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Microsoft office I just bought a 2019 MacBook Air. Do I need Microsoft office or is there a software program or Google docs that will open my old Microsoft files?
I use MS Office mostly to ensure I can open any Office documents our clients send us.
Besides the App Store, as Phil0124 mentioned, you can get Office 365 directly from Microsoft. There's not a thing different about them. Only where you purchase it. If a single license is all you need for home use, $70 is pretty cheap.
Consider that the perpetual license versions come out about every three years. Office 2019, with Outlook included, is $250. Pretty much a wash as far as price compared to the least expensive choice for Office 365. Plus, you can continue to use Office 2019 for as long as it keeps working for no extra cost.
Where it makes a big difference is the moment you want more than one copy. The $99 per year fee for six computers with Office 365 is a far better value than getting individual licenses for Office 2019. When you figure a perpetual license release is going to happen roughly every three years, $300 is much, much less expensive. If you were to purchase six Home version editions of Office 2019 (the one without Outlook) at $150 per license, it would be $900. For the Home and Business edition with Outlook, it would be a whopping $1,500! Then you'd spend that again about three years from now if you always get the latest release when they become available. Even installing Office 365 for only two Macs is cheaper than the perpetual license Business edition.
But it all depends on what you need and want to spend.
I use MS Office mostly to ensure I can open any Office documents our clients send us.
Besides the App Store, as Phil0124 mentioned, you can get Office 365 directly from Microsoft. There's not a thing different about them. Only where you purchase it. If a single license is all you need for home use, $70 is pretty cheap.
Consider that the perpetual license versions come out about every three years. Office 2019, with Outlook included, is $250. Pretty much a wash as far as price compared to the least expensive choice for Office 365. Plus, you can continue to use Office 2019 for as long as it keeps working for no extra cost.
Where it makes a big difference is the moment you want more than one copy. The $99 per year fee for six computers with Office 365 is a far better value than getting individual licenses for Office 2019. When you figure a perpetual license release is going to happen roughly every three years, $300 is much, much less expensive. If you were to purchase six Home version editions of Office 2019 (the one without Outlook) at $150 per license, it would be $900. For the Home and Business edition with Outlook, it would be a whopping $1,500! Then you'd spend that again about three years from now if you always get the latest release when they become available. Even installing Office 365 for only two Macs is cheaper than the perpetual license Business edition.
But it all depends on what you need and want to spend.
thank you Kurt. I don't mind buying another license for Microsoft office but I don't think I'm clear how it works. I purchase the product and then download the apps?
I thought I saw something like iOffice or iLife that word work like Microsoft office but don't know. What do you use for spreadsheets & word processing?
Office 365 is a subscription service. You can download the Apps from the Mac App Store and start the monthly / yearly subscription at the same time.
You can also buy the stand alone office version and download the installer package directly from the Microsoft website.
See here: https://products.office.com/en-us/compare-all-microsoft-office-products?&activetab=tab:primaryr1
Alternatively, you can use Apple's own Pages, Numbers and Keynote as substitutes. They are free downloads from the Mac App Store.
Or you can try other products such as Libre Office or Open Office.
thank you Phil. I think I'm beginning to understand. The stand alone office version has no support but the monthly subscriptions do. Is that correct? I'm still wondering if any Mac users have switched over and stopped using Microsoft Office entirely and now use only Mac software.
Support is kind of relative to what you get. Office 365 gets ongoing improvements and feature editions as they're available. Perpetual license versions only get bug fixes and security updates. New features cannot be added until the next perpetual license release.
It has something to do with laws and software products. As an Adobe rep explained it to me at the launch of the original CC suite, you can't add entirely new features without charging for it as a new product. So you end up with their previous release cycle of 18 months, two years, repeat. The monthly subscription fee means you are essentially buying a "new" copy every month. Which means they can add new features any time they want.
those are the questions/answers I was trying to articulate. Yes, I guess my question was mostly about opening docs for senders besides my actual needs of using Word and Excel for all of these years to be able to open those docs. I think I've got it now, by george.
Lastly, do either of you use Photoshop?
You could try LibreOffice or OpenOffice. They may not open them 100% perfectly, but that also depends on how complex your documents are.
Among several other things, yes, the monthly subscription version has ongoing technical support while the one time purchase version does not.
Yes. We use the CC suite in our small in-home business. Mostly Photoshop as image manipulation is what I've done for almost 38 years.
thank you. I think you've answered all of my questions
Microsoft office I just bought a 2019 MacBook Air. Do I need Microsoft office or is there a software program or Google docs that will open my old Microsoft files?
