1 Topic by Dirk B. (edited by Dirk B. 2019-07-07 22:34:21)

Topic: What office suite do you use? - Writing Tools

I'm  considering upgrading from Office 2007 to something more current and am wondering what others use. I'd like to go with MS Office, but the various versions cost too much (either as a subscription or one time purchase). Google Docs is out because they don't have enough styles and their file compatibility with Microsoft Office was quite bad when I last tried it some years ago. OpenOffice and LibreOffice share the same original codebase, but LibreOffice apparently has more frequent, predictable releases. WPS looks great, but it's from the land of stolen intellectual property, so it's out too.

Suggestions?

Thanks
Dirk

Quote Post 1

2 Reply by B Douglas Slack (edited by B Douglas Slack 2019-03-05 00:04:11)

Re: What office suite do you use? - Writing Tools

I use MS Home and Student 2016. It has every element I require. I upgraded from the very version of Word you are using and have been totally satisfied.

My choice for post-processing, so to speak, is ProWritingAid. In fact, I've found it so filled with features, I purchased a lifetime license for it. Word, either as RTF or DOCX will import nicely to/from PWA.

Bill

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3 Reply by Dirk B. (edited by Dirk B. 2019-03-05 00:15:31)

Re: What office suite do you use? - Writing Tools

Thanks, Bill. I would love to buy MS Office 2019 (or 2016), but from what I've read, they only work on the machine on which you install it. If your hard drive or computer die, you have to buy another copy. Do you know if that's correct?

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Re: What office suite do you use? - Writing Tools

You can't "buy" MS Office anymore, it must be leased at roughly 80 - 100 bucks per year depending upon version. We bought a new computer last year and Word was installed. Of course we thought it was a purchase like Word 2007 was, but a couple weeks ago a notice started popping up each time it was opened saying it was time to renew the subscription. It turned out to be a big hassle to do so because I didn't know we had an account with MS so set up a new one to pay the subscription and of course they couldn't figure that out and the notice kept popping up even after I had renewed the subscription. Had to call the MS Store and went through a bunch of stuff that didn't work and then was put on hold for more technical support for 45 minutes before I hung up. Called back again a week later and explained the situation to the girl who handled it this time and she finally got it straightened out and gave us an extra month for the trouble. No problems since. Hope it will be simpler next year. I gave them a piece of my mind on their survey for the first attempt. I was more gracious the second time around, lol. That's all I can tell you. Good luck. Take care. Vern

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Re: What office suite do you use? - Writing Tools

MS Office is a bloated waste for most people.  Your average person uses about 5% of its capabilities.  For those folks, it’s like using a supercomputer for doing calculator functions.  Unless you have a “real need” for the power of MS Office, paying for a word processing application subscription these days is a waste of money.  I used to be a power-user of MS Office, but today, i wouldn’t bother.  If I used a PC, I would use Google Docs.  Since I use Apple products now, I use their apps, which transfer seamlessly with MS these days, and come free with the operating system.

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Re: What office suite do you use? - Writing Tools

Vern, there is a version of Office 2019 (successor to 2016) that is a one-time purchase (about $170) as opposed to Office 365, which is the subscription. I'd gladly shell out $170 for a one-time purchase since I rarely upgrade (12 years on Office 2007 and counting), but as far as I've read, you can only reinstall it on the same machine, which doesn't work for me. I upgrade (dead) hardware more often than software.

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Re: What office suite do you use? - Writing Tools

Yes... you can still buy one-time installs of Office, but MS is not exactly forthcoming about the link. You may have to get their customer-care experts to provide it

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8 Reply by B Douglas Slack (edited by B Douglas Slack 2019-03-05 02:40:26)

Re: What office suite do you use? - Writing Tools

My copy of Office is a package and NOT a subscription. Dirk is correct. Office 360 is the subscription and it is frought with pitfalls, such as having to call home every time you fire it up. Word (my version) will set a brief background process (takes about 15 seconds) to verify your license, but then it goes away. However, if it cannot make contact, a warning will pop up telling you this. No further action will be taken and Word starts up and runs normally Frankly, I have no idea why this little process runs, but it does.

Then there are free versions of writing software that is a wonderful alternative to MS stuff. I use Open Office (current version is 4.1.5). You download and install it anywhere you wish on any number of computers. It runs on Windows and LINUX and will import from Word and export to Word cleanly.

Bill

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Re: What office suite do you use? - Writing Tools

I managed to verify with Microsoft support staff that you can reinstall your standalone copy of Office 2016/2019 on another machine if your old one dies. It just requires a call to Microsoft for them to update their activation database. I'll check out LibreOffice before I punish my credit card for Office 2019.

Bill, although Open Office is still supported, most of the open source community has moved to LibreOffice (same original codebase). Nevertheless, stick with what works. Which office suite do you use to create your finished book for Amazon, Kindle, etc.?

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Re: What office suite do you use? - Writing Tools

I'm using Word 2013.  I've had no problems with it.

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Re: What office suite do you use? - Writing Tools

Dirk B. wrote:

I managed to verify with Microsoft support staff that you can reinstall your standalone copy of Office 2016/2019 on another machine if your old one dies. It just requires a call to Microsoft for them to update their activation database. I'll check out LibreOffice before I punish my credit card for Office 2019.

Bill, although Open Office is still supported, most of the open source community has moved to LibreOffice (same original codebase). Nevertheless, stick with what works. Which office suite do you use to create your finished book for Amazon, Kindle, etc.?

Sorry. I knew Open Office was now Libre but didn't mention it. As for my self-publishing, I use the Kindle Create application which is free from Kindle Direct Publishing as a tool for formatting into a publishable format. Kindle Create is free and can format into several eBook formats, one of which is the "native" version preferred by Amazon.

Bill

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Re: What office suite do you use? - Writing Tools

Thanks!

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