If you don't want to pay to have Word, Excel and Powerpoint on your PC, there are numerous free alternatives to Microsoft Office programs, among which LibreOffice stands out for its popularity and compatibility with all its functions. Onlyoffice is another free solution that you can try on PC (Windows, Mac and Linux), smartphones and tablets, which is distributed in three versions, one as a free program, one as a server for work in an office and one for a fee with cloud support.
While the OnlyOffice suite for PC, which includes Word, Excel and Powerpoint, can only be used from your computer, the server version allows you to connect to various programs on the network, up to 20 different stations.
In practice, having an office with no more than 20 workstations, one could choose to work with Free OnlyOffice installed on a central server to which other computers can be connected.
The Cloud version, which is only paid, however, is similar to Office365 or Google Docs, with programs that can be used online and so that saved files are always available whatever computer you use.
The desktop edition of Onlyoffice can be downloaded and used for free for Linux, Mac OS and Windows computers (also on Windows XP), with different editions for 32-bit and 64-bit systems.
While the installation is clean, the first time you start, you have to choose whether to associate the common Office document files with OnlyOffice (not to be done if it is only a test) and the program tries to connect to the network to identify the presence of a possible server.
The program also indicates that a trial version is being used and requires you to register an account to take advantage of the Cloud features which, as mentioned, are paid.
Once the trial has expired, OnlyOffice will continue to operate without more cloud.
From the very minimal interface you can open Office documents or create new Word documents, spreadsheets and presentations.
By opening a new document, you immediately encounter a problem that could discourage those who do not know English.
The interface of OnlyOffice, in fact, at the moment has not been translated into Italian and is made entirely with icon buttons, not exactly the best for those who have no experience.
On the other hand, you can see an original and different feature from the various Word, Excel and Powerpoint that can really help: there are no menu bars or tabs, so all the functions are immediately accessible from the interface buttons and you can't go wrong.
In addition, you can change the language from the bottom bar in order to obtain the automatic word corrector in Italian.
The tabbed interface is very convenient for opening several files and switching between them without lowering windows.
All the tools that you are used to finding in programs like LibreOffice or Microsoft Office are available and all the doc, docx, xls, xlsx, ppt and pptx files created with other programs are displayed perfectly.
Onlyoffice supports saving documents in Microsoft Office formats and also in PDF, Open Office and other formats such as RTF.
In conclusion, even if as a program it seems a bit slow and even if it is not yet in Italian, it is a very valid working suite for documents, spreadsheets and presentations, which shows promise and that even if we could shelve it today, it will be necessary to try again and keep an eye on it in the future given the wide margins for improvement.
Especially professional users and small offices who do not want to pay for Microsoft Office and are not satisfied with LibreOffice, could find a very interesting alternative in OnlyOffice (also for its server function that I could not try).
