OFFICE 365 -- Worth it?

[Mork]

With Apple's fine Pages, Numbers, and Keynote, does it make sense to get an Office 365 ... subscription?

I also have LibreOffice so I'm baffled why anyone would pay for office software.

Perhaps I'm missing something and I am not trying to be silly by posting this question.

Would appreciate why folks would use Office 365 with these other free apps.

Thanks!

 

[Apple_Robert]

A lot of people have to use Office for work. Apple apps don’t always translate properly to Office. There are also people who just prefer using Office.

 

[chrfr]

With Apple's fine Pages, Numbers, and Keynote, does it make sense to get an Office 365 ... subscription?

I also have LibreOffice so I'm baffled why anyone would pay for office software.

Perhaps I'm missing something and I am not trying to be silly by posting this question.

Would appreciate why folks would use Office 365 with these other free apps.

Thanks!

The Office 365 (now called Microsoft 365) subscription also gets you 1TB of Onedrive storage, so if one needs productivity apps and cloud storage, it's actually not a bad option.

 

[chabig]

The Office 365 (now called Microsoft 365) subscription also gets you 1TB of Onedrive storage

And for a family account ($99/yr or $69 from employee discount programs) every user in your family gets 1TB.

 

[sracer]

With Apple's fine Pages, Numbers, and Keynote, does it make sense to get an Office 365 ... subscription?

I also have LibreOffice so I'm baffled why anyone would pay for office software.

Perhaps I'm missing something and I am not trying to be silly by posting this question.

Would appreciate why folks would use Office 365 with these other free apps.

Thanks!

It's not complicated. If a person needs true file compatibility with MS Office documents, MS Office is essentially the only option.

I'm a heavy daily user of Apple iWork, Google productivity apps, LibreOffice, and MS Office and when I need to work on documents that I receive from others and have to send on to others, I need to use MS Office.

Whenever I create documents that only I will use, I prefer Apple iWork.

 

[nothingtoseehere]

MS Office is the de facto standard in office and business surroundings. Especially when you collaborate with other offices/businesses/companies (and nearly everyone does), everyone expects that you are able to send and receive MS Office documents, all above Word, Powerpoint and Excel.
As others have written: Pages/Numbers/Keynotes are ok for single person use but not fully interchangeable with MS Offices files. (Same with LibreOffice, we tried it, and failed.) You would have so much trouble (and cost!) trying to avoid MS Office. Therefore it is easier, and cheaper!, just to subscribe to MS Office for your company.

 

[BeatCrazy]

The Microsoft 365 family subscription can offer tremendous value. Separate logins/accounts for up to 6 people with cloud saves and 1TB of OneDrive (each!). I've tried the Apple office/productivity suite. But since my job requires Microsoft, I'm always going to be more comfortable using the Microsoft products for personal use, as well.

 

[CTHarrryH]

There are also some advanced complex stuff in at least EXCEL that don't exist in the Apple stuff. So it also depends upon how complex a user requirements

 

[coops]

I use Libreoffice - does everything I need, and has a 'proper' excel spreadsheet equivalent rather than Apple numbers... so i ditched MS Office some time ago.

So if you don't feel like you're missing anything, fuggedabout it... the only reason would be as mentioned Company discounts and the cloud storage for a family.

I actually delete Pages/Numbers/Keynote from my Mac too.

 

[Applescrumpy]

The annoyance I have with Pages / Numbers / Keynote is the size of the files they create compared to Office and LibreOffice. It seems to be the inclusion of a large graphical preview file which can be deleted but reinstates itself the next time a file is edited. I guess in the grand scheme of things it doesn’t really matter due to the large capacity of internal storage on modern Mac systems.

 

[JonaM]

I use it as I get it 'free' as part of a household share account.
Would I pay for it if I didn't? I'd probably put the effort into migrating to Apple Mail app properly (still find it very unfriendly compared to Outlook) and using iWork/ Google Office instead of paying for MS Office

 

[mk313]

Just a note that Office apps are also available as a standalone purchase & not just as part of Office 365. I have pages/ numbers, etc & also have a copy of Microsoft Office. As mentioned above, cross platform compatibility is miles ahead on the MS apps. But I don't feel the need to pay a monthly fee for that benefit.

 

[jlc1978]

With Apple's fine Pages, Numbers, and Keynote, does it make sense to get an Office 365 ... subscription?

I also have LibreOffice so I'm baffled why anyone would pay for office software.

Perhaps I'm missing something and I am not trying to be silly by posting this question.

Would appreciate why folks would use Office 365 with these other free apps.

Thanks!

As others have pointed out, it depends on your use case. There is no one "right" answer.

My clients are 95% Windows/Office users, so I need compatibility, I simply can't spend time messing with files sent from iWorks/LibreOffice/etc. when they format incorrectly, are missing fonts, etc. So for me it's a no brainer.
the added pluses are:
1TB storage for up to 5 accounts; I use mine to completely backup my Mac via ARQ so if I ever have a crash I can recover the valuable data from the cloud.
My FIL uses my subscription for Office on his PC as part of the family plan.
My iPad has the full versions of Office on the iPad vs the free ones.
I get free minutes on Skype for calling each month.

For around $5 a month it is worth every penny. there is simply no comparable program that is 100% compatible at the file level.

However, iWorks/LibreOffice are quite good if file interchangeability is not required. I've had friends whose kids were going to college and asked about buying Office for their Macs and I said first check if the school offers it for free; otherwise iWorks will probably work as the are likely only doing simple documents at best.

 

[cdcastillo]

If you do ANY kind of collaboration with windows users, MS office is vastly superior to any other free alternative. It saves you lots of headaches, and it "just works" (most of the time).

 

[MacGizmo]

I also have LibreOffice so I'm baffled why anyone would pay for office software.

It sounds like you have a preferred alternative to Office that works for you, so why do you care what anyone else uses/pays for? Serious question. Are you looking for someone to give you a reason to buy MS Office?

 

[telo123]

I just use my school email to get it for free. It's great that my university's email doesn't expire for up to 5 years after graduation. After which, I will most likely use GDoc Suite. Like mentioned before, Office365 is usually the standard in businesses.

Of course, many go through the piracy route (of which I do not recommend) as Microsoft tends to ignore individual pirated copies and only goes after commercial businesses. Obviously, pirated copies do not have the added benefits of having the One Drive storage and others that actual licenses have. To some, it is entirely worth it.

 

[usagora]

I pay for it because I literally use Word, Excel, and PowerPoint every day and they are the industry standards for word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations. You also get 1TB of OneDrive cloud storage and always have access to the latest updates for each app (apps also include Outlook and Teams, but I don't use those). You can also install the apps on all devices you own. We're talking less than 20 cents a day for the cost for the Microsoft 365 Personal subscription (single user). You can likely find more than that in loose change on the sidewalk if you go for a walk each day ?

And for about 27 cents a day, you can get Microsoft 365 Family (up to 6 users and each user also gets 1TB of OneDrive cloud storage).

 

[Lord of the Pies]

Here in South Africa, 12-month Microsoft 365 Personal codes can be purchased cheaply on our various classified sites. They seem to come from laptop deals from retailers, and many people would rather get a bit of cash than use it. I've bought over 10 of them to date, some for family members. Average price is ±R250, or $18. My current sub expires in 2024. I should add a few more years in case this situation comes to an end.

I don't use OneDrive though. Utterly useless imo. I use the cloud storage included in my Google Workspace Standard sub.

 

[cr2]

If you are an occasional user and don't need one drive (1TB cloud storage) then you can consider Office Home & Student 2019 standalone for $149.

 

[spooklog]

As I writer I compose in other programs like Scrivener or Nisus Writer, but I sometime do the final output in Word, especially if I need to edit how it looks. It's by preference, I suppose -- and I've used Word for so many years.

 

[pacmania1982]

I pay for it and think it’s worth it. We have what was called the Home Premium plan so I have 6 accounts with full Office, I.e. Word, Excel, PowerPoint etc on all machines plus 1TB of OneDrive storage per account, which I take full advantage of. Also I get 60 minutes of calls via Skype.

So yeah, depends on your requirements.

 

[skaertus]

With Apple's fine Pages, Numbers, and Keynote, does it make sense to get an Office 365 ... subscription?

I also have LibreOffice so I'm baffled why anyone would pay for office software.

Perhaps I'm missing something and I am not trying to be silly by posting this question.

Would appreciate why folks would use Office 365 with these other free apps.

Thanks!

If you do not see the need, then perhaps you do not need it.

I have Microsoft 365 and I happily pay for it. And I can name at least two reasons, as others in this thread have already done.

The first one is compatibility. Apple Pages and LibreOffice Writer can both open Microsoft Word files. But compatibility is far from being perfect. That may be fine for some, but not in many situations. If you use it for work, then you will need Microsoft Office. If you create a document in Pages or Writer, for instance, and send it to a client who is going to open it in Microsoft Word, it can be... well... not good.

The second one is the number of features. Microsoft 365 has far more features than iWork or LibreOffice. Many people do not need all the features in Microsoft Office, but some do. If you need just basic office work, then Apple iWork may be a good solution. Otherwise, you may need Microsoft Office.

There are other reasons as well. People are used to Microsoft Office. Microsoft Office has streamlined applications, which boosts productivity. Microsoft Office is reliable and updated frequently. Microsoft Office is the market standard and you will be able to open the same files in some sort of application within 10 or 20 years from now. Plenty of reasons.

Again, if you do not work in a corporate environment, and if your needs are very basic, you may not tell the difference. But it is night and day for those who really need it.

 

[robertcoogan]

With Apple's fine Pages, Numbers, and Keynote, does it make sense to get an Office 365 ... subscription?

I also have LibreOffice so I'm baffled why anyone would pay for office software.

Perhaps I'm missing something and I am not trying to be silly by posting this question.

Would appreciate why folks would use Office 365 with these other free apps.

Thanks!

I would say no. I’ve been using Libre Office for almost two years now, and haven’t had any issues that weren’t easy to fix when moving files to MS Office. Plus Libre Office uses Python as a scripting language, which is a bonus. The down side is that plug-ins are often outdated. But thats really it.

 

[jlc1978]

I would say no. I’ve been using Libre Office for almost two years now, and haven’t had any issues that weren’t easy to fix when moving files to MS Office. Plus Libre Office uses Python as a scripting language, which is a bonus. The down side is that plug-ins are often outdated. But thats really it.

As others have said , it depends on how you use an office suite. Libre Office and others can meet many users needs; I've recommended it to a number of friends rather than buy a subscription to Office365.

I need Office365, however for work. "Easy to fix" is not good enough when you are editing and exchanging files with clients or coworkers. Beside the time it takes, it's a pain when things don't look the same on multiple machines. I worked with a guy who used Libre Office and it was a real pain at times to open and use files; espeically if he saved it in LO's native format and not as a Word document. Libre Office and the AppleWorks suite are fine programs, but don't meet every use case's needs.

 

[Pierre535]

I am currently trying out the SoftMaker suite and so far it seems to be a good replacement for MS Office. Only hang up right now is they don’t have an app for iPad but they are working on it. My office subscription expires soon and I don’t relish the idea of forking more money to Microsoft. Office for Mac and iPad are full of little glitches and its frustrating.