Microsoft Office for Mac

[Ammonite Audio]

I've been using MS Office for Mac 2008 for some years, and it's not that wonderful, particularly when handling Word documents produced on a PC. I see that Microsoft Office 365 is for Macs as well as PCs, and I'd be very interested to know if anyone here is using Office 365 on either Mac or PC, and what they think. The pricing of Office 365 is sensible, and I'm quite tempted to upgrade.

Any thoughts?

[julesd68]

hi Hugo,

I ended up installing Office Home & Business 2011 on my Mac last week after umming and erring on what to buy for a while. I decided against Office 365 as I thought the annual subscription would eventually make it much more expensive than the £100 I paid. So far so good, it's handling all documents sent to me so far.

[Mike A]

You could try Libre Office and it's free.

[julesd68]

I found Libre Office a bit of a nightmare Mike and that's why I bought Office. It was fine for documents that I created and didn't want to send anywhere, but I always had issues opening and sending documents that were created elsewhere. I really didn't want to give any of my money to Microsoft, but at the same time didn't want any more headaches messing around with file extensions etc ...

[Kember]

I've been using MS Office for Mac 2008 for some years, and it's not that wonderful, particularly when handling Word documents produced on a PC. I see that Microsoft Office 365 is for Macs as well as PCs, and I'd be very interested to know if anyone here is using Office 365 on either Mac or PC, and what they think. The pricing of Office 365 is sensible, and I'm quite tempted to upgrade.

Any thoughts?

Hugo,

I've been using that suite for years with very few problems, but I upgraded to 2011 when I got my MacBook Air, and have had absolutely no inter-operability problems since. It might be worth a try.

BTW do you work for a company which has a special scheme with Microsoft. I have a friend who just paid £8 for it.

If anything frustrated me with the earlier version, it was Excel.

Peter

[Ammonite Audio]

BTW do you work for a company which has a special scheme with Microsoft. I have a friend who just paid £8 for it.

Unfortunately, our Home Use Scheme ended in 2011! My copy of Office 2008 for Mac was bought for £8 via that scheme.

[Mike A]

I found Libre Office a bit of a nightmare Mike and that's why I bought Office. It was fine for documents that I created and didn't want to send anywhere, but I always had issues opening and sending documents that were created elsewhere. I really didn't want to give any of my money to Microsoft, but at the same time didn't want any more headaches messing around with file extensions etc ...


Fair points Jules, I only use it for personal stuff so for me it works. Still, some people don't know that there are alternatives to Office out there.

[Kember]

Unfortunately, our Home Use Scheme ended in 2011! My copy of Office 2008 for Mac was bought for £8 via that scheme.

Hugo,

FWW - I think even at retail (and you can occasionally pick up the suite on eBay for less), it is a small price to pay for guaranteed interoperability with the real world beyond Mac.:lol:

However, if you are a light user, you could also stick with the Mac's own software which will save simple files to Office suite formats and you can save the money for something important like beer, records or hifi!

P

[Ammonite Audio]

Guaranteed interoperability is a key requirement!