Report Share Posted December 10, 2014 generally, PCs will come with Windows installed but not necessarily Microsoft office. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7daysinaweek Posted December 10, 2014 Report Share Posted December 10, 2014 open office i find is suitable for my needs, is free also Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve_b_wales Posted December 10, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 10, 2014 What I need is a program that can read other documents that have not necessary been produced by that same program, if you know what I mean. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruno22rf Posted December 10, 2014 Report Share Posted December 10, 2014 (edited) Foxit Reader? Edited December 10, 2014 by bruno22rf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grrclark Posted December 10, 2014 Report Share Posted December 10, 2014 Open office should do what you need it to Steve. If there is an odd exception that doesn't open then you can download a free viewer program for those types of files. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve_b_wales Posted December 10, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 10, 2014 Open office should do what you need it to Steve. If there is an odd exception that doesn't open then you can download a free viewer program for those types of files. I have installed Open Office, and it 'reads' most of the written documents that I have saved on my external hard drive. But there are still some that it can't read. The computer gives me a choice, such as WordPad, but when I open the document with this, the writing is 'all over the place'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grrclark Posted December 10, 2014 Report Share Posted December 10, 2014 What is the file extension of those documents Steve, the three letters after the dot? i.e. .doc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve_b_wales Posted December 10, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 10, 2014 What is the file extension of those documents Steve, the three letters after the dot? i.e. .doc One or two are .shs and others are WPS files. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grrclark Posted December 10, 2014 Report Share Posted December 10, 2014 For the WPS file visit the site www.zamzar.com, that should allow you to convert it into a format compatible with Open Office. The .shs files are scrap files associated with MS Office documents, they wont open on their own I think. The answer is to normally drag and drop them onto another open document. Not sure if that will work with Open Office. Google will be your friend on this, there will be quite a few links that will give you some advice. Another solution if you are really struggling is to email those files to someone who does have word, they can save them in a different format for you and you will be good to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grrclark Posted December 10, 2014 Report Share Posted December 10, 2014 Further to my post above, this is another free Office suite that does open WPS files. http://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-fresh/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve_b_wales Posted December 10, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 10, 2014 For the WPS file visit the site www.zamzar.com, that should allow you to convert it into a format compatible with Open Office. The .shs files are scrap files associated with MS Office documents, they wont open on their own I think. The answer is to normally drag and drop them onto another open document. Not sure if that will work with Open Office. Google will be your friend on this, there will be quite a few links that will give you some advice. Another solution if you are really struggling is to email those files to someone who does have word, they can save them in a different format for you and you will be good to go. Thanks for the advice. I'm not sure if the files are actually needed, as they are belonging to my wife. I will ask her if she needs them, but will visit the site mentioned anyway. Thanks again to all who have helped. Further to my post above, this is another free Office suite that does open WPS files. http://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-fresh/ Thank You, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sha Bu Le Posted December 10, 2014 Report Share Posted December 10, 2014 Steve if it helps I may have a copy of MS Office maybe 2007.It will have Word, Excel, Outlook etc. ok if you are trying to open older files. Let me know if you think you can use it. Same rules re postage if you think you can use it. (I think it will be the air ambulance). However I must go into my attic to find it and it's brassic up there at the moment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve_b_wales Posted December 10, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 10, 2014 Steve if it helps I may have a copy of MS Office maybe 2007.It will have Word, Excel, Outlook etc. ok if you are trying to open older files. Let me know if you think you can use it. Same rules re postage if you think you can use it. (I think it will be the air ambulance). However I must go into my attic to find it and it's brassic up there at the moment. Pm sent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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