New Microsoft Office Arrives Early Next Month, and Won't Require You To Pay For a Subscription (cnet.com) 97
Microsoft's new, flat-price version of its Office productivity software will arrive on Oct. 5 -- the same day Windows 11 begins rolling out, according to a company blog post Thursday. From a report: Microsoft previously emphasized that while its main focus remains in its subscription offering, Microsoft 365, it will release the one-time purchase Office 2021 for those who aren't ready to move to the cloud. Office 2021 arrives in two versions: one for commercial users, called Office LTSC (which stands for Long Term Servicing Channel), and one for personal use. Office LTSC is generally available today, the post said, and includes enhanced accessibility features, performance improvements across Word, Excel and PowerPoint, and visual improvements, like dark mode support across apps. It's meant for specialty situations, as opposed to for an entire organization, such as process control devices on the manufacturing floor that are not connected to the internet. Meanwhile, Office 2021 for personal use will arrive on Oct. 5, though Microsoft has not yet announced pricing information.
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Well too bad people here won't like it anyway because everything MIKKRO$OFT does is bad and wrong.
But YOUR comment is so indicative of even keel observation, right?
Re: Not in the cloud? (Score:1)
Re:Not in the cloud? (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:Not in the cloud? (Score:5, Informative)
compared to most other vendors e.g. Apple and Adobe. Office is actually quite affordable, no matter how cheap it is people would complain it should be cheaper until it is free. Office 365 costs me about $70 a year for 6 people, I can barely get the storage they provide with those licenses for that price.
Apple's office suite comes with the Operating System.
I have Pages/AO/Office 365 (which is provided for me) 365 is what I use the least.
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Re: Not in the cloud? (Score:1)
Logic and Final Cut arenâ(TM)t at all comparable with Microsoft Office. Compared with Adobe, Ableton or Avid, Logic and Final Cut are cheap.
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Your right, Logic and final cut aren't comparable, you get a lot less for a lot more money and it cost Apple a LOT less to make and maintain than an office suite.
The person who's never used Final Cut Pro just showed up.
Re: Not in the cloud? (Score:1)
So that means the cost of the Apple office suite is the cost of an Apple device of your choosing. It's not free.
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So that means the cost of the Apple office suite is the cost of an Apple device of your choosing. It's not free.
Neither is the cost of all the IT help you have to hire if you run Windows.
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Why should I pay for Outlook if I don't need it as an email/calendar program?
If I don't need Outlook (or Access) then I can buy a cheaper home user version. If I need Outlook or Access then I can splurge on the full package that comes with those programs included. The actual versions of the programs are exactly the same between the different bundle versions of Office (ignoring differences between perpetual and cloud versions).
If you are asking why is there a cloud version and a perpetual non-cloud version t
Re: Not in the cloud? (Score:2)
Progam managers and above in Microsoft need to justify their existence. Like all huge companies, after a certain point politics and survival take over. Everyone trying to carve out a little corner for themselves.
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My wife still calls LibreOffice "Excel," so I would say Micro$oft does a good job at naming things.
They also make a great keyboard.
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timeo danaos et dona ferentes
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Well too bad people here won't like it anyway because everything MIKKRO$OFT does is bad and wrong.
Not everything. But they have an uncanny talent for sub-standard engineering and crappy UI design.
Corporates need security. online subs are a hole (Score:2)
No surprise here at all.
This just in: LibreOffice still free (Score:5, Informative)
No subscription or one-time purchase required.
Re:This just in: LibreOffice still free (Score:4, Informative)
No subscription or one-time purchase required.
And it works darn well.
Re: This just in: LibreOffice still free (Score:4, Informative)
Unless you want to do something like move an image in a document. Then God have mercy on your soul, because libreoffice will have none for your document. :p
I like how MS office transfers perfectly between Mac and Windows. Not to mention that if you have to service Linux, it doesn't even exist - So I wouldn't go around trying to act like its the shitz to people that it doesn't even exist for.
My office spent a lot of time fixing up screwed up non identical Docs done in Windows to Mac, or Mac to Windows. Text didn't transfer correctly. Kerning and other details didn't work. Sometimes Images would show up as just a black box, or in the wrong place.
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And it has a real menu, with menu items written in alphabetic characters instead of hieroglyphs.
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And version 7 has a choice of menus or ribbons, so even the ribbon-loving weirdos can enjoy it. :)
The ribbon always seemed to me like something for mentally challenged people who couldn't read.
Re: This just in: LibreOffice still free (Score:1)
Or intelligent people who can't read, like when using a computer in a foreign country.
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Or intelligent people who can't read, like when using a computer in a foreign country.
Well, if you are using something like libre office, you can switch the language and menus to the language you want use, so your intelligent other language speaker can see everything in their native language.
Now I'm not 100 percent sure because I never needed to do it, but it appears that in MS office, you need to change the language for the entire system. Someone more knowledgeable than me might be able to chim in on that.
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And how do you navigate to the language setting? Via easily identifiable icons, or via foreign words, perhaps in a different alphabet?
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And how do you navigate to the language setting? Via easily identifiable icons, or via foreign words, perhaps in a different alphabet?
https://help.libreoffice.org/4... [libreoffice.org]
Is it your conjecture that anyone not speaking English is a retread or something?
This is a real non-issue. First thing is you are assuming that someone is going to come into (language A place), and need to (install Language B pack) and then continue to write in Language be, while having no idea of one single word in language A, and no intention of ever learning it.
What is more, they will be using a computer that isn't theirs to do all this.
But if I were to be goin
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Well, you're just trolling now, but the scenarios I've encountered it in are largely hotels and internet cafes when travelling abroad. If you think that the average English-speaking traveller or tourist knows the words for bold/italic/save, etc. in, say, Russian, then you are pretty delusional.
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And it has a real menu, with menu items written in alphabetic characters instead of hieroglyphs.
Good point.
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ANd it was updated today with fixes! :D
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It pains me to say this, but old MS Office UI is still better than LO, even after all these years.
$250 bucks in 2021 for Word, Powerpoint & Exce (Score:2)
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The vast majority of people don't use Access, and those that do use Access aren't really familiar with anything else, and aren't willing to learn anything else, so Microsoft knows they can ask a lot of money for it.
Really $250 Isn't a bad price, but considering you can get the family plan for $10 a month for you entire family, use it for up to 6 different people, and get online storage along with that subscription, the subscription plan almost seems like a much better deal unless you are the only person usi
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Throw in OneNote [microsoft.com] and Visio [microsoft.com] and it would be a great deal.
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The vast majority of people don't use Access, and those that do use Access aren't really familiar with anything else, and aren't willing to learn anything else, so Microsoft knows they can ask a lot of money for it.
Which is strange, because FileMaker Pro is a lot more flexible and intuitive, and you design professional looking "almost apps". I keep having people ask me what program it is I'm working with. I tell them FileMaker. The reply is usually "Not the database - that program you are using, right there."
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Re:Pay? (Score:4, Informative)
Bill Gates is OK [indiatimes.com] with piracy. [computerworld.com]
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People like you, are reason why MS products are a thing, instead of learning and promoting Libre Office, you pirate stuff. By pirating you actually support their dominance...
Yep! In many cases piracy actually hurts competitors more than it hurts the company which is the same reason they give away educational licenses for their stuff.
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That's ok. You'll pay with your data anyway.
Huh? (Score:4, Funny)
Microsoft's new, flat-price version of its Office productivity software
Obviously the writer hasn't used Office recently. It's anything but productive.
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Obviously the writer hasn't used Office recently. It's anything but productive.
[Citation Required] Sure it's a nice soundbite, but please show your measurements.
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-- Me, right now. [slashdot.org]
Here's your your citation.
Learn form it, that it being a citation is not what makes it right or wrong.
And the next time, ask for verifiable data supporting the argument, and avoid looking like a Wikipedia idiot.
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Please learn the difference between having an opinion backed with data and a request about being "right or wrong". Otherwise you just look like an actual idiot.
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What a piece of shit.
I had a sort-of CSV file I wanted to load. It had equal sign,commas, colons, and parenthesis that I wanted to use as separators. NOPE. Only one character in the "custom separator" box. WTF?
OK, so I open the file with a text editor and replace all the crap with commas. I "Import the data" and try to make a graph. NOPE. Graphs can only have 255 series. WTF?
Oh, if you try to import CSV it tries t
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It sounds like Excel is largely saving you from yourself. A graph with more than 255 series in it sounds like a pointless unreadable graph, or one with a poor basis for data.
Also your CSV example is hilarious. Complaining that your file isn't proper CSV (which imports without issue), you then decry the Power Query editor tool designed precisely to deal with data that isn't properly CSV formatted (i.e. the very tool that would solve your problem) as being "DB shit", and go to edit the text file manually.
Of c
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It used to work for my data, and my data didn't have over 255 series. It was the data import fucking it up, so that's on Excel.
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Who cares? (Score:5, Insightful)
When was the last time anyone needed any of the new features of a newer MS Office? Somewhere in the 90s?
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Besides embedding video in a PPT, I can't think of much that Office 2019 does better than 97.
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Note: ok thus example might not be oerfect, this was in the middke of a crises, with a government that seams inept( look at brexit), there was no time to design a good system, and the event
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Curious: How hard is it to get legal numbering (like section 1, 1.1, 1.1.1 etc.) in Word these days? Last time I looked, (a) it was really painful (everything needed to be set up by and), and (b) it was buggy. Whereas with LaTeX, It Just Works out of the box.
Not saying that your average user wants to use LaTeX, but with on-line wysiwyg editors that day is getting closer. If someone would provide a downloadable wysiwyg LaTeX editor, we'd be there, and with superior typesetting.
Wow, no one like subscription software. (Score:1)
SaaS, I hope fails, and not soon enough.
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So most people say. However, Office 365 is, by all accounts, incredibly successful. Many people feel it's a great deal, especially some businesses where it can be cheaper for them than the perpetual licenses. I think it clearly has a place, even if it doesn't interest me in the slightest.
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Microsoft changing direction on subscriptions? (Score:2)
Of course, you know, Office 2019 was previously available and people who weren't idiots used that instead the subscription version.
So it sounds like Microsoft is backing away from the idea of making everything subscription based for everyone.
A lot of people just want to install MS Office for that occasional MS Office document that they have to deal with once every few months. Paying for a subscription for that use is just silly. Lately I've even had complete idiots talk to me about OpenOffice/LibreOffice. S
The subscription is a good deal though... (Score:5, Interesting)
Potentially Unpopular Opinion: the Office 365 Annual Subscription is a fantastic deal if you have a lot of family members, and devices, and could use a huge amount of online storage/backup/file syncing.
For $100 a year, here's what your Office 365 license gets you:
- Full use of the installable versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, Publisher, and Access, plus OneNote 2016 (although OneNote 2016 is now free for anyone to use, it integrates with the rest of Office 365).
- These installations work on ALL your devices: Windows PCs, Macintoshes, Android devices (phone/tablets/ChromeOS), iPhones, iPads. So in my case, I have Office installed on my Windows desktop, my laptop, my *other* desktop, my MacBook, my Android phone, my Android tablet, and my Chromebook. All for one license.
- One TB (!) of online storage (or backup) on Microsoft OneDrive for your documents, music, photos, or whatever, using a Dropbox-like syncing tool that works across devices if you like, so I can access all my files and photos across all my devices all the time from anywhere, or just use it as an off-site backup. Acronis charges about this much for 1TB of online storage just by itself. Carbonite is like $80 a year. iDrive is like $70 a year. If you were going to use an online backup tool for lots of stuff, then you might as well do Office 365 - it's like paying for the online storage you were looking for, and getting all the Office applications for free.
- Full access to the online versions of MS Office. So if I'm at someone else's PC or at a business center in a hotel, or using the PWA version on my Chromebook, or need to do some office work on my Linux box, I can open up (a semi-reduced feature version of) Word or Excel in a web browser, and if I'm using OneDrive (and I am), I can access all my files from that browser too.
- And then I can have 5 family members do all this too, all on the same license, because that $100 a year is for the whole family! So my wife each gets all these apps on all her devices, and she gets 1TB of device-syncing OneDrive storage too. So does my kid. So does my Mom. So does my Father in Law. So each person is getting all this stuff, including 1TB of online storage EACH, for about $20 a year.
Now don't get me wrong, I've used and recommended LibreOffice for years too, and I fully respect its capabilities, but Microsoft's pricing model for Office reminds me of Netflix vs. Torrents for movies: yes, Torrents are free, but Netflix is so much quality content for so little money, if you can swing a few bucks a month, it's worth it. So is Office 365.
Yes, yes, Hail Corporate.
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For $100 a year, here's what your Office 365 licen (Score:2)
wernst: The subscription is a good deal though... [slashdot.org]
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Well, I dunno - how often are your Macs, Chromebooks, Android devices, and iOS devices getting forced Windows updates now? Office 365 is a multi-platform software suite.
And as for ransomware wiping out your business - if you're backing up your files offsite like you should, if you're using a tool like OneDrive (which, oh yeah, comes with Office 365) then when the ransomware locks up your local files, your OneDrive account will still have all your files, since it not only recognized mass encryption and stops
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I considered it but ended up with Jottacloud for cloud storage, LibreOffice and Joplin for notes.
The main issue is that 1TB of storage just isn't enough. I also hate Word because the way it handles section numbering is so awfully painful, as are all the "helpful" ways it converts what you type in into something you didn't want.
Well, the other thing, and it's quite minor but still bugs me, is the smooth animation of the cursor. It's so slow, can't be sped up, and the only way to disable it is to change your
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Agreed on section numbering. This has been broken in Word for decades, and I can't believe they haven't fixed it. Whereas in LaTeX, It Just Works.
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Or, gSuite. Yeah, google. It's like comparing satan and cthulhu. But guess what -- gsuite works great, does exactly what I need, it's easy to use, it's easy to share, and the price is great. bonus: It's not the company that squoze the life out of netscape in an evil predatory act.
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I've had to use gsuite for some projects, and Word for others. And while I pretty much hate Word, gsuite is so horribly under-powered that it's even more painful than Word.
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The 1TB storage really is a nice feature.
I use on of my licenses as online backup storage. I've got a cron job that copies important files off my desktop and laptop (whenever it's connected to my home WiFi) over to onedrive on this second account. My desktop / laptop can't even see this drive, so even if they get cryptolocked all of my important data is secure.
OneDrive also takes care of versioning, so even if things get encrypted, I can just roll back to the previous version and get the decrypted edition
Hear that, Adobe? (Score:2)
I'm looking riiiight at you. No, no, don't turn away pretending you didn't see me.
Neither... (Score:2)
Why not just avoid the issue and use the 100% free LibreOffice. It can be as cloudy or traditional as you want.
Things of note. (Score:2)
So some of you might have heard that Office 2019 started heading down the path of JavaScript. 2021 is showing that JavaScript is getting better treatment than VBA now. Many of the new APIs have JS hooks only. This is to allow for macros that work with the WebView2 runtime which will allow macros on Desktop to run online as well. It's very clear now that Microsoft intends VBA for legacy and JavaScript for the future.
Outside of the new runtime that's powering the Office JS engine. The Mailbox 1.8 feature
Off-Network Use? (Score:2)
I know I must be in a minority, but I have a copy of Office 2016 installed on a laptop that I set up specifically to use off-grid and away from all network connections.
At the same time, that working arrangement also means I work on laptop battery or external power block for extended periods of time which means that, for me, CPU-efficient software is also important. Much as I accept that some of the advanced features
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Do the Microsoft subscription versions of office require an always-on network service?
The subscription versions have to call home at least once a month. If they go 30 days without, they drop into read only mode.
I know I must be in a minority, but I have a copy of Office 2016 installed on a laptop that I set up specifically to use off-grid and away from all network connections.
And that use case is exactly why there is an Office 2021 coming out next month. It is marketed specifically for PCs that are off-grid.