In the contemporary world we live in, people are heavily reliant on great word processors to get their work done. Microsoft Word 2016, is arguably, the best word processor on the market, largely owing to its versatile format support, and excellent integration with other Office apps and high-quality templates. Unfortunately, the software application does not come for cheap. However, there are things you can do to save money on Microsoft Word 2016 for Mac. Without straying away from the topic any further, here are 4 tips to saving money on Microsoft Word 2016.

Tip 1: Talk to your employer or school authorities

It is possible for you to acquire a full version of Microsoft Office 2016 from your workplace or your educational institution. There are plenty of schools and companies that either offer a free or cheap Microsoft Office license for one particular reason—the employees and students there desperately need access to it. The businesses and schools usually purchase the licenses in bulk, and therefore, get substantial discounts on their purchases. Hence, they are able to provide their employees with a cheap or free option. It would be foolish of you to not even find out if your workplace or university provides such offers.

Tip 2: Consider alternatives

There are plenty of free Microsoft Office alternatives around. If you need Office-like apps but don’t have the money to purchase them, you can try alternatives such as Google Docs, Apache OpenOffice, or FreeOffice 2016 etc. Most of the aforementioned software applications boast of a similar interface to Office apps and their files can also be transferred over to the Office suite. However, if you are specifically looking for an alternative to Microsoft Word, you should definitely give WPS Office Free´s word processing component, Writer, a try. It looks identical to Word, has excellent file format support, and has a built-in cloud support with 1 GB free storage.

Tip 3: How about you try a free 30-day trial of Office 365?

If you need immediate access to Word, but don’t have the money to purchase access, you should head to the free trial page of Office 365 and sign up. The trial includes the Office 2016 versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook etc.  The only downside to this trial is that it doesn’t last forever and you only get a month of service. However, with this trial period, you will be able to figure out if MS Word is worth the hefty price. You have nothing to lose here.

Tip 4: Don’t purchase from Microsoft directly

We are going to be brutally honest here—you should never purchase from Microsoft directly. The worst place to purchase Microsoft subscriptions or software is the company’s website. If you purchase directly from the official site, you will have to pay the full price for the same product that, more often than not, is cheaper elsewhere.