New computer, can't use Office 2013 Pro licenses, what to use instead?

Igotadose

New Win11 computer. Nice computer, but no Office. Have 2 valid Office Pro 2013 keys bought long ago as part of a set of 5, but they're not working to activate Office Pro. The alternative that MS is pushing is an annual lease Office 365, which I really dislike as I'm a fossil and don't want to rent my software. There's apparently Office 2021 which is a buy-it-once license that might work.

What are people using on newer computers? Is OpenOffice a valid alternative, we make heavy use of Excel at home, not so much Word or Powerpoint, and certainly none of the marginal products like OneNote (does MS still sell that?) or Project.

Suggestions welcome, thanks.

Glaceon

OpenOffice is effectively dead, LibreOffice is the modern day equivalent but both may have issue with complex Excel stuff. You could give it a try.

DKenn1

Genuine Office 2013 retail or OEM product keys should still work. If they are for Office 2013 Professional Plus they are probably VL, and will likely not work. You may need to associate the keys to a MS account - you can do this at setup.office.com/home

As an alternative, I tend to go with Libre Office.

Igotadose

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121106073#Comment_121106073

Good point, it was over 10 years ago I acquired them so I don't remember if they're volume licenses or not. I tend to think not, anyway, spent the better part of yesterday afternoon trying to associate with an account (which had earlier keys associated with it) and no luck. I really think MS just simply turned them off.

windowcills

I activated office 2013 standard on a few computers today

Cant activate windows xp anymore which i find kinda depressing

Igotadose

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121106192#Comment_121106192

On windows 11? What kind of license?

slimshady007

In a similar boat in that my daughter has got a new laptop for college but I'd rather avoid the 365 annual subscription. Looking at the MS Office Home and Student 2021 pack which seems to be €150 in most places. However productkeys.ie are offering it at €80 and there's no obvious reason why they're half the price. Has anyone ever bought from them before?

HorseSea

+1 for LibreOffice, I stuck with MSOffice for years and eventually switched and have had no problems, use it mainly for "Excel" type stuff including old MS Excel files and have had no issues.

Confused11811

If you have kids in secondary school and they're using MS teams and have an MS exchange email account you can use the same login details on MS office 365. It won't cost a thing.

I've done this for both of my Kids. My work uses an MS exchange account and I can do the same for that too.

It's been ages since I used the non 365 office and I was a die hard fan of it too. But saving your work to the OneDrive and being able to use it across multiple platforms including my phone is great. Not sure I'd pay too much for the service but when it's essentially free it's great :-)