Open Office (openoffice.org) 49MB won't do macros, you will also need to
pick up Java at sun.com 9MB

If you are starting college in the Fall you would qualify for a student discount
through the univ. bookstore.

If you are working then a laptop generally can be used in addition to a desktop,
you would have to check at work to find out what is in their contract license.

People do sell and purchase Excel on EBay, would suggest Excel 2000 make sure
it is a packaged by Microsoft and not a OEM version.

Generally you want to buy your computer with what you want or know ahead
of time what it is going to cost you with everything that you need. Buying
MS Office installed with your computer (OEM) is a lot cheaper than buying it separately
(though you are stuck with OEM help, rather than Microsoft).

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HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

"Gordon" wrote in message ...
"vicki" wrote in message
...

ive recently bought a laptop with windows xp but i do not hav excel, i
cannot afford to buy a microsoft office installation pack. any ideas on
what else i can do??


--
vicki

Open Office 2 (1.9 Beta) will do everything the normal user of Excel needs,
is free, and will edit and save in Excel format.