Review: Free Alternative Apps to MS Office

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The number of free apps for editing Microsoft Office documents is amazing. Microsoft this year released Office for iPad and Android, which is really good but not really free; to edit Office documents requires an Office subscription. Plus those apps can't access files in DropBox, Google Drive or any cloud storage system except Microsoft’s. So the CRN Test Center has compiled a list of eight of our favorite apps that can create and edit Office documents and do a whole lot more than Microsoft’s own apps.

Most of theses apps are full-featured suites that can view, create, edit and print Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF and graphics files; and open and store files on Box, DropBox, Drive, OneDrive and additional WebDAV-compliant sites. Others are designed to do the bare minimum to get mobile users out of a pinch. And one clever app runs the full versions of Microsoft Office applications in the cloud and uses the mobile device to send and receive screen updates, keyboard clicks and screen gestures. So sit back, relax and hear about our eight favorite non-Microsoft apps for editing Office documents.

PUBLISHED JUNE 18, 2014