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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?
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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.
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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.
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• Yozora
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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).
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• Yozora
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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.
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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.
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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.
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not always but absolutely yes if you have to work mostly with the papers and reports
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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I feel google docs is sufficient for all the tasks.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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