MS word homework problem

[Cantabile]

DD's homework appears on her school site, texts etc are there. She has a laptop (Windows 7) which cannot open the documents but opens a window saying we have to buy Word 365. Software for Students prices this at over 50 quid.

This happens when I have opened it on my m/c, saved it on my desktop, marked it for sharing and she goes in via the homegroup. It still won't open it.

Usually she just does her hw using my machine, but she is now doing GCSEs (Y10 with some exams at the end of this year) and I am doing an OU degree, so we are at a point where we both want or need to use my m/c at the same time.

Any ideas?

[ItsAllGoingToBeFine]

So you need Microsoft Word but can't afford it?

Open Office is mostly compatible and free (and good!)

[MarianneEnjolras]

I second open office.

[tribpot]

Word docs can be opened by a number of free applications.

Do either of you have a Google account? Google Drive can handle them.

A Microsoft or Outlook.com account? So can Sky Drive.

Both of these are browser-based options so will only really work if you are permanently connected to the internet.

Libreoffice is a more traditional application that you install on the laptop, likewise Open Office.

Does she need to complete the homework in the same Word doc, or just read the instructions? If the latter, the school should be requested to send them out in PDF form, rather than something proprietary that is no longer installed as standard on home Windows machines.

[lljkk]

Open office is okay (we have it at home). But has hugely less functionality than MS Office 2010, and only going to fall further behind in future.

I'm saying try it but don't be surprised if it's inadequate.

[Cantabile]

Thank you. It's the actual text - over 100 pages. She doesn't have to mark it up, just read it closely and makes notes according to a page of questions which she can print from my machine. She has spent a lot of the holidays at my computer reading, which has meant I have had to wait until later at night to do my course stuff.

Usually the stuff is in pdf format so there's not been a problem for a couple of years, but every bit for this particular subject is a Word doc.

She will tell the teacher tomorrow that this is why she hasn't been able to finish. I am toying with writing an explanation for him and how he can solve the problem - or asking him for 50 quid!

But I can't do that now, as I now have a number of other options

thanks all

[tribpot]

I would still write to him - this is a problem being caused by the teacher not thinking things through properly, not exactly a great example to be setting to the students!

Google Drive will convert to PDF if you want to just open the file on your machine and reformat it for her to read on her own.

[Cantabile]

Luckily it does seem to be just the one teacher.

Anyway dd has no idea whether she has a google account. I know I don't, nor a Microsoft account, and we use Thunderbird rather than Outlook. I used to be quite geeky, but that was a long time ago now - I was a programmer before PCs were invented when there was only batch processing, the i'net was a Uni-only thing, and we printed on pyjama paper, all computers were kept in dust-free rooms surrounded by anti-static mats yada yada yada (and if you think that's bad, my dad used to bring home punched cards in wooden boxes, and get very cross indeed if we touched them ).

DD is a historian and is not very interested in computers, software etc, just wants to be able to read what she needs to read and think a lot. So I shall get myself a google account and a Microsoft account and then our bases are covered as long as I don't forget I've got them. Greater love hath no woman .......

[tribpot]

Outlook.com is nothing to do with Outlook. (Well, not nothing but it's Microsoft's new version of webmail - I rather like it).