[Yozora]

At one time Microsoft Office was the major word processing and spreadsheet software suite to buy, however, more recently free software and online alternatives such as LibreOffice, Google Docs, and Zoho Docs, which include a lot of the same features as Office, have become increasingly popular to use. With Microsoft Office slowly shifting to a yearly subscription model with the introduction of Office 365, is there any reason left to buy or subscribe to it?

Why do you use or not use Microsoft Office, and why or why not? If you use an alternative, what are you using instead, and why did you choose that particular software or service?

[GigaGreg]

I don't think that it is worth it. For example my student license for MS Office still works, which I am happy for, but it shouldn't work as I have finished my college.

[DJB]

I use Google Sheets for spreadsheets, datasets of large URLs, etc. The plug-ins and APIs from Google Analytics and Search Console are fantastic.

Excel, although an established business product feels clunky, slow and prone to freezes leading to data loss. I've fallen out of favouritism with Excel, I still use excel on a regular basis with my office 365 subscription which I may not renew when it expires.

[CHT]

I'm still using Office 2007, mainly to the fact that later versions start up slower than it. That in itself is a big no-no to me, considering the start up should only take up to 2 seconds tops.
Apart from that, office standalone versions are worth if you require their usage(like Access dbs).

[agentsky]

MS office is not worth the price anymore, the problem now a days is people are very familiar with the MS office interface and they are afraid to try different open source/free alternative to MS Office.  I'm using google docs since almost all of my files are in my google drive.

Another MS Office alternative which is almost identical is the libre office.

[c0nvct]

I find that Google Doc's fulfils all my needs - or Open Office/Libre or whatever fork is currently in the repo's or included.

I like to use different machines and devices in different locations so Google is great and as I've ALWAYS got my smartphone "All hail Android/Google (again)" so I always have a hotspot - isn't technology great?

Fortunately I won't be around for the dystopia where Google's moto of "Don't be Evil" becomes "Be Evil" and the corporations take over the World and we discover that Orwell was the real Prophet all along - I sometimes wonder - when I enter purgatory (for surely thats where all sysAdmins go) if I'll bump in to Gates, Jobs, Zuckerberg, Brin & Page and the 'others' and if they will have a hell-wide presence - proprietary tridents and the such.

Anyway. forgive the tangent, I could have just said "No" - but wheres the fun in that?

Minus 25 GigaPoints for c0nvct's lack of quality posts - see ya all South of Heaven Evil moderators!

@agentsky I am more afraid of Microsoft changing the Interface 

[Genesis]

I'm still using MS Office as I find Word and Excel quite creative, however if if Microsoft Office should disappear tomorrow I'd probably be OK with Google docs or Libre Office. One thing I know for sure is that MS Office is always a heavy user of computer system resources. I'll probably carry on with it regardless as I'm a bit set in my ways.

[Yozora]

Yeah, I use an old copy of Office 2003 with a compatibility pack that lets it view the latest Office file formats. I really dislike the "Ribbon" interface the more recent versions of Office have, and Office 2003 still works great on Windows 10, amazingly, so I don't have much reason to upgrade.

I also use Google Docs & Sheets a lot, but I typically find myself using ColorNote or SimpleNote on my Android devices and then importing notes into Google Docs as necessary, due to the bare bones minimalism of the note-taking apps helping me focus.

[Genesis]

Yeah, I use an old copy of Office 2003 with a compatibility pack that lets it view the latest Office file formats. I really dislike the "Ribbon" interface the more recent versions of Office have, and Office 2003 still works great on Windows 10, amazingly, so I don't have much reason to upgrade.

I'm really sorry I ditched my old copies of MS Office. I purchased those and would have been great to have them. I find that whoever is "upgrading" Word from the latest versions have ended up downgrading them. Like the merge function of the older versions of MS Office was much more efficient and user friendly. So how I get away with it in the ribbon version is to just use old merge files and edit them. Merging is fantastic for creating publications - I use Excel with Word's merging tool, and that's fast.

[Peter]

I haven't become dependent on the advanced features of these programs so switching has been easy. I don't see any reason why I should prefer Microsoft Office, a proprietary piece of software that cost money, when there are free open source alternatives. Libre Office is perfect for me.

 

Fortunately I won't be around for the dystopia where Google's moto of "Don't be Evil" becomes "Be Evil"

I thought that had already happened. Personally I rank Google on the same level as Microsoft.

[ryutokeni]

not always but absolutely yes if you have to work mostly with the papers and reports

[rrroberts]

No.

Have used Office 97 (not too badly bloated), Office 2007, Office 2010 (had taught for a few years, was able to get 2007 and 2010 very low cost or free).
Libre Office (stared w/ Open Office 2.0 back in 06) does the job just as well.  Gun shy about using Google Docs or any cloud based application - prefer to keep my data on my own devices.

My favorite word processor was Word Perfect (who remembers it?).  Found it slightly harder to use, but could get it to do the things I needed better than MS Word.

[Genesis]

My favorite word processor was Word Perfect (who remembers it?).  Found it slightly harder to use, but could get it to do the things I needed better than MS Word.

Wow! That was ages ago. For me MS Word needed a step by step training course when it first came out, but once mastered, were a few miles ahead of Word Perfect. It was (and still is) one of the greatest tools for doing almost anything under the sun - the guys at Microsoft who are programming it however started to lose their focus and concentration after Office 2010. For example the mail merge tool that I love to use interactively with MS Excel got blurred from 2013. I'm using mostly my old templates to do merges etc. Actually a pity one can't revert to older versions of Microsoft Office like one can do with the last few versions of php.

[furukawa]

There is a huge amount of report preparation tools and presentations made by microsoft macro in the workplace.
I have to use macros and scripts as part of my work. Office is required to run MS-macrog.
If you create a document or table by yourself, google and libera may be fine.

However, in order to make use of the past information that has created a large amount of documents and analyzed them,
it is necessary to escape from the original macro.
In order to release from the same trouble, I am trying to reduce macro believers. 

[rockforlife]

I have an Office 365 account through my employer. Before that, I used OpenOffice and Libre Office.... I seldom use google docs, but I have suggested it to some people.

[mgra]

I am using the newest Microsoft Office 365. It's great! And many people around me are using the office suite, too. If choosing another office software, they won't be compatible with Microsoft Office.

[Genesis]

I am using the newest Microsoft Office 365. It's great! And many people around me are using the office suite, too. If choosing another office software, they won't be compatible with Microsoft Office.

If I may ask, how did you get hold of the newest Microsoft Office 365? And how do people around you get hold of the office suite as a rule?

[2tathagata]

office 2003 still runs on windows 10 and i hope it will run on newer versions of windows if they release one. In office 2003 I can do all of my work and have never faced a problem whatsoever. However when I need do have some docs on my phone, I have to use google docs, and it not really very much different from office. As we are talking about really simple tasks i.e creating documents, I don't really thing one will face a huge problem trying to shift from one program to another. So yes, i would recommend using google docs instead of buying office 2010 or 2013.

[shubhangtiwari]

I feel google docs is sufficient for all the tasks.

[nicovank]

Microsoft Office is just better made all around to me.
Google docs always felt slow, and I don't like the direct connection to Google Drive.

I just like having a desktop app for rich text editing.

[Yozora]

I feel google docs is sufficient for all the tasks.

Why do feel that way? Low Quality Posts like the one above won't count towards earning hosting or a VPS, just so you know.

[Vitoka]

Even when I have access to Microsoft Office (at work or university) I find myself using Google Docs. I like to use it because I can use it everywhere, I can share the doc easy when I'm doing any project.

Whenever I need any Office I just get a Open Office and it works fine as well, so for me I don't think it's worth it to get Microsoft Office.

[burger]

I think no. But for PC, best office app is it.

You can use Office with OneDrive account.


For mobile, you can use Google Docs. I prefer Google Docs. This is free and Google Docs has sync-now feature.

[yusha]

If you are working offline, I recommend you using MS Office. Also as there are lot of tools and templates for MS Office though it's completely based on your choice. I use MS Office because I like working with the software running on my own system rather than any third party server.

[grocket001]

for basic spreadsheets and word docs, google docs can get the job done. however, if you're doing any complicated formulas or formatting It will fall flat on its face compared to Microsofts offering

[p1ayfu1]

Office Online supports live typing and co-authoring. But if you are working on the desktop suite, it is not as seamless as Google Docs. The good news is that Microsoft will be bringing real-time co-authoring to Microsoft Office 2016 later this year.

[Intro]

I think it's good to have Microsoft Office on the side (unless you can't afford it then you should keep Google Docs/something else).

I often find myself having to use certain Office programs like Publisher because Google Drive doesn't have a program to do the same. Also, from what I've seen, Google Drive doesn't seem to be ready to expand (we've been stuck with Docs/Slides/etc for a while...). Microsoft Office has a huge variety of programs that only seem to expand.

[Genesis]

I agree. I like my Microsoft Office programs and so far - through my employment - have always been able to purchase it for almost free. However since I'm unemployed, with my next generation of hardware and unemployed I see myself going for free alternatives only. I also like Publisher for the odd project and when I checked looks as though there is a free open source program available called Scribus. Think that's the beauty of the Net. There's always a work around.

[Freya009]

Definitely yes, if you looking for online docs why not go for Office 365 rather than going with old MS Office. One can get better and productive apps as compared to Google Docs. Businesses with under 300 employees can go with business plans like O365 Business Premium, essentials, etc.

[Dee13211]

Sadly, I haven't found another Word program as powerful as Microsoft. I have tried several of the free programs but they just don't measure up, not for my needs anyway. At one point, I was stuck without the ability to have Microsoft Office and I had to use an alternative for many months so I can say that I really did give others a real go. The moment I had the ability to have Microsoft Office again, I jumped on it!

I love their spreadsheets too, so much easier to use than the others that I tried. And they have some pretty powerful add-ons and extensions (like doing projections) if the original isn't enough for you. I found these too were easy to use. Especially compared to the other brands.

I was more than irritated by the idea that they were going to go completely in the cloud. I don't want to have to have an internet connection just to be able to use the program nor do I want to pay a ridiculous annual fee. And, if I am going to pay for it, I want to own it. Fortunately, they came out with an offline option. Pay one reasonable price and own it forever. So I now have a newer Microsoft Office on my hard drive. 

While Microsoft is not my favorite company, I don't think that they have any real competition in this arena.