Microsoft Office files like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Visio are commonly used in businesses and organizations. However, not everyone has Microsoft Office installed on their computers to view these files. That’s where free Office viewers come in handy.
Office viewers allow you to view and print Office documents without needing to purchase expensive Microsoft Office licenses. They are lighter software that focus specifically on document viewing, without all the editing features of full Office suites.
In this article, we will cover the best free options for viewing Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Visio files on Windows, Mac, and Linux devices.
Discontinued Microsoft Office Viewers
Microsoft previously offered dedicated viewers for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files. However, these legacy viewers were discontinued and will no longer receive updates.
Instead, Microsoft recommends the following free alternatives:
- For Windows and macOS, install the free Office mobile apps from your device’s app store to view files.
- View files directly within your web browser using Office Online (Word Online, Excel Online, PowerPoint Online) when stored in OneDrive or Dropbox.
So those are two easy official options recommended by Microsoft itself.
Office Online Web Apps
As mentioned above, you can view Office documents within web browsers using the free Office Online apps:
- Word Online: View Word docs directly in web browsers. Limited editing available.
- Excel Online: View Excel spreadsheets in browsers. Some editing possible.
- PowerPoint Online: View PowerPoint presentations in browsers.
Office Online apps require the documents to be stored on OneDrive or other cloud platforms like Dropbox that integrate with them.
You can also easily switch from viewing files in the web apps to full-featured desktop apps if you have Office installed, making Office Online a handy free viewer with good interoperability.
Third-Party Office Viewers
There are also various third-party Office viewer software options available:
1. FreeOffice
FreeOffice is a free Office suite for Windows, Mac, and Linux that lets you view and edit Office documents. It can open and save in Microsoft’s proprietary DOCX/XLSX/PPTX formats seamlessly.
The viewing and printing functionality works perfectly as a free Office viewer replacement, even if you don’t need the editing capabilities.
2. File Viewer
File Viewer is a utility for macOS that lets you view many file formats easily. It has dedicated viewing options for Word, Excel, PowerPoint files.
3. Xodo Docs
Xodo Docs is a freemium PDF reader that also lets you view Word, PowerPoint, Excel files on desktop and mobile devices. The mobile apps are more full-featured, while the Chrome extension provides free viewing.
4. Office Viewer 365
Office Viewer 365 is a free Mac app specifically for viewing Microsoft Project files, but also supports viewing of Word, Excel, PowerPoint documents.
5. WPS Office
WPS Office is a popular free Office suite for Linux that lets you seamlessly open and edit Office files. Its viewing and compatibility functions work perfectly as an Office viewer.
6. LibreOffice
LibreOffice is an open-source Office suite available for Windows, Mac and Linux. It supports opening and viewing all major Office file types. The viewing fidelity is generally very good, especially for Word and Excel files.
Specialized Visio Viewers
Visio diagrams require more specialized software to view properly.
The official Microsoft Visio Viewer is still available for free from Microsoft. It lets anyone view Visio drawings on Windows devices without needing the full Visio software installed.
There are also universal Office viewers like FreeOffice that support viewing Visio diagrams to some extent, but the fidelity is usually lower.
Conclusion
There are still many free options for viewing Microsoft Office documents like Word, Excel, PowerPoint files on devices that don’t have full Microsoft Office installed.
Specialized Visio diagram viewers are also available.
For the best universal document support, Office suites like FreeOffice and LibreOffice provide good Office viewing functionality while still offering editing features if required.
So give some of these free Office viewers a try if you need to work with Word, Excel or other Office files on your personal or work devices!
