Are there any "Office 365" users here?

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Jericho
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Are there any "Office 365" users here?

Post by Jericho » Mon, 15. May 17, 10:07

I'm getting old and set in my ways.

I've recently gotten used to the "new" interface for Word and Excel. I was quite happy about that, and then realized I was running the same version that I bought back in 2007.

So it only took me 10 years.



Anyway, I was thinking about Office 365 Home edition, where you can get the MS Office products for 5 users. Does anyone have an issues with this?

I would need to be running it on a couple of Windows PCs and probably a couple of Android devices, so that I can share back and forth as needed (especially if this laptop-on-plane ban comes into action, I'll need to work on a bloody tablet while flying to US).
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Post by mrbadger » Mon, 15. May 17, 10:29

My University switched us over to using it a few months back.

I'm forced to use it for email when I use webmail, which thankfully isn't often, but mostly all it diid was cause me to swear off all office suites and just start using GNU Emacs for everything, including spreadsheets. (I know I shouldn't say this, but I kinda think Libra-Office sucks, in fact there isn't a current office suite I like).

I did give 365 a bit of a try, I didn't just say 'I'm not using it because it's Microsoft', I've actually really liked lots of Microsoft tools in the past. It's unsually their business practices that irritate me, not their actual software.

I just don't really see the point of 365.

I mean, I get that they wanted online syncing services, those are obviously a good thing. I use several already.

But why replace your flagship desktop product with a web integrated version? Why not instead make it an optional plugin that people can use or just ignore?

A plugin might have tempted me.

The only reason I can think of is to make money by forcing people to replace their entire Office suite. And while that isn't a bad thing in itself, it doesn't make it a good product automatically, or a good choice for everyone.
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Post by CBJ » Mon, 15. May 17, 10:33

Having switched to OpenOffice/LibreOffice a few years ago (on all but a laptop which came with MS Office installed) my main issue with MS Office is that it costs money when there's a decent free alternative available.

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Post by red assassin » Mon, 15. May 17, 11:15

I have a corporate 365 account. Honestly, it's pretty nice. Cross platform, web access, syncing all works great. The software is, well, Office. Interface is largely the same as when they first switched to the "ribbon", just reskinned a bit.
I will say that I'm almost entirely happy with some combination of LibreOffice, Google Docs and Dropbox as a home user, with the sole exception of OneNote, which I have never found a satisfactory replacement for.
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Post by X2-Illuminatus » Mon, 15. May 17, 11:15

The main problem with the free alternatives for me is working together with other people using MS Office products. In case of Word and Power Point getting the formatting of documents and presentations the way I want it takes some time. However, once everything has been set up, it usually works fine. Unless someone with Libre Office or Open Office tries to change something, then often enough you end up with formatting problems, which can be hard to fix. On top of this working together with Excel on VBA macros isn't possible either.
Jericho wrote:I've recently gotten used to the "new" interface for Word and Excel. I was quite happy about that, and then realized I was running the same version that I bought back in 2007.

So it only took me 10 years.
I'm still using Office 2007 myself. And seeing that I've got a used version relatively cheap back in I guess it was 2009/10, the main problem I have with the Office 365 Home version is its price. Most of the additional advertised features of Office 365 Home are uninteresting for me. I don't use Skype for phone calls, many cloud storages or media sharing sites are available for free or for very little money, still working with a ten years old version also shows that always having the newest version isn't necessary (besides in many versions they only seem to update the interface anyway). So what's left is the ability to use it on multiple devices, which I don't use these days.
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Post by Redvers Ganderpoke » Mon, 15. May 17, 11:54

I'm using office365 Home and it seems fine. Chose over the free offerings as office is used in daughter's school and the occasional work thing (although don't use any of the home pcs for work).
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Post by pjknibbs » Mon, 15. May 17, 12:55

X2-Illuminatus wrote:Unless someone with Libre Office or Open Office tries to change something, then often enough you end up with formatting problems, which can be hard to fix. On top of this working together with Excel on VBA macros isn't possible either.
Yeah, I've run into interoperability problems with free office software and MSoffice too--for some reason tables in Word documents often seem to mess up when transferring between the two.

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Post by Jericho » Mon, 15. May 17, 15:08

Thanks for the input guys, I appreciate it.

I assumed it was a full download (1GB I believe) and then it's licensed/online check that you pay for each month. And syncs online.

The 1TB of cloud storage certainly won't be used by me and my small docs. I guess I can use it for non-office stuff too, That could be very useful as backup (Just getting a cold sweat imagining how long it would take to upload 1TB of backup data)

I didn't think the actual tooling was online with a web interface?

I tried using google docs a few years ago. It was great at first. Then the spreadsheets got larger and suddenly it became unusable. Admittedly that was a few years ago.
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Post by Redvers Ganderpoke » Mon, 15. May 17, 15:13

Jericho wrote:
The 1TB of cloud storage .
Don't forget that per user (up to 5)
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Post by mrbadger » Mon, 15. May 17, 15:33

Jericho wrote: The 1TB of cloud storage certainly won't be used by me and my small docs. I guess I can use it for non-office stuff too, That could be very useful as backup (Just getting a cold sweat imagining how long it would take to upload 1TB of backup data)
So long it pretty much isn't worth it unless you're backing up from a machine you can leave on 24/7 for weeks/months.

They can't use the same time-saving strategies that the bitorrent protocol does to reduce transfer times, because your data isn't distributed.

The total backup space they offer sounds lovely, but it's a meaningless number and they know it. I'd be willing to bet none of their customers have touched the limit.

It's the same tactic Google used for their gmail storage. They knew full well none (or almost none) of their customers would actully use all the storage space they were giving them, and so they could afford to be generous.

I apparently have OneDrive storage space now, the corporate plan one, quite a lot I think. Never used it.
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Post by X2-Illuminatus » Mon, 15. May 17, 15:39

Jericho wrote:I didn't think the actual tooling was online with a web interface?
It isn't. Office 365 Home gives you access to the actual programms, which you install on your PC (or other devices), just as if you would buy a "normal" Office Suite.

There's an online version though, which works similar to the mentioned google docs.
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Post by Jericho » Mon, 15. May 17, 16:42

Redvers Ganderpoke wrote:
Jericho wrote:
The 1TB of cloud storage .
Don't forget that per user (up to 5)
:o

Wow, I didn't realize that. Can't imagine using 10% of it :roll:
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Post by Redvers Ganderpoke » Mon, 15. May 17, 18:27

Jericho wrote:
Redvers Ganderpoke wrote:
Jericho wrote:
The 1TB of cloud storage .
Don't forget that per user (up to 5)
:o

Wow, I didn't realize that. Can't imagine using 10% of it :roll:
mine's currently sitting at 34GB of 1.1TB. It's mainly used for photos from ipad and phones and some music.
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Post by Cpt.Jericho » Mon, 15. May 17, 21:34

When I bought a new netbook this year, it came neatly with Win10 and a year worth of Office365. Now it runs Ubuntu with LibraOffice (the latter, because it get installed with the OS).
Make an educated quess, how I think about Office365. :roll:
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Post by Rapier » Mon, 15. May 17, 22:16

We use Office 365 at work (a University) and it's absolutely fine for that. It's better, IMO, than previous versions. I'd certainly recommend an upgrade over 2007, though probably not over 2016 (2013, hmm, maybe).

However, for my personal use I mainly use Google Docs. It's just much easier to manage files with Google Drive and I rarely hit the limits of what it can do (even using it to scrape data off websites and manipulate it in the query language).

As with many such things, the answer to the question depends on your needs!
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Jericho
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Post by Jericho » Tue, 16. May 17, 16:47

Rapier wrote:
manage files with Google Drive and I rarely hit the limits of what it can do (even using it to scrape data off websites and manipulate it in the query language).
That does sound useful (well, would have been in my last job, not so much now). I just had a bad experience with google docs so hesitant to go back.
I have so much stuff in Word and Excel, personal and work (where we're not supposed to use MS Office, but we do).

Thanks all of you.
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