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).
Due to its proprietary nature, finding software that can properly read those files can be tricky.
LibreOffice is the usual go-to for folks wanting an office suite, that respects privacy, and FOSS. It can read docx files, but it can mess up formatting. Still, for many it’s the preferred choice. It’s got the best reputation.
Now if formatting REALLY matters, take a look at OnlyOffice. It handles those MS formats so much better. It’s not a bad suite, but it’s hard to beat the good reputation Libreoffice has gained.
Docx is not a proprietary format, it’s a standard, it’s called Office Open XML: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_Open_XML
And M$ published its specifications, so Libreoffice devs could support it. But here comes the funny part: M$ (deliberately?) doesn’t follow the specification it published. So the formatting problems of LibreOffice come from M$, because they don’t follow their specs, but M$ can just do whatever they want because of its market share.
I read this story a long time ago, and I’m paraphrasing, but on this wiki page you can read a lot of controversies related to this format: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standardization_of_Office_Open_XML
Docx is not a proprietary format, it’s a standard
It’s a “standard” only in the sense that Microsoft took the MS Office binary file formats (which are basically just writing the internal state of Word/Powerpoint/whatever to disc), serialized it to XML, half-assed some bullshit documentation for it, and bribed the standards body to rubber-stamp it. It’s still, at it’s core, basically defined by whatever nonsense Microsoft’s implementation does.
Aren’t the specifications also insanely long and complicated for good measure?
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
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?
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
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.
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.
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.
Onlyoffice, libreoffice can do the job
I second every suggestions about Libreoffice. It’s free, open source and works in Windows, MacOS and Linux.
The problems lies in the different rendering engine. If you have table of contents, floating image and anything that impact text flow; it will be rendered differently between the two apps.
I still use Libreoffice as my primary editor, but if I need to send docs to other people, I will export it to PDF. But if I really need to send docx or pptx, I will format it in WPS office before sending the docs to others.
You can activate it with these scripts https://github.com/massgravel/Microsoft-Activation-Scripts (I think it’s the easiest way for you as you are already using it and the only issue it’s the stupid message to force you to pay for it)
But would be nice if you were not forced to use Microsoft Office.
