Save money on Microsoft Office programs

Anyone who has had to exchange a document with somebody else will know that although it’s not an official standard, Microsoft Office is what everybody uses and expects. Word and Excel are expensive on their own, though, and even if you buy them as part of the Office collection they are not cheap.

There are ways around this cost, though, without resorting to illegally downloading a copy of the programs. If you do not intend to use your programs for work, Microsoft Office 2007 is available in a Home and Student edition for the relatively low price of £120 (although we found it for sale on Amazon for £60).

There are alternative programs that offer the same functions as Microsoft Office, but for nothing like the price. Ability Office, for instance, costs around £30 depending on what options you choose. It is compatible with Microsoft Office – it will load and save Word and Excel documents – but uses a slightly different design. It lacks some of the more advanced features of the Microsoft product, but for many people it is a good alternative.

The free open-source collection Open Office works in much the same way as the Microsoft product but with some slight differences and without some advanced features.

If you absolutely have to use Microsoft Office, though ­ some colleges and workplaces insist upon it ­ it may not be necessary to pay full price for the program.

Students and teachers at British universities and some colleges (including those on Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man) can pick up a full version of Office Ultimate for £40 under a Microsoft programme called The Ultimate Steal.

This is available from the Ultimate Steal website, but it only runs at certain times of the year, to coincide with the academic term dates. You will need an academic email address that ends in .ac.uk or similar.

Other software, such as the diagram-making tool Visio (£37), is available through this programme. Microsoft is not the only software maker to have such deals.

Corel, which makes the drawing tool Coreldraw and the photo editor Paint Shop Pro, has similar offers (see the Pugh website) available to school pupils and staff and those at university. Pugh also stocks Microsoft products as well as those from other manufacturers such as Adobe.