SeaWorld San Diego - How To Work Without Microsoft Office

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For decades, people at work have griped about one aspect or another of Microsoft MSFT -10.78% Office. Now, they can do something about it.

The much used bundle of software—including Word to write documents, spreadsheet maker Excel and PowerPoint for presentations—won't lose its dominance in the workplace anytime soon. But there are more appealing alternatives than ever.

The contenders generally fit into one of two camps: services that let you ditch Office, and those that supplement Office, especially on tablets.

Microsoft Corp. says complaints about Office are inevitable given the huge number of users, but the company says customer satisfaction levels are very high.

Here are three common headaches people have with Microsoft Office, and some alternatives that may fit the bill.

Editing Files Together

Many cubicle dwellers work together on documents or PowerPoint presentations by emailing attachments back and forth with colleagues—and wishing for a better way to collaborate. 

The Web-friendly Office 365 is more collaborative than prior editions of Office, but there are kinks. For example, in an online version of Excel, two people can't have the same spreadsheet open at once. (Microsoft says this feature is coming.) Co-workers can all type together into a single Word file, but you get locked out if you and a colleague try to edit the same paragraph.

Emily Davidson, a Web designer in Raleigh, N.C., uses Google GOOG -2.93% Docs. When she and her co-workers have a document open at the same time, each person's markups instantly appear in a different color and with the individual's name in the margin, and more than one person can work on the same paragraph. Google Docs is free for consumer versions. Corporate accounts start at $50 a person annually.

The Quip word-processing tool also stresses collaboration. When a worker checks off a completed item on a project task list, her colleagues on the project get an alert on their phones. Office doesn't have a notification function. Quip also will show you, for instance, that a colleague edited the task list 10 minutes earlier, with his added item highlighted in green. Quip is free for individuals, and businesses can sign up for $12 a person per month.

Working From Anywhere

Word, Excel and some other Office software don't fully work on iPads. (There is a stripped-down version of Office, called Office Web Apps, that Microsoft recommends people use on the Apple Inc. AAPL -1.68% tablet.) Deirdre Reid, a freelance writer, uses CloudOn software, which lets her access and edit Office files when she's away from home and back up everything on Dropbox, a service for saving documents online. Other services that work on iPads and iPhones include Apple's bundle of Pages, Numbers and Keynote software.

Complications and Expense

Tom Eid, a technology analyst with research firm Gartner Inc., IT -1.64% says many people never use some of the features packed into Office that sometimes make the software tough to navigate. He says low-cost or free alternatives may be good enough for some people.

Google Docs, Quip and free software called Kingsoft from Kingsoft Office Software Corp. are options for people who are happy with fewer features. 

The newest version of Office to install on your computer costs $140 or more; Microsoft recently started selling a Web-friendly subscription edition for about $100 a year. And the stripped-down Office Web Apps is free.