Microsoft Quietly Launches Ad-Supported Version of Office Apps for Windows (windowscentral.com) 75
Microsoft has quietly launched a new version of Microsoft Office for Windows that can be used to edit documents for free, no Microsoft 365 subscription or Office license key required. From a report: This free version of Office is based on the full desktop apps, but has most features locked behind the Microsoft 365 subscription. The free version of Office for Windows includes ads that are permanently on screen when within a document in Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. Additionally, this new free version of Office also only allows you to save files to OneDrive, meaning no support for editing local files. To access the free version of Office, just skip the prompt to sign-in when you first run an Office app. From there, you will be given the choice to continue to use Office for free in exchange for ads and limited features. In this mode, you can open, view, and even edit documents, just like you can with the web version of Office.
So (Score:2, Insightful)
It's google docs but shittier and with banner ads
Re:So (Score:4, Informative)
No it isn't. The web version of Microsoft Office isn't what's being announced here, that's existed for years, and has always been free.
This is the regular desktop version of Microsoft Office. The one you install on your computer.
Re:So (Score:5, Funny)
No it isn't. The web version of Microsoft Office isn't what's being announced here, that's existed for years, and has always been free.
This is the regular desktop version of Microsoft Office. The one you install on your computer.
You mean the same shitty version of Microsoft Office that you install on your computer? Can you imagine a meeting where you're showing a powerpoint, and you continually get ads?
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Well I wasn't commenting on the usefulness of it, but that said, if you're going to a work meeting, you'll probably be using the version of Office your employer pays for.
I think the intended market for this are home users who have no intention of forking out $100 a year just to type the occasional letter and might otherwise be tempted by LibreOffice.
Re: So (Score:3)
If all they are doing is letters then there is no reason for them to put up with ads, either. Practically any word processor since we got scalable fonts has every desire they need. New Deal Publisher, anyone? ;)
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We've had around 20 years of having credible good alternatives to Office, Windows, and even Facebook/Twitter/X. Mention them and even supposedly smart people get offended, laugh at you, and call you a hippy.
So no, they'll pick Office-with-ads over LibreOffice even if all they do is the occasional ad.
Re:So (Score:4)
>"if you're going to a work meeting, you'll probably be using the version of [MS-]Office your employer pays for."
At my work, all 160+ users use LibreOffice (and Linux) you insensitive clod ;)
>"I think the intended market for this are home users who have no intention of forking out $100 a year just to type the occasional letter and might otherwise be tempted by LibreOffice."
At home, I also use LibreOffice (and Linux). But yeah, this is probably Microsoft feeling some pressure from other local platforms growing in popularity, like LibreOffice, and cloud ones, like Google Docs (and many others).
I would estimate that at least 90% of home users would do just fine with LibreOffice. Harder to estimate for work users- but probably at least 50%?
Re:So (Score:5, Informative)
>"if you're going to a work meeting, you'll probably be using the version of [MS-]Office your employer pays for."
At my work, all 160+ users use LibreOffice (and Linux) you insensitive clod ;)
>"I think the intended market for this are home users who have no intention of forking out $100 a year just to type the occasional letter and might otherwise be tempted by LibreOffice."
At home, I also use LibreOffice (and Linux). But yeah, this is probably Microsoft feeling some pressure from other local platforms growing in popularity, like LibreOffice, and cloud ones, like Google Docs (and many others).
I would estimate that at least 90% of home users would do just fine with LibreOffice. Harder to estimate for work users- but probably at least 50%?
Hey! stop it, Everyone here knows that it is not possible to use any other product than the gold standard (start drumroll and trupet fanfare) OFFICE 365! now genuflect, and make a good act of contrition.
All sarcasm aside, Yes,The OS Office software does work. I was tasked with putting an office system on Windows, MacOS, and Linux computers for a group. The rules were that everything must be identical, no matter the OS. The system had to open pretty much anything out there, and save it the same way, if need be.
So the important thing is that Microsoft office and Office365 failed instantly. The gold standard that people say is the only possible solution because of some arcane feature that only a few people use couldn't meet any of the requirements at all. The Open system is still in use, without issues.
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Hey! stop it, Everyone here knows that it is not possible to use any other product than the gold standard (start drumroll and trupet fanfare) OFFICE 365! now genuflect, and make a good act of contrition.
In our office we use a mix of Office 2003 and Office 97. We convert incoming docx/xlsx/whatever files to the old format with Libreoffice.
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Hey! stop it, Everyone here knows that it is not possible to use any other product than the gold standard (start drumroll and trupet fanfare) OFFICE 365! now genuflect, and make a good act of contrition.
In our office we use a mix of Office 2003 and Office 97. We convert incoming docx/xlsx/whatever files to the old format with Libreoffice.
How do the old Microsoft offerings run on modern computers. Probably screams along. Yeah, funny thing how we need Libre Office, it is the standard of conversions of office type documents. That's a big use of it for me as well.
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They run very well once installed, however installing them on Windows 10/11 is tricky. No insurmountable problems, though.
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Except that LibreOffice is full featured instead of having most features turned off, can work with local files, and doesn't show ads. If this is supposed to compete with it, it's hard to imagine it succeeding.
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See my reply to DrinkyPoo above. Basically, technical details are beside the point, people hate using non-corporate stuff, if they didn't we'd all be using GNU/Linux, LibreOffice, and Mastodon/Friendica.
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Can you imagine a meeting where you're showing a powerpoint, and you continually get ads?
If you're in a meeting where you're showing a powerpoint using the free version of Office, it's only fair to warn your audience that you're a drooling idiot.
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Can you imagine a meeting where you're showing a powerpoint, and you continually get ads?
If you're in a meeting where you're showing a powerpoint using the free version of Office, it's only fair to warn your audience that you're a drooling idiot.
I use either Libre Impress, or Apple Keynote - which by the way are hella better than PowePoint. Indeed on my work computer which has a properly paid for Office 365, I still use the Open office Apps, because unlike the vaunted Office 365, they open everything.
But not everyone is as smart as you or me. 8^)
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You mean the same shitty version of Microsoft Office that you install on your computer? Can you imagine a meeting where you're showing a powerpoint, and you continually get ads?
I was going to counter that you don't use free versions of a paid product for business needs... until I remembered that Windows itself shows ads on the start menu and other places.
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Libreoffice (Score:5, Informative)
That is all.
Re: Libreoffice (Score:2)
I was thinking the same. "If you need a free office suite, you could just use LibreOffice and not worry about ads."
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And I'm completely okay with that. Free software notwithstanding, it takes real money to actually develop it.
Re:Libreoffice (Score:4, Interesting)
An update to Windows 11 caused problems with the (really old) version of Office that my computer-illiterate mom liked. Reinstalling it didn't help. She didn't want to upgrade to a new version of Word, so instead I installed LibreOffice. I told her that it it might look slightly different but should be very familiar, and all of the functionality that she needed was there. It solved all of the problems she was having and she has been very pleased with it.
That was step 1.
Step 2: Switching her from Windows 11 to Linux Mint.
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I recently had to have the hospital send me some printed documents to fill in, scan, and send back to them. They initially tried to email a Microsoft Word document, but when I opened it in LibreOffice Writer it came out mangled. I suggested sending a PDF but they said I would be able to fill it in, i.e. they don't know how to make a PDF form.
It's 2025 and the path of least resistance is still to pay for MS Office, especially if you are a business and don't want to be telling your clients that their IT sucks
Had To Use Libreoffice At Work So Many Times (Score:2)
Each new version is getting harder and buggier
I've lost track of the number of times I've had to recover a document with Libreoffice where Word could no longer open it.
I didn't lose any data, I didn't lose any formatting. Libreoffice didn't complain, but Word would not open it.
Excel is just crap now! I spent about 1 hour trying to get SUM to work properly. As far as I can tell, it was treating some numbers as percentages. No matter what I tried I couldn't stop Excel
The definition of "Fuck That" (Score:3, Insightful)
I cannot imagine a worse way to spend my day than using an ad supported version of Office. I mean, holy fucking Christ! As if dying of cancer isn't miserable enough, but to spend time using this cluster fuck? Really? I'd rather have a needle jabbed in my eye while getting a blowjob from a super model.
Yeah. Do the math on that one!
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Why OneDrive? (Score:2)
Why would you want to only edit cloud-storage files with your on-disk software?
If you're going to do cloud editing, wouldn't you use the cloud software?
--
(This question might have a better answer)
Why does MS want my files on One-Drive so bad? It costs them money. It's cheaper for them to let me edit local files than it is for them to force me to put them in a free One Drive account?
Is it really just in the hope that I 'might' decide to upgrade...even though I've rejected it over and over and over for th
Re:Why OneDrive? (Score:4, Interesting)
Why would you want to only edit cloud-storage files...
I agree this isn't what you'd want; but this is only what they give you, for free, in an attempt to increase their vendor lock-in even when you don't want to pay. In the past, some used "pirated windows" or "pirated MS Office", and MS was relatively ok with that (they preferred you use pirated MSOffice than the competition). Now that pirated X does not really exist anymore in a world where Notepad has features locked behind a paid account, Microsoft is looking for ideas of what to give free users something to keep them from switching to competitors.
Say a user had been a MS user for some time (e.g. 6 months free included subscription with a new device) and then decided stopped paying. In the past, they would look for alternatives, eventually stumble upon LibreOffice, nullifying any future chances of paying for MSOffice. Now, they still can access a (shitty) version of MS Office, probably keeping them around, even with a feeling of guilt for not getting the real thing. They are also forced to move to the MS cloud offer, increasing chances that they might one day pay to keep working to increasing the contracted space.
If you're going to do cloud editing, wouldn't you use the cloud software?
These are two very different decisions. A cloud storage is useful for accessing from different devices and because of the hassle-free backup solution (fwiw). Cloud software are browser based have very different value than the desktop based, at least for now. The MS one is slow and limited; the Google thing might not be slow, but feature-wise so incredibly limited.
Similarly, most people use cloud storage for your emails (meaning using IMAP or MSExchange, not POP3) though many people will prefer to use a desktop version of the email client rather than using the in-browser cloud software.
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Why does MS want my files on One-Drive so bad? It costs them money.
To lock you to their platform. To train their AI. To learn about you so they can sell that knowledge, and sell you products more effectively. Do you want more reasons?
They would also like you to keep your soul on their premises if it was possible. (maybe in a decade or two)
Libreoffice (Score:5, Insightful)
Anybody who hasn't switched to Libreoffice by now is deeply stupid. OK now, don't get your knickers in your bunch, that's just what you are.
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Anybody who isn't still using Office 2003 is deeply stupid. OK now, don't get your knickers in your bunch, that's just what you are.
Fixed that lengthy typo for you.
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Since when do personal preferences make people stupid? You may not be able to afford anything, but that's on you. Others have no problem paying money for useless things. I wonder how much pointless waste we'd find in your life if we looked deeper. Can we call you deeply stupid too?
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Personal preferences do not make you stupid. But making yourself a victim is. Most people that do it are deep in denial though.
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Who is a victim here? For anyone who was paying for Office there is no change to them. If you have a Microsoft account and don't pay for Office you now have an ad supported access if for some reason you don't like LibreOffice. You're making up non-existing scenarios.
The only victims here are victims of your labelling and judgement.
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You have a problem with paid software, I get that. But that doesn't make those of us who depend on it, stupid.
LibreOffice doesn't have the ability to have multiple people editing a document at the same time. That might seem silly to you, but in a collaborative business, it's so much better than passing a document around, making sure you don't send somebody an old version that doesn't have the latest changes.
Personally, I switched to Office 365 when I was looking for a real-time backup system. I had tried Zi
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LibreOffice doesn't have the ability to have multiple people editing a document at the same time
In Calc, many users can open the same spreadsheet for writing at the same time. [libreoffice.org]
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Looks like a step in the right direction, if a bit clunky, The "Resolve Conflicts Dialog" seems unwieldy. Neither Google Docs or Office require any kind of conflict resolution, everybody's changes are instantly reflected for all other users.
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Thing is, it always gets better as you know. And you get the upgrades for free, and they even work on your old hardware that Microsoft wants you to throw away. Already I much prefer working with Libreoffice over just plain weird MS office.
You will be happy to know that work to implement collaboration with all the other Libreoffice components is in process and proceeding well.
A complaint saver (Score:3)
That's my best guess, enough people of a combination of both getting older and just not tech savvy are used to plain-ol' desktop Office on their computer and there were probably enough tech calls and manpower just dealing with people not able to download not really wanting to deal with subscription or high price it or unaware or dislike of web versions and also if they dont know about Libreoffice then this just heads off that entire cohort of Windows users of which there are still many.
Considering lot's of laptops folks buy have a free-trial of Office and have it installed so this just gives a release valve to those people. It's a sort-of PR move, goes from a negative (i gotta pay for this now?!) to a less bad to neutral (at least my files still open). That or MS is just way out of touch (likely)
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Agreed.
My first thought was, "Just install LibreOffice if you need a free Office suite!" But then I realize how many people just want to use the exact same product they used someplace else and they're already familiar with. Not everyone actually *likes* using their computer and learning new things on it.
If they're cheap enough to put up with ads instead of paying for the software, fine.... Here's an option for them.
Clippy Ads (Score:3)
"I see you're trying to write a letter. Let me show you some ads for ..."
We had a free ver. of word it was called word pad. (Score:2)
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The ads are the least of your problems when you use Office.
The real problem is, Microsoft essentially reads everything you write over your shoulder. And sees your spreadsheets. And reviews your PowerPoints. And trains their AI on your data...
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My employer negotiates such a deal. Of course you're welcome to believe Microsoft breaks those. I do know my employer would not hesitate to sure the shit out of them if they caught them out; they've done just that to other vendors.
Of course if you're paying your own money to use it, you have two problems.
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I know for a fact that Microsoft processes the data I produce at work - as well as my coworker's data - and it doesn't take a genius to figure it out:
- Put a photo in a Word document. Say a photo of a tree. Wait a few seconds: Word suggests "This looks like a tree. Add description?" or some such.
Meaning Microsoft appropriated my photo, sent it to their servers and processed it without my explicit permission or my company's.
- Likewise, make a video in which you say something or other. Upload it to your compa
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And I also think your estimations about the ease of
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We got the sensitivity labels introduced at work, and I get an email every time a document is found without one, for security of course! Not so Microsoft can train their AI on sensitive data.
If you wanna watch a windows network eat shit, rename a 500 gig VHD file to
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WordPad didn't have a spreadsheet editor. Not really a good comparison.
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MS Works then. It was not free, but it was cheap.
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Yep, I and numerous family members used MS Works for that reason. But it was severely limited in capability, and it wasn't compatible with the documents everybody else was using. If you sent somebody in another company a MS Works document, they weren't able to open it, and vice versa.
So not really an equivalent option.
LibreOffice is much closer, for those who don't need centralized document sharing.
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Hmmm, my Office 2003 can open both spreadsheet files (.wks) and word processing documents (.wps) from Works just fine.
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You realize Office 2003 is 22 years old, right? Basically nobody has that anymore. And while it can open Works files, it can't open docx and xlsx files, which is what everybody these days uses. And other people who have recent editions of Office, can't open those Works files. So still not a real solution.
Re: We had a free ver. of word it was called word (Score:2)
Actually, there is a free addon from Microsoft that lets Office 2003 open docx/xlsx/pptx files.
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The headline of this thread says "free version" of Word.
Office 2003 was not, and is not, free.
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If I had intended to get any work done I would have just used LibreOffice, but I actually do keep an XP era machine running office 2003 in the cupboard as my doomsday device.
Windows would have definitely benefited from a small tables like application for very small home budgets and things, but I think most of excels power users have migrated acr
So much (Score:2)
stupid.
Learn to sail the high seas safely (Score:2)
Learn to sail the high seas safely if you for whatever reason need proprietary personal software. Piracy was one of the first things one learnt after how to use a PC back in the proverbial day.
Contrary to popular non-techie belief that's not hard to do safely but does require a bit of reading.
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Piracy was one of the first things one learnt after how to use a PC back in the proverbial day.
In a non-Western country, presumably. Yes, indeed.
Maximum Idiocracy (Score:2)
Does LibreOffice include an easteregg? (Score:2)
No thanks (Score:2)
I'll stick with LibreOffice.
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That's nice, if it does what you need it to, and if you never share documents. But the ability to have multiple people editing a single document without shipping it around...that's a major benefit. No worrying about who made the last edit, or losing somebody's changes because they were in the wrong sequence in the chain of edit + sends passing it around.
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That's nice, if it does what you need it to, and if you never share documents. But the ability to have multiple people editing a single document without shipping it around...that's a major benefit. .
No need to ship it around. Put the document on a server, and close it when someone else wants to edit it. Voila, the problem of multiple copies hell is solved.
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I'm saying, multiple people editing *at the same time," sometimes in the context of a meeting where everyone is viewing and editing the document as a group.
In your scenario, *somebody* always forgets to close the file, and then nobody else can open it.
Android already does this (Score:2)
If one is that cheap, there are a few free productivity apps that are mostly compatible with MS Office, eg. LibreOffice. That's enough for 99% of people in school and in an office.
If one truly values local-disk (software, data) access and MS compatibility, there are commercial apps that are almost indistinguishable from MS Office, feature-wise. Trading one's data for adverts, would have to be the dumbest deal given to Windows machines. (If one agrees, just use Android.) If the crap-ware inside Windows
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Multi-edit is a feature LibreOffice doesn't offer. When you have to share documents with other people, passing around documents is not a great option.
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I do not know in what environment you work, but passing documents around is the standard option, also because of version control, sign-offs, reviews, etc.
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I work in an environment where numerous people are involved in the planning of large projects. Each contributes hundreds of updates to a single central document, each over the period of weeks.
Shipping the document around is not scalable. Maybe it works if you have 2 people collaborating. But when you have a dozen, in no particular order, you never know who to send it to next, or who had it last.
Personally, I prefer a sharable document even for two editors. Just make your change, the other person can see it
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So a non-standard situation. Got it. Incidentally, there are quite a few _other_ collaborative document editors. This is not a valid reason to use Microsoft trash.
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Not non-standard at all. This is how work gets done in the modern workplace.
What other editor would you recommend? And how is that option better than Microsoft?
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From what I understand in conjunction with a local NextCloud instance, LibreOffice can do that.
In my experience, small businesses and organizations that need this sort of functionality use Google Docs. Google sheets on the phone is a great way to make shared-data phone apps to support a business.
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Sure, they do use Google Docs, which has exactly the same privacy and adware problems as Office 365. So yes, Google Docs is a solution, but not one that satisfies those who hate the adware or want privacy.