Author Topic: Microsoft Office?  (Read 2864 times)

Microsoft Office?
« on: 31 January, 2015, 11:05:22 am »
mini ao need MS Office on her PC, but which one?  I guess it's home & student, but what are the 'licence cards'?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dsoftware&field-keywords=microsoft%20office
Cycle and recycle.   SS Wilson

Re: Microsoft Office?
« Reply #1 on: 31 January, 2015, 11:08:55 am »
Licence cards are cards with just the licence key - no media so you have to download the installer from Microsoft.

As for which version, that depends on what parts of office is needed. Just word & excel or publisher too?

Re: Microsoft Office?
« Reply #2 on: 31 January, 2015, 12:54:34 pm »
Thanks - just after basic MS Office 1 user with discs.  Can't see it.  I think it may be because 365 subscription has reared it's ugly head.   There's 365, licence, product key (no discs) AFAICS...
Cycle and recycle.   SS Wilson

Re: Microsoft Office?
« Reply #3 on: 31 January, 2015, 01:19:38 pm »
Had good offerings from these in the past.

http://www.software4students.co.uk/
Get a bicycle. You will never regret it, if you live- Mark Twain

Re: Microsoft Office?
« Reply #4 on: 31 January, 2015, 08:22:37 pm »
Had good offerings from these in the past.

http://www.software4students.co.uk/

Not so good now unfortunately

Story Link

A number of years ago I got a copy of Microsoft Office Professional 2007 for about £40 - was retailing for nearer £300 at the time IIRC.

Re: Microsoft Office?
« Reply #5 on: 31 January, 2015, 08:34:49 pm »
Shame.
Get a bicycle. You will never regret it, if you live- Mark Twain

Re: Microsoft Office?
« Reply #6 on: 31 January, 2015, 10:37:02 pm »
I get it on the home use programme for $bigco that has a zillion payed for licences.  About 9 quid for an ultimate all the bits and pieces version.  Might be worth seeing if anyone in the family is eligible for that.  Otherwise academic deals seem pretty good? 

rr

Re: Microsoft Office?
« Reply #7 on: 31 January, 2015, 10:52:59 pm »
I get it on the home use programme for $bigco that has a zillion payed for licences.  About 9 quid for an ultimate all the bits and pieces version.  Might be worth seeing if anyone in the family is eligible for that.  Otherwise academic deals seem pretty good?

I got that last year, allows you to install on 2 pcs as well.

Piemaster

Re: Microsoft Office?
« Reply #8 on: 01 February, 2015, 12:40:59 am »
Son has Office 365 on a Student licence via a card and download. Licence lasts for 4 years, he'll have finished Uni by then.
4 years seems a decent enough length of time for the cost of it.

Re: Microsoft Office?
« Reply #9 on: 18 February, 2017, 02:30:04 pm »
Hijacking a thread a little ... the "family" laptop is on its way out (getting quite old, a fan has stopped working...) This is a machine that three people use, for homework etc.

I'm pretty sure there's a newer office since the one on that machine. Some of the new versions talk about licences for machines, others for users. Am I right in thinking a single user won't work for what I'm doing?

Re: Microsoft Office?
« Reply #10 on: 18 February, 2017, 02:50:30 pm »
Does it have to be MS Office? Plenty of other free options out there.

Re: Microsoft Office?
« Reply #11 on: 18 February, 2017, 02:56:19 pm »
I did rather ask myself that. But the kids need something both familiar and compatible with school. Last time I used open office (years ago) compatibility of files wasn't great.

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: Microsoft Office?
« Reply #12 on: 18 February, 2017, 03:06:23 pm »
Kids will cope fine.  It's just learning new tech, after all.  Compatibility might be an issue...

Woofage

  • Tofu-eating Wokerati
  • Ain't no hooves on my bike.
Re: Microsoft Office?
« Reply #13 on: 18 February, 2017, 04:15:04 pm »
Anecdote: Miss W (6th form), uses MSO as she gets a licence via school.
Master W (Y9) prefers Google docs.

Software is just a tool. Use whatever is available that does the job.
Pen Pusher

Re: Microsoft Office?
« Reply #14 on: 18 February, 2017, 05:01:52 pm »
Open office for the win then?
Get a bicycle. You will never regret it, if you live- Mark Twain

Re: Microsoft Office?
« Reply #15 on: 18 February, 2017, 05:11:00 pm »
Libre Office is the supported "open" office now.  No compatibility issues with MS for docs or spreadsheets as long as the choice of format for saving is selected.

Re: Microsoft Office?
« Reply #16 on: 18 February, 2017, 05:17:07 pm »
Libre Office is the supported "open" office now.  No compatibility issues with MS for docs or spreadsheets as long as the choice of format for saving is selected.

But it is sluggardly cf MSO.
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: Microsoft Office?
« Reply #17 on: 18 February, 2017, 05:18:01 pm »
Compatibility isn't just about file formats[1].  It's about how well it fits with the How To Use Microsoft Office lessons that the school IT syllabus has a tedious habit of deteriorating to (though I believe that's improved in recent years, due to Michael Gove demonstrating the stopped-clock-is-right-twice-a-day principle).  As software for getting things other than learning MS Office done, the usual alternatives should be fine.  As for sluggishness, kids should count themselves lucky.  In my day we had to do our homework in MEmacs and then copy it out by hand so we wouldn't get into trouble because only handwriting counted as 'work'.


[1] I'd suggest that the word processor can generally cope, spreadsheets should be okay unless you're doing advanced macro stuff, and the Libre Office version of powerpoint is a steaming pile of poo.

Re: Microsoft Office?
« Reply #18 on: 18 February, 2017, 07:40:10 pm »
I'm sold on not-office for myself: I use Google Docs and plain text liberally, gradually weaning myself off LaTeX, keynote for when I need to do slides. But I try not to impose my way of doing stuff on them, but let them work out what they like for themselves - and a Mac laptop is too spendy. Miss Dan the Younger is still learning how to use officey things so a UI that more or less matches school does matter, Miss Dan the Elder doesn't need any more hurdles in the way of concentrating.  ::-) I might run an experiment with Libre Office, on the basis that it doesn't have to last long to make up for not getting the £20 discount for buying with a computer.

Still interested in whether a single "user" MS office licence can be shared amongst the users of a single machine - only one at a time.

rr

Re: Microsoft Office?
« Reply #19 on: 19 February, 2017, 08:45:45 am »
I get it on the home use programme for $bigco that has a zillion payed for licences.  About 9 quid for an ultimate all the bits and pieces version.  Might be worth seeing if anyone in the family is eligible for that.  Otherwise academic deals seem pretty good?

I got that last year, allows you to install on 2 pcs as well.
My copy is installed on two PCs, each of which has the same 5 user accounts on it (standard user accounts for each member of the family and an admin account) office works for all of them.
I think office 2016 is per machine and office 365 is per user.

Re: Microsoft Office?
« Reply #20 on: 24 February, 2017, 12:59:43 pm »
Well no idea about the sluggardly issue but I can honestly say we ran two businesses on Open Office with no issues apart from our accountants who had compatibility problems until I suggested to then that their IT people needed a damn good kick. Issue promptly resolved.

PH
Bees do nothing invariably.

Re: Microsoft Office?
« Reply #21 on: 25 February, 2017, 06:05:15 pm »
Does it have to be MS Office? Plenty of other free options out there.
I've yet to find a free equivalent which guarantees to handle files in Microsoft's formats in ways that are indistinguishable from MS Office, & that matters when someone's paying you to edit them, & notices when you use the open equivalents to edit their documents. Yes, that's happened.

A great pity, because I'd love to stop using Microshit. It keeps breaking perfectly good software that I bought from it in good faith, years ago (via my then Gigaco employer's employee discount scheme), & trying to make me buy something which from my point of view, is inferior.
"A woman on a bicycle has all the world before her where to choose; she can go where she will, no man hindering." The Type-Writer Girl, 1897

fuaran

  • rothair gasta
Re: Microsoft Office?
« Reply #22 on: 25 February, 2017, 06:12:31 pm »
Microsoft Office doesn't handle files in the same way as other versions of Microsoft Office.

Re: Microsoft Office?
« Reply #23 on: 25 February, 2017, 06:28:08 pm »
No, but it doesn't change formatting so that when you next open it in Office it looks different. Well, not in my experience.
"A woman on a bicycle has all the world before her where to choose; she can go where she will, no man hindering." The Type-Writer Girl, 1897

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Microsoft Office?
« Reply #24 on: 28 February, 2017, 09:58:24 am »
I subscribe to Office 365 which, for £80 a year, gives me the full MS Office suite on all home and mobile devices for the family, plus 1TB of OneDrive space. For me, it's worth the cost (especially as I can put it down on my tax return as a business expense) but as always, YMMV.

Apparently, it's free if you have a valid UK academic email address.

Google Docs and Sheets are generally fine in my experience, but I've often run up against their limitations. Having said that, I've also run up against the limitations of the Mac version of Excel on occasion...
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."