Can I edit .docx files without a Microsoft 365 subscription and if not are there any alternatives (lemm.ee)

submitted 5 months ago by FlihpFlorp@lemm.ee to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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TLDR: can I edit docx files on word without a subscription and if not what are some apps that can allow me to do so

Like the title says I need the ability to edit .docx for college (sadly other file formats aren’t accepted AFAIK) and my Microsoft 365 subscription is expiring and will not be renewed thanks to you lovely people getting me on the Proton family of software and obsidian for note taking.

However i created a .docx file today and and got a popup in word saying my Microsoft subscription is expiring soon (in march I believe) and that I would lose many feature.

This scary message wasn’t very helpful as to what features id lose (probably a lot of them I don’t even use) but the internet has not been helpful in telling me if I can still view and edit all my docx files that I have been collecting and creating over the years and have migrated to my proton drive

If I won’t be able to access docx files in word what are some apps that can open them from my proton drive (this is a hard requirement for me).

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[-] kuadhual@lemm.ee 12 points 5 months ago

I second every suggestions about Libreoffice. It's free, open source and works in Windows, MacOS and Linux.

The problems lies in the different rendering engine. If you have table of contents, floating image and anything that impact text flow; it will be rendered differently between the two apps.

I still use Libreoffice as my primary editor, but if I need to send docs to other people, I will export it to PDF. But if I really need to send docx or pptx, I will format it in WPS office before sending the docs to others.

[-] FlihpFlorp@lemm.ee 1 points 5 months ago

Thanks for the suggestions. I was going to use libreoffice as the main editor but then use open office if my document had images or anything that doesn't play nice with libreoffice but the pdf suggestion sounds better

this post was submitted on 07 Jan 2024

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