Short introduction. You can skip a bit further for my experiences with the different software I would like to talk about and why you should consider using them.

What I hope to do with this series of advice blog posts is share the information I wish I received from someone else earlier (would have definitely saved me some time which as anyone would know is quite valuable, especially when you're a very busy university student). I have personally used all of these at some point and would like to share my opinion and help someone else pick what's best for them.

(1) MS Office 365

Well, I am sure some of you are surprised by this because the Office 365 package usually comes with a hefty price tag next to it. However, what a lot of people don't know is that you can get it for free as long as you're a student and are eligible.

In the US, you can check your eligibility using this link.

In Germany, you can use this link.

They offer the same for other countries and you can look for it on Microsoft's website.

My general experience with Office 365 has been positive with a few hiccups at various stages. The registration can be a bit complicated and long, however, what you get is definitely worth it. Another issue I have with it is how much easier it is to share a document with someone else using a couple of the other software on this list. A must-mention is ,of course, the offline-aspect. However, I am not too sure how useful that is anymore considering how connected we all are.

[I am not going  to even mention Microsoft online because I personally think it's terrible :( ]

(2) Google docs, sheets and slides

Well, another somewhat well known service. It's free, extremely straightforward and simple to use and it is by far the easiest to collaborate with others on any group projects. The software lets you invite others to access and edit your document in what's basically real-time.

If you haven't check it out already, you could do so using this link.

With Google's unbelievably simple service my experience has generally been quite positive. The autosave feature is something I would like to especially mention because it has saved a couple pf projects of mine where someone might made a grave mistake of deleting everything on a misclick or a wandering cat. Nevertheless, it is also noteworthy that the features you're getting in google docs are, let's say, somewhat basic. I mean you'll have all that you would need but nothing too fancy.

(3) Polaris Office

Android users might have seen this one. What some don't know is that you can also get it on iOS. You are also able to have it sync with your Google Drive, OneDrive or Dropbox for portable access and storage.

If you would like to check it out you can use the following link.

Personally, I think it's great even at it's most basic free version. However, as you might have started wondering after reading that, yes, the free version has... Ads :( . Although they do give you a 60mb monthly allowance and you can use up to 1GB on their drive. Yet, I must also say, my other problem with it and to be honest with you the main reason I stopped using it is that you can't export your files to pdf. which is a huge bummer. However, if that's not an issue to you then I definitely recommend it.

(4) WPS Office

This is one I am sure many people have almost never heard of. It manages to fly under the radar despite its ability to do something many of the other alternatives are unable to do. This bad boy is able to convert PDF files to word documents for free (Yes, you're reading this correctly, it CONVERTS PDF files for FREE). It also has a 1GB free storage drive to go along with it but to be frank the PDF to word conversion is by far its strongest suite. 

Of course, it offers the holy trio of the usual document, PPT and Spreadsheets. It also offers a premium service but as a broke student you will of course try to avoid that and maybe eat something good this month,

If you would like to check it out, you can use this link.

Personally my experience is generally positive with WPS and I can strongly recommend it for the PDF conversion alone.

Honorable mentions: Softmaker and LibreOffice

Honestly, I wasn't going to say much about Libre but whilst writing this I remembered one of the biggest reasons anyone would opt for this instead of all the other alternatives on this list. Beyond the fact that it is completely free and and open-source project it also has three programs which on their own can easily place this on the list. Draw, Math and Base are absolute must-haves for any Maths or Science students who would like to create vector diagrams, calculations or even databases for a project or an assessment. Honestly it can take a bit of getting into (a bit less user-friendly) however it has features you wouldn't easily find elsewhere for free which is a massive plus!

I sincerely hope you've benefited from this and do hit me up if you have any specific requests you'd like me to do. I still have many other tips and advice I would like to share so you'll definitely be seeing more of me here.