Anyone who thinks you need MS Office to write and edit manuscripts is dead wrong. MS Office is a thin of the past for me. Why should I pay for a software I will never own, reoccurring fees going to th... View MoreAnyone who thinks you need MS Office to write and edit manuscripts is dead wrong. MS Office is a thin of the past for me. Why should I pay for a software I will never own, reoccurring fees going to the man who wants to deplete the population? for years now I have used Libreoffice. Libreoffice is a 100% free office suit that can do everything MS Office can The only thing is you will need to install extensions for some functions, and sometimes it can be a headache getting the right extension version to work on your computer. This isn't usually a problem though and when it is, it's still worth it to avoid giving Gates any money. Another thing is that Libreoffice Writer will open more file types than Word. Writer will even open a Word document, 99%, without trouble, while Microsoft tries to force you to use their programs exclusively, so Word does not normally open Writer files.