Worth the effort to obtain a copy of MS Office on the high seas? *SOLVED

While I personally love LibreOffice, I get why your mom might not. It's super easy:
Download and install Office
run irm https://massgrave.dev/get | iex in Powershell and follow the instructions
Profit!
What doesn't she like about LibreOffice, out of curiosity? It's easy to make the layout like Office (View > User Interface > Tabbed) if that's her problem - I felt the exact same way, but the second I found out I could do that, I never went back.
- What's this do? Been linux only for like 12 years and don't keep up with office
  
  Massgrave is a tool that can create legit (oem) keys for windows and office out of thin air*
  it’s not literally creating them from nothing, it’s using a system Ms themselves run to get working keys. Evidently they don’t have a huge problem with it.
- Man everyone I work with uses PDF and I have to do some janky shit to fill it out and sign it. Not that I would want docx either...
- Done this a while ago for my brother who needed Office for work but isn't as tech minded as I am. It's honestly a fantastic tool, kudos to the creator!
- I never knew about this. How did you find out about this method?
  
  I'm terminally online
- irm https://massgrave.dev/get | iex
  Is there anything like this for MacOS 15?
  
  From the very same people!

Download office from massgrave.dev and activate with the power shell activator. Permanent activation as easy as it gets.
- massgrave.dev
  This appears to have worked flawlessly
  
  There was an article that caught Microsoft's own IT support use this script to activate a customer's computer so I guess Microsoft approves of it.
  Edit: sauce
- yea can barely call it 'effort' more like accidentally tripped, pressed enter and now office 365 is installed ;D

You could tell your mom the real price of MS office. She might suddenly stand LibreOffice just fine.
- i'm always amused by the reaction of my friends when i tell them that office costs $10 per month. They are all always "whaaaaat?? This POS is this expensive??"
  
  Screw word. I'm studying Software Development, but I have to write all these management reports for various classes. I'm just writing them in LaTeX now, so it feels like I'm coding while I'm writing a paper. Implement some new fancy features every time that I than have to debug like I do with code.

https://github.com/massgravel/Microsoft-Activation-Scripts
look here
- Hosting pirate scripts for a Microsoft product on another Microsoft owned website is... interesting.
  
  There are even reported cases where Microsoft support used that tool to activate Windows Licenses when there are problems with the License of a customer.
- Is there any tool like this for macOS?
  
  https://github.com/alsyundawy/Microsoft-Office-For-MacOS

Meanwhile I quietly switched Ms office with libreoffice on my dads PC and he didn't even notice.

You can change libreoffice to have the ribbon and act more like ms office.
- Go on
  
  View - User Interface, change to Tabbed or Tabbed Compact (or Notebookbar in old versions).
  
  Refer to Google and YouTube.

@Reverendender
OnlyOffice Desktop Editors...
Simpler interface but lacking more advanced features of MS Office or Libre. It has the features 90% of users actually use though.
Nearly perfect DOCX formatting compatibility. The only thing I have ever noticed when collaborating with Word users is the bullet symbols on list items may be different on my end.
- Agreed. I really tried to like Libre/OpenOffice over the years but it never felt right. OnlyOffice really hits the spot for me.
  I don’t use Windows much any more but I was happy with the discounted student version of Office 2016, afaik the last perpetual license.
  
  Onlyoffice sucks very bad with macros in my experience, lacks some advanced functions, and infuriatingly doesn't seem to have options search, but other than that it's fantastic, very intuitive, ergonomic and sleek option.
  My own daily driver.
- Glad to see someone mention OO. I was going to, and saw your comment. I will always be down for LibreOffice, but OnlyOffice might be the "best" option for lots of people that are easily intimidated with change (or more specifically how something looks different). Even if it is lacking on some features, it just matters how the person it is recommended to uses MS Office. Being fair using MS Office or any of the similar suites is overkill for what they do. If smaller programs like Wordpad (RIP) or opensource Rich Text Format editors could handle so many general purpose documents.

u can download OFFICE official ISO fom microsoft directly and use MASS to activate just take like 5 mins downloading, installing and activating.
- and you can be sure that it's clean
- MASS?
  
  Massgrave: https://github.com/massgravel/Microsoft-Activation-Scripts

Download the official version and activate with MAS
- Neat. I didn't know any services like this existed.
  Should I be wary of using this while logged in to my Microsoft account?
  
  As long as it’s for personal use I don’t think Microsoft gives a shit (beyond what is legally necessary)
  They care more that you’re using their software and it stays the default productivity suite for workplaces
  
  I don‘t think so. I‘m logged in with a regular account and don‘t have any trouble.
- MAS?
  
  https://lemmy.ml/comment/10865775
- Easy peasy..

At this point I think it's more beneficial for you to move to using LibreOffice. It's a better to spend your time getting used to that, instead of trying to obtain MS Office.
I'm not saying that LibreOffice is as good, but it's good enough.

It's really easy to do actually.

I've had success using a cracked Office 2013 installation. The older ones don't have as sophisticated anti piracy measures and don't unactivate themselves as often.
I eventually got my dad to use Libre office. There are several different ui layouts and one of the is really similar to ms office.

Out of curiosity: what she doesn't like?
I bought my license for like 4 or 5 usd after a life of sailing and using libreoffice, not on ebay but on one of those praised website that sells key for games and such

Why not just change to the other kind of header bar -- Notebook or what not.
I'd say no because at least LibreOffice won't change for no reason every few years.
Also, fuck Microsoft & their products & Adobe too. They can get lost and we shouldn't prop them up as defacto when other options exist.
- Krita is waving for some Photoshop users

How about a code from eBay for an older version usually around $5-$10 have never had an issue

i don't want to start a war but sorry, office is the defacto when it comes to office work and libreoffice still have many problems with formatting and editing existing .docx files (things seem better when it comes to .xlsx and .pptx) not to mention that your documents might not look similar on both due to missing proprietary fonts.
its a good software in itself its just that its compatibility with office is a little dodgy
- It's because it's not the native format. How does MS Office show/edit ODT documents? Does it work better?
  
  Idk i have never worked with a complicated odt document Although, I would expect some problems because of fonts
  Come to think of it. I tried that a couple months ago and The results weren't so great.( I told word to specifically save my docx document in ODT format)
- I'd argue that no one gives a shit what the docx looks like as long as it looks good as a PDF or presentation slide.
  And for that I use whatever is at hand, which mostly consists of Gsuite shit at work. Sometimes O365 for school (because NA is stupid) or work. At home it's ~~Libre~~ still Gsuite...

If you must have MS office, then I'd go with MAS/Massgrave like others have said.
It's well documented, requires minimal setup (if going default route), and is much less risky than going into the grey market for keys or downloading cracks elsewhere.

- Not an expert, but I think they're actually Latvian.

key resellers have office 2021 pro plus (the non subscription one) for $30.00ish (earlier versions are even cheaper) and that is what I recommend if you absolutely have to get office.
- Considering the grey market is filled with dodgy keys, it'd be better to just pirate, especially when there are easy and safe ways to do it like with MAS
  
  I've bought gray market keys for years without an issue. Also, good key sellers have money back guarantees
- imho between the two options, the more ethical is to pirate rather than supporting a shady key reseller. Anyway microsoft gets the exact same amount of money either if you purchase a stolen key from msdn or you install a pirated copy activated via mas

Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are free to use with the web interface.
- There is some functionality not available through the web apps. If you work in a corporate setting, the odds are really good that the web apps won't be adequate for you.
  One example that comes to mind is one of our clients that has us file a report once per quarter. The report is an Excel spreadsheet that can be filled but not edited. The submission demands that the file be then password edit protected and uploaded along with the password. You cannot secure files that way via the web app. We literally keep a Windows VM with the a copy of the desktop office suite, just for this client's quarterly form.
  
  Oh, I totally agree, but for this situation where it appears to be for personal use, the Office Online applications would probably do just fine.

Mass grave 🤣🤣

- Because they're russian and offering free cloud storage of your business documents

It might sound like a pretty obvious thing, but have you tried changing the tools into the "Tabbed ribbon" that office uses instead of the classic old 90s organization scheme in options ?
I have come to notice that when people who don't really work with computers very well, in particular boomers, say that they can't stand LibreOffice, they mean they don't like the layout of the tools, because they can't find anything they need. I suppose they just got used to where everything is with modern office.
Just change it and see if she will like it better. Usually solves it for the boomers i help. Nothing is holding LibreOffice back more than their default layout scheme. They really don't know their target audience's pain points AT ALL. Just goes to show why you need to study your users using the product without being explained anything.
I don't get why their default is a layout that has been outdated for 24 years. Nostalgia or what? Only really old people who used computers in the 90s a lot will intuitively find it useful.

i came across a guide on rentry that said how to permanently activate office 365 downloading from official microsoft servers
don't have the link
- Massgrave.dev

Are you able to run it through wine?

This really depends on what she’s using it for. If she’s going to use it for anything business related, she needs a legal copy. That includes her sitting down to write the next great American novel or Sookie Stackhouse series. If she’s just needs to open recipes someone else sends her, not a problem at all.

How are people installing it on Linux these days? Arch specifically.
- I've been using it in a windows VM. Unfortunately for my work, I need the formatting of Excel and Word to be legit that I can't for the life of me seem to replicate in Only or Libre. That and PDF rendering always gets a little wonky somehow.

what about onlyoffice?

You could give WPS a look
- or onlyoffice
  
  Wait this seems pretty clean. How does it compare to LibreOffice?
  
  Haven't heard of that one before. I'll give it a look even if it's just to have a potential alternative if WPS goes to crap on me.
  Edit: Sadly, doesn't fit my requirements. Thanks anyway.
- why not directly type diskpart clean in an admin command line, at least the computer wouldn't be infected with chinese malware
  
  As if the Chinese don't already have your data... You really think that just because MS Office is paid software that MS isn't also selling your data to the highest bidder?
- Go on...
  
  Free MS alternative. It's from a Chinese company and will occasionally hound you for their subscription but it's not needed to use in most everyday tasks.
  Oh and a more niche note: it has themes so a true dark mode is possible, not like this far-too-common mud grey eyesore that everyone's using. Not a perk for everyone for but those of us who see white on black better than black on white, it's a godsend

What about Zoho?