What is the cheapest legal way to acquire Excel, Word and Power Point for my wife's new laptop?

I'm not sure we need the latest edition of Office.

Would an older version Office work on a Win 10 machine?

LibreOffice is free. Give it a try.

..or Apache Open Office.
I think it is very similar to LibreOffice.
https://www.openoffice.org/

Microsoft has some pretty good deals for students, and you might also check with your employer. Some employers seem to offer pretty good deals, I can get a full copy of office for 10 bucks through mine. Yours might have some kind of deal too.

Do they have to be Microsoft versions, or are alternatives OK?

If you have a Gmail account, Google's versions of those apps are built into your account, for free. I actually prefer them to MS Office apps. They seem more straightforward to me. You never have to install (PC/laptop), save or backup anything, and your documents are accessible anywhere, from any device. If you're worried about security, enable two-step authentication on the account.

Last I checked, MS offers free, stripped down versions of at least Word and Excel if you have a free webmail account with them, such as outlook.com. Last time I used them a couple of years ago I thought they were inferior to the full versions, and Google's free stuff.

Office Home & Student 2016 for PC

$149 and done

or

Office 365 Personal

$69.99 a year or $6.99 a month (subscription-based Office)

Another vote for OpenOffice:

https://www.openoffice.org/download/

I've yet to find anything OpenOffice won't do that MS Office does. I'm not a power user so take that for what it's worth.

Not sure what version you prefer but I'd think Office 2010 is priced right by now. I use it and it's great. Not sure where you work but some larger corporations participate in Microsoft's HUP (Home User Program) offering. If yours does, then you can buy the latest Office packages for an embarrassingly cheap price...like less than 20 bucks for the package on DVD mailed to your home. If you prefer, you can download it for about half that price.

Re your second question...Office 2010 is now an older version. Yes, it works on Win 10 machines. That's how I'm running it. Become familiar with the differences in packages...Student vs Regular vs Pro, especially if you need or desire Outlook for your mail client.

quote:

Originally posted by Leemur:
I've yet to find anything OpenOffice won't do that MS Office does. I'm not a power user so take that for what it's worth.

There are occasionally hugely inconvenient formatting incompatibilities if you trade documents back and forth between OpenOffice or LibreOffice and MS Office.

Other than that, I agree that OpenOffice and LibreOffice are perfectly acceptable substitutes.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
Office Home & Student 2016 for PC

$149 and done

or

Office 365 Personal

$69.99 a year or $6.99 a month (subscription-based Office)

This was going to be my suggestion. Home and Student has worked well for us.

quote:

There are occasionally hugely inconvenient formatting incompatibilities if you trade documents back and forth between OpenOffice or LibreOffice and MS Office.

As the reluctant computer problem solver around here, it's worth $149 to not have to help my wife go over another learning curve.

Thanks for all the replies.

Office 365 $10 per month all upgrades all free. Easy. Multiple computers allowed.

I've haven't tried open office because it requires java to be installed on your computer. That's something to consider. Not putting java on my computers. No way.

As mentioned depending on your employer you may be eligible to buy a copy of the latest Office Pro under the Microsoft Home Use Program for ten bucks (twenty if you want a CD).

quote:

Originally posted by mbinky:
As mentioned depending on your employer you may be eligible to buy a copy of the latest Office Pro under the Microsoft Home Use Program for ten bucks (twenty if you want a CD).

I am now retired after being self employed.