Thread: MS Office

Leave MS Office and move to Google, and it's free. I also think that support for Office will be withdrawn soon as MS are moving to a monthly subs model
Google Docs is a version of Word,
Sheets is Excel
Slides is Powerpoint
All of these have been a seamless move for me, all work, look and feel the same.
You can open MS (word, excel, PP) files in them and even save back as MS files
Gmail is better than Outlook
Drive is better than Onedrive
Best of all you can "share" and "collaborate" from all of them, natively, without the need to upload to OneDrive...

I wish I could but business requirements mean moving from XL makes things very hard. Open office is another option which I can't use.

You're not buying software. Your just purchasing a code. Probably cracked. You will download the software from Microsoft and put in the code. It will probably work. I wouldn't count on support though.
Office 2019 from Microsoft is $349. Microsoft's preferred sale is via Office 365. Annual subscription.

That's what I thought, it seemed to cheap to me.

Originally Posted by NCArcher

You're not buying software. Your just purchasing a code. Probably cracked. You will download the software from Microsoft and put in the code. It will probably work. I wouldn't count on support though.
Office 2019 from Microsoft is $349. Microsoft's preferred sale is via Office 365. Annual subscription.

Office works do the same thing as my link, supply a key for a downloaded version.

You can't buy Office 365. You pay your money, they give you a download link and a code. Even if you get a box it just has download instructions and a code in.
Pretty sure Office 2019 is the same but it is an outright purchase. No renewal.

If any of you have school aged kids and are in nsw, you can legally download a free copy of ms office 2019 from your child's department of education portal.

Regards

Adam

I still haven't worked outif my original link is a legal copy when down loaded but they do have a phone number which gives me hope.

You can open excel and save as excel. No one need ever know. I'm in the Department of Justice and only ever get excel doc's but when I open in Sheets and then share the link so everyone can see and contribute they all get excited. Saves many hours and multiple versions of the same doc that gets confusing and you can see in the history what comments or changes everyone has made.

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You can open excel and save as excel. No one need ever know. I'm in the Department of Justice and only ever get excel doc's but when I open in Sheets and then share the link so everyone can see and contribute they all get excited. Saves many hours and multiple versions of the same doc that gets confusing and you can see in the history what comments or changes everyone has made.

Originally Posted by david.elliott

You can open excel and save as excel. No one need ever know. I'm in the Department of Justice and only ever get excel doc's but when I open in Sheets and then share the link so everyone can see and contribute they all get excited...

I hope your employer knows and agrees with you using a fundamentally insecure service.

Also, you need to be aware that you have handed Google rights to the content. From their terms of service. "... you give Google a worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through the Service..."

Beware TANSTAAFL!!

Originally Posted by Chris Parks

I still haven't worked outif my original link is a legal copy when down loaded but they do have a phone number which gives me hope.

Quite honestly (being in the IT space) if MS doesn't flag it as invalid code then it is at least at this time a legit code, so i wouldn't worry .... I have had open office installed and usually keep it up to date but still prefer MS Office but if i was paying normal pricing for it i would be using open office. I have mine courtesy of work home use licensing arrangements.

Hi Chris,

As I think I mentioned in a prior thread on this topic, if the code has been sourced from a dodgy source your installation may work initially and later get blocked. There are periodic activation checks that Microsoft employs to help prevent piracy. Piracy includes reselling enterprise access codes, developer codes etc. (which is how many sellers of these "cheap" offers get the codes they are selling. It's basically fraud and copyright theft).

Really, the best option at the moment involves an approx $20 per year outlay. This assumes you can find five other people who want MS Office. The Microsoft 365 Family Plan ($129/annum or $13/month if paid monthly) provides access for six people under that subscription, and each person can have it installed on up to 5 devices. Also included is 1Tb of cloud storage per person on OneDrive and a number of other items.

The cost is really a pittance for what is being provided, and having constantly updated software is a real benefit for both security and productivity.

Originally Posted by RossM

Hi Chris,

As I think I mentioned in a prior thread on this topic, if the code has been sourced from a dodgy source your installation may work initially and later get blocked. There are periodic activation checks that Microsoft employs to help prevent piracy. Piracy includes reselling enterprise access codes, developer codes etc. (which is how many sellers of these "cheap" offers get the codes they are selling. It's basically fraud and copyright theft).

Really, the best option at the moment involves an approx $20 per year outlay. This assumes you can find five other people who want MS Office. The Microsoft 365 Family Plan ($129/annum or $13/month if paid monthly) provides access for six people under that subscription, and each person can have it installed on up to 5 devices. Also included is 1Tb of cloud storage per person on OneDrive and a number of other items.

The cost is really a pittance for what is being provided, and having constantly updated software is a real benefit for both security and productivity.

The only issue i have with this advice Ross is that you are inadvertently promoting invalid (dodgy) use under the license if those 5 other people are not part of the one family household (my bolding below), this family license is no different than the old 3 members of the same household for office 2016/2019 versions.

From MS FAQ
If you have an active Microsoft 365 Family subscription, you can share it with up to five members of your household. Each household member you share your subscription with can install Microsoft 365 on all their devices and sign in to five devices at the same time.
To add someone to your subscription, visit https://account.microsoft.com and follow the on-screen instructions to add a user. Each person you add will receive an email with the steps they need to follow. Once they have accepted and completed the steps, their information, including the installs they are using, will appear on their My Account page. You can stop sharing your subscription with someone or remove a device they are using at https://account.microsoft.com.

My existing installation has not been flagged or blocked in at least three years of use but I was told by you?? that it was definitely a rip off license number so I am being cautious this time. It seems no one can be assured that the copy they buy is not dodgy, is that correct? Office Works sell license numbers so I don't think they would be dodgy.