Samsung Tablet and associated software questions

Mobi Condo · Guru

Samsung Tablet and associated software questions

Cupie · Guru

I am just an experienced user and not by any means 'wise' WRT programs.

I long ago gave up wasting money by using MS Office products in favour of the free open source alternatives.

Currently I use 'Apache Open Office' that includes a word processor, Spreadsheet, Presentation, Drawing, DataBase, Formula & Templates. All of these are very similar to the MS equivalents and can open & modify the MS and other file types. Save them as .doc/.XLS/etc MS type files if you wish. Just as easy to use & with as many features as the normal home user might want. Just search for Open Office Free download, choose a reputable site and away you go.

Apache Open Office bundle doesn't include an Outlook program equivalent but of course there are lots of free ones out there too, so that's not an issue either.

Maybe the 'free' installed MS programs are free for a trial period only & then you will have to pay probably their rip off 360 day fee.

If that's the case, I'd probably use them for the free period & install Apache Open Office for when the period ends. This will enable you to evaluate the free versions. You won't be disappointed.

dabbler · Guru

A more important set of questions is, do you use anything like this now on a tablet and how much of the suite would you use ? Wordprocessing and spreadsheeting on a tablet using a virtual keyboard is very different to traditional mouse/keyboard combination. I use a email app for mobile devices, a text editor notepad like app, also specifically for mobile devices and a file reader/converter for MS files. There are free and low cost office suites that can read and write .DOCX, .XLSX files etc.

Mobi Condo · Guru

MMmmm! - some good looking info here.
The old tablet had Polaris Office suite but the Excel equivalent of that did not want to do any hyperlinking of another file (*.jpg or *.PDF etc.) to a cell. Hence my interest in the MS stuff.

oldbloke · Guru

I have an 8 inch version of the samsung. Office is a trial, crippled version. I would go for the free apps.

oldbloke · Guru

What about google docs? Or Libre office, edt, sorry not available on android yet. They are wor,ing on it

-- Edited by oldbloke on Wednesday 10th of July 2019 10:47:37 PM

-- Edited by oldbloke on Wednesday 10th of July 2019 10:54:09 PM

JeffRae · Guru

I have the Office suite on my Samsung Tablet, it came pre-installed, and never had to pay a fee.
I use Outlook, Office and Excel.

Mobi Condo · Guru

JeffRae wrote:
I have the Office suite on my Samsung Tablet, it came pre-installed, and never had to pay a fee.
I use Outlook, Office and Excel.

Hm! Thanks JeffRae, leads me to ask how long you have had your Samsung Tablet ?

oldbloke · Guru

Sooo, word will only allow me to view files. Not edit.

Polaris offis is free and not too bad.

-- Edited by oldbloke on Thursday 11th of July 2019 08:57:26 PM

JeffRae · Guru

Hm! Thanks JeffRae, leads me to ask how long you have had your Samsung Tablet ?

A few years smile Probably due to be replaced

Mr Fuse · Veteran Member

Mobi Condo wrote:
We will need to buy our beloved WikiCamps again and of course what used to be the reliable Ozzie Explorer mapping software.

Why? If you had your tablet backing up automatically, which if I remember correctly s the default, WikiCamps should be reinstalled automatically once you log into your Google account.

OziExplorer is not available through Google Play, download it from their website (https://www.oziexplorer4.com/au/), install it, start it up and get the device ID. Then shoot an email to Des at oziexp@gmail.com and explain what happened, supplying the new device ID, and ask to have your license transferred to the new device. There is no charge for that and certainly no need to buy a new license.

As for Microsoft Office, it's a "starter" version to try and get people sucked in. There is no free version and you can no longer "buy" a version. It's subscription only these days. As for alternatives, I don't personally know of one I could recommend. Although I only use LibreOffice on my desktop and laptop machines there is sadly no full version (yet) for Android.

Mobi Condo · Guru

Mr Fuse wrote:
Mobi Condo wrote:
We will need to buy our beloved WikiCamps again and of course what used to be the reliable Ozzie Explorer mapping software.

Why? If you had your tablet backing up automatically, which if I remember correctly s the default, WikiCamps should be reinstalled automatically once you log into your Google account.
OziExplorer is not available through Google Play, download it from their website (https://www.oziexplorer4.com/au/), install it, start it up and get the device ID. Then shoot an email to Des at oziexp@gmail.com and explain what happened, supplying the new device ID, and ask to have your license transferred to the new device. There is no charge for that and certainly no need to buy a new license.
As for Microsoft Office, it's a "starter" version to try and get people sucked in. There is no free version and you can no longer "buy" a version. It's subscription only these days. As for alternatives, I don't personally know of one I could recommend. Although I only use LibreOffice on my desktop and laptop machines there is sadly no full version (yet) for Android.

Thankyou for this Mr Fuse.

We have received our new Tablet and proceeding to "populate it" with stuff and it is as you have written above.

To our great delight WikiCamps simply told us to proceed and works a charm. As did the Gmail set ups although we changed the passwords etc. What a great app that is!

Re MS Office etc yes it is a big come on with, we were told in the set up, a whole month free, so that got stopped post haste and we have Polaris again and at the cost off continually disabling or what ever the adverts. Your suggestion of LibreOffice will certainly be explored.

OziExplorer is next to load and we shall proceed again with that as it is the most useful tool for our off road touring with WikiCamps next in our priority of use as we look for camp spots.

All of the wonderful answers here are really appreciated and of great assistance to us.

Cheers

Mr Fuse · Veteran Member

Mobi Condo wrote:
OziExplorer is next to load and we shall proceed again with that as it is the most useful tool for our off road touring with WikiCamps next in our priority of use as we look for camp spots.

That's good to hear. I'm a huge fan of OziExplorer, which is the very reason we even have a tablet. It's mounted on the dash all the time while we travel. It's not just for navigation either, we also use it to record our tracks so that we have a permanent record of where we've been and the routes we took.

For the benefit of others reading this, OziExplorer desktop version is a Windows program but it runs happily on a Mac or Linux machine using "Wine".

Mobi Condo · Guru

Thank you all for your most helpful and considered posts.
The Tablet is working well and we have re-populated it with our desired apps and software.
The OziExplorer folks were most helpful as usual. Much faster than our previous tablet too.
Cheers