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

submitted 7 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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[-] takeda@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago

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.

[-] FlihpFlorp@lemm.ee 1 points 7 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

this post was submitted on 07 Jan 2024

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