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

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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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[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Oh this is helpful

Yeah another person said it gets funky with formatting but that’s not a huge deal for me as the most complex formats for the class syllabus I like to just have a copy but probably nothing I can’t do by saving it as a pdf

And like I said in those comments my own documents aren’t complex mostly just using tab and enter to make my documents more readable for myself

[–] TCB13 6 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (3 children)

You don't use complex formats you say... just don't forget that LibreOffice thinks bullets points are "complex formats":

What OS are you using?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (2 children)

How does that work if you save the docx in OOXML Strict instead of OOXML Transient? I'm not sure about the current 365 rollout but OOXML was developed by MS due to the EU nearly 20 years ago to support interoperability but their default saving format was always OOXML Transient which is OOXML + MS Proprietary format. OOXML Strict should be an option and save the docx in OOXML only format.

[–] grue 3 points 5 months ago

Frankly, the anti-trust regulators should've required MS office to save to OpenDocument by default instead of any version of OOXML, strict or otherwise, nearly 20 years ago.

[–] TCB13 1 points 5 months ago

It works even worse.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Ah I see good to know. For me formatting issues aren't a super big deal and sounds like it's outweighed with its reputation here. I guess if it does become an issue I can simply hop over to open office but I'll cross that bridge when I get there

[–] TCB13 6 points 5 months ago

LibreOffice and OnlyOffice will certainly be better than OpenOffice.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Also didn't see your bottom question at first but I'm on windows and edit documents both on my home laptop and one I bring to my classes which is why being able to play nice with proton drive is a must for me.

[–] TCB13 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

So why not simply use MS Office? Way less hassle to deal with. Licenses are available for cheap on eBay or pirated form reputable sources.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I was planning on using MS Office originally when writing the posts but 1) I didn't know if it was going to work after my subscription expired, and 2) I wanted to see what else is out there

[–] TCB13 0 points 5 months ago

Seriously, download MAS and choose Ohook. Enjoy your permanently serialized and activated MS Office. :)

[–] takeda 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

So in the description you said edit, but here you say read (syllabus). If just reading is the requirement, there was a word reader, not sure if it is still available. I also believe once subscription expires, you still will be able to view, just edit.

Also what's wrong with your school requiring word document and not providing a free license for the software? My college at least provided free license during my class.

As other alternatives I don't have better than libre office (at the time I was using, libre office didn't exist and I used OpenOffice, I still was using it, primarily, because of using Linux on my laptop) and submitted my work as PDF and didn't have problems, but my class were requirements in computer science so I'm sure I wasn't the only one doing it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

Yeah that’s my bad I just couldn’t think of an example where there was formatting in the document

Yeah I’m definitely going to try libreoffice