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Buying MS Office Advice


Question

So I need to buy Office.

But I don't see any way to do so without getting screwed over.

This is what I have gathered so far, please correct me if I am wrong,

Office 2013 is extremely expensive clocking in at 420 USD for Home and Student edition.

With additional 140 per build / tablet. I don't think there is any way to go cheaper here.

Then there is Office 365 which, from I could gather, is a web application.

I live in America - we aren't that well connected here yet and Google docs is free.

There is Office 2010, but it is outdated by one UI generation and not for other family member.

Three computers though.

This is for two people, three computers.

I am just going to buy two copies of 2013 from the looks of it and save some more before buying the third.

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I went with 365 and I'm happy with it. I don't use every app, and I'm only currently using on 3 computers, but I'm happy with it and can write it off as a business expense.

I am warming more and more to the whole SaaS model.

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Stick with what makes you happy. I'd say don't use MS Office 2013 because it is a pay as you go service....stick to an original client: 2010, for example....if you fall into that scheme of paying for everything, especially office.....well, you're going to have a bad time. OpenOffice: Free, can do the same EXACT thing...LibreOffice...well, do I need to repeat myself? Are there any specific needs for specified clients? Edit: Office 365....what a joke! Stray away form these "software packages cost so much per year" type of deals....it'll burn you in the end. There are free solutions that LAUGH in the face of these that are paid....and they have the same, if not more, capabilities than what you seek.

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Office 365 includes access to the actual programs, and they can be installed on up to 5 computers.

Oh, offline Office 365 apps have feature parity with Office 2013?
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Office is crazy expensive. I would see if you really need it. If so. I would then see if you are in the Home Use program that allows you to license it for $10.

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Oh, offline Office 365 apps have feature parity with Office 2013?

Yup. 

 

If you don't want to spend any money at all, try Office Online - sorta like Microsoft's equivalent of Google Docs (free, online-only).

 

Best deal is if you are an employee of a company that has deployed Office - often you will get Office for ~$5 through the home use program, though that is single user only I think.

 

You could try to get the Office 365 University somehow - 3 licences, 4 years, much cheaper than Office Home & Student.

 

(Man all these Office editions get confusing...)

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Oh, offline Office 365 apps have feature parity with Office 2013?

 

 

Yes.

 

Just keep in mind, if you have unreliable internet, you need to connect to the internet once every 30 days for programs to remain activated. If you miss it you'll need to sign in to your account and they will activate again.

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In my opinion something like Google Docs or Office Online is more than enough for home use.

 

If you still need something more powerful, how about a free open source variant like LibreOffice? I personally haven't used it, but according to Lifehacker it is just as capable as Microsoft Office. It doesn't have an email client built-in, but you can use something like Thunderbird (free) or Postbox (paid).

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Why use Office at all? LibreOffice reads and writes in office format and its free: https://www.libreoffice.org/

Well for one, Impress does an exceedingly poor job of handling conversion to/from powerpoint in terms of font appearance and has other issues: WYSINWG. For example, if you open a presentation done in Impress using Powerpoint, the font size is probably going to be off and some slide elements won't be in the correct spots. Usually, this particular issue manifest itself with part of the text pushing off out of the bottom slide boundary.

 

Also, I had a co-worker use it recently for a joint presentation and when I opened it in powerpoint, all of the images he used were broken. I added additional images and when he went to modify the presentation back in Impress, they were broken for him. It was pretty great.  

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Office 2013 is extremely expensive clocking in at 420 USD for Home and Student edition.

With additional 140 per build / tablet. I don't think there is any way to go cheaper here.

Wait, isn't H&S $140? http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Office-Student-1User-Download/dp/B00B1TGUMG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1392184096&sr=8-1&keywords=Office+2013

 

& On Ebay it's about $105 - http://www.ebay.com/itm/Microsoft-Office-Home-and-Student-2013-Medialess-79G-03550-/400403396486?pt=US_Office_Business_Software&hash=item5d39e6f786

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I'm on office2013 standalone. Was it a smart move? hard to say as I did the free 2010 to 2013 upgrade path. But Libre office IS an excellent suite because the open source environment/society are always developing it and it is free. I don't see myself buying into office anymore after this. It is simply too expensive for a guy who is on a fixed income.

 

eventually, I'll be looking for a replacement for office 2013. I'll sit tight until libreoffice has a dependable version for saving and opening my 2013 format files.

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In the UK prices run at around ?89.99/year or 8.99/month for 365 ( up to 5 devices) and ?140 for standalone installation or as mentioned if you have a univercity edu account you can apply for the 4 year deal.I have the formentioned buisness use at home license which if memory serves is ?8.99 for the license and an extra ?10 if you want hard copy instead od dowload cd.

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I'm paying 5.5 cents per day for Office 365 University. It's a heavy price to bear, but so far I've managed by foregoing my daily large cup of coffee once every month and a half to pay for it.

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Hello,

I agree. It is AMAZING how expensive Office is once you need Outlook. I was shocked when I saw the retail price.

OEM (Dell, HP, etc) usually give you a cheaper price but either way. Very expensive.

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Hello,

I agree. It is AMAZING how expensive Office is once you need Outlook. I was shocked when I saw the retail price.

OEM (Dell, HP, etc) usually give you a cheaper price but either way. Very expensive.

who still uses outlook if you're not part of a business? that's why it's so expensive.

 

it's not even that good

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So I need to buy Office.

But I don't see any way to do so without getting screwed over.

This is what I have gathered so far, please correct me if I am wrong,

Office 2013 is extremely expensive clocking in at 420 USD for Home and Student edition.

With additional 140 per build / tablet. I don't think there is any way to go cheaper here.

Then there is Office 365 which, from I could gather, is a web application.

I live in America - we aren't that well connected here yet and Google docs is free.

There is Office 2010, but it is outdated by one UI generation and not for other family member.

Three computers though.

This is for two people, three computers.

I am just going to buy two copies of 2013 from the looks of it and save some more before buying the third.

 

 

could also try Libreoffice, it's free

 

also is office home and student that much in the US? it's only ?140 here

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Hello,

who still uses outlook if you're not part of a business? that's why it's so expensive.

My comment included businesses...

 

it's not even that good

Consumer-wise there are hundreds of better alternatives. When you get in the enterprise world and Exchange, etc....its basically a standard almost...
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who still uses outlook if you're not part of a business? that's why it's so expensive.

 

it's not even that good

I guess I would have to raise my hand... Outlook has been my main email program since Outlook 97... And I'm not 30 yet, so no I'm not old.

 

Outlook is a great client. I still haven't found a replacement, though I would love some suggestions if you have them. My only criteria is I have no use for anything web based (I host my own Exchange server).

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Hello,

My comment included businesses...

 

Consumer-wise there are hundreds of better alternatives. When you get in the enterprise world and Exchange, etc....its basically a standard almost...

 

yea, that's my point. businesses use it, but I'd really rather not if I could help it.

 

I guess I would have to raise my hand... Outlook has been my main email program since Outlook 97... And I'm not 30 yet, so no I'm not old.

 

Outlook is a great client. I still haven't found a replacement, though I would love some suggestions if you have them. My only criteria is I have no use for anything web based (I host my own Exchange server).

The biggest thing that I can't stand is the way it sorts messages. Sure it has threaded conversations, but if you move one to a folder, for example, it only moves received emails, all your sent messages stay in the "sent items" folder. If you move your sent emails into a folder (because hey, what if I want to categorize a message that I sent to someone and is not replied to?), it disappears from the sent items folder. There's also no way to just look at all your messages at a glance.

 

Can't suggest any alternatives, though, because I haven't found any email service, hosted or otherwise, that I actually like completely. It's either hosted by Google, in the US (Gmail), or the UI is crappy (everything else). I'd like to move to something that I have more control over some day but a good alternative just doesn't exist right now sad.png I haven't used Thunderbird but I'd be really surprised if it was better than Outlook.

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could also try Libreoffice, it's free

 

also is office home and student that much in the US? it's only ?140 here

I tried Libre Office.

Trying Libre Office is the best argument for buying Microsoft Office ever made.

What do you mean? I am pretty sure ?420 > $420

EDIT: And I marked this as solved as I bought 365 and it works fine.

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yea, that's my point. businesses use it, but I'd really rather not if I could help it.

 

The biggest thing that I can't stand is the way it sorts messages. Sure it has threaded conversations, but if you move one to a folder, for example, it only moves received emails, all your sent messages stay in the "sent items" folder. If you move your sent emails into a folder (because hey, what if I want to categorize a message that I sent to someone and is not replied to?), it disappears from the sent items folder. There's also no way to just look at all your messages at a glance.

 

Can't suggest any alternatives, though, because I haven't found any email service, hosted or otherwise, that I actually like completely. It's either hosted by Google, in the US (Gmail), or the UI is crappy (everything else). I'd like to move to something that I have more control over some day but a good alternative just doesn't exist right now sad.png I haven't used Thunderbird but I'd be really surprised if it was better than Outlook.

On the Desktop you have the option of Search Folders. They really give you this all message view with proper filtering. The problem I have with Exchange is you can't push these search folders up to the server in such a way that they are visible on ActiveSync clients... I would really love to see those folders on mobile as if they were real folders.

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