Microsoft Office free online - challenge to OpenOffice?

[vrdiver]

I had a Microsoft Edge update today. One of the new features it highlighted was the ability to access all the MS Office 365 apps, for free, via the browser.

Is this a challenge to OpenOffice (or LibreOffice - I forget which is the current one)?

I as because I've been thinking of migrating to OpenOffice, but the MS offering does keep my life (as an MS Office user) simple...

VRD

[Lanark]

The free version is pretty good, but by god they like to throw popups every 30 seconds imploring you to pay for the full version.

The Google apps are a bit more limited in some ways, and I always have that sneaking suspicion they are selling all your data to Russia, but at least they leave you alone.

[kiloran]

I had a Microsoft Edge update today. One of the new features it highlighted was the ability to access all the MS Office 365 apps, for free, via the browser.

Is this a challenge to OpenOffice (or LibreOffice - I forget which is the current one)?

I as because I've been thinking of migrating to OpenOffice, but the MS offering does keep my life (as an MS Office user) simple...

VRD

I don't have any experience with MS Office 365, but I wonder if browser-accessed apps can handle macros? Maybe macros are not important to you. Google Docs can handle macros, but it seems a very poor capability compared to Excel or LibreOffice, from what I have seen.

If you do decide to migrate to OpenOffice..... don't! Use LibreOffice instead. LibreOffice and OpenOffice are extremely similar (I think LibreOffice effectively spun off from OpenOffice). OpenOffice development is very sluggish these days. LibreOffice has a much more dynamic development community, with frequent (too-frequent?) updates and bug fixes. And LibreOffice is available for Windows, Mac, Linux and also has a portable version. I've used it for years and I'm very happy with it.

--kiloran

[XFool]

I had a Microsoft Edge update today. One of the new features it highlighted was the ability to access all the MS Office 365 apps, for free, via the browser.

I saw this too. But presumably you need a MS account? This is either a disincentive or not, depending on attitude.

[Breelander]

I had a Microsoft Edge update today. One of the new features it highlighted was the ability to access all the MS Office 365 apps, for free, via the browser.

Is this a challenge to OpenOffice (or LibreOffice - I forget which is the current one)?

I as because I've been thinking of migrating to OpenOffice, but the MS offering does keep my life (as an MS Office user) simple...

VRD

....If you do decide to migrate to OpenOffice..... don't! Use LibreOffice instead. LibreOffice and OpenOffice are extremely similar (I think LibreOffice effectively spun off from OpenOffice). OpenOffice development is very sluggish these days.....

I second that recommendation for LibreOffice over OpenOffice.

The history is that LibreOffice was a fork from OpenOffice in 2010 when it looked like OpenOffice was in danger of being discontinued. All the best developers moved over to LibreOffice. Eventually OpenOffice survived (just) but development/support is poor in comparison with LibreOffice.

On 28 September 2010, The Document Foundation was announced as the host of LibreOffice, a new derivative of OpenOffice.org. The Document Foundation's initial announcement stated their concerns that Oracle would either discontinue OpenOffice.org, or place restrictions on it as an open source project, as it had on Sun's OpenSolaris...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LibreOffi ... ibreOffice

[Breelander]

I had a Microsoft Edge update today. One of the new features it highlighted was the ability to access all the MS Office 365 apps, for free, via the browser.

I saw this too. But presumably you need a MS account? This is either a disincentive or not, depending on attitude.

These web based Office apps have been available for a while now, what's new is that Edge is making it easier to launch them.

Yes, a Microsoft account is a mandatory requirement.

Use free versions of Microsoft productivity apps including Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, and OneDrive. Simply create a free Microsoft account or sign in with an existing one and go.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/microso ... ivity-apps

[AF62]

Is this a challenge to OpenOffice (or LibreOffice - I forget which is the current one)?

Doubt it, as a software based application on a PC, laptop, or mobile device will always give a far superior experience to a web based app.

Is it useful - if you are already bought in to the Microsoft way then it can be handy on occasion to be able to view or edit a document on any computer anywhere.

[stevensfo]

Is this a challenge to OpenOffice (or LibreOffice - I forget which is the current one)?

Doubt it, as a software based application on a PC, laptop, or mobile device will always give a far superior experience to a web based app.

Is it useful - if you are already bought in to the Microsoft way then it can be handy on occasion to be able to view or edit a document on any computer anywhere.

Yes, but what if you don't have an internet connection?

That's happened to me twice. I didn't realise that with this new 365 program, you have to be sure to download the file to your laptop. If you forget, the doc won't appear in your folders.

Unless at work, I tend to use Libre Office and either send to myself or store on Hotmail's OneDrive, and open with Microsoft if necessary. All the excels and docs seem to be perfectly inter-changeable.

Steve

[scrumpyjack]

I have used Office 365 Personal for some time at a cost of £60 a year. That was a lot less than my Dropbox subscription which I was able to discontinue as 365 includes 1 terabyte of OneDrive storage and can be used on all my PCs and also ties in with Samsung to include a full backup of my phone. The other advantage, for me, of 365 is that Excel 365 includes the ‘Stocks’ function which gives share price and other functions in spreadsheets.

[AF62]

Is this a challenge to OpenOffice (or LibreOffice - I forget which is the current one)?

Doubt it, as a software based application on a PC, laptop, or mobile device will always give a far superior experience to a web based app.

Is it useful - if you are already bought in to the Microsoft way then it can be handy on occasion to be able to view or edit a document on any computer anywhere.

Yes, but what if you don't have an internet connection?

Then you would obviously having fun using a web based application!

But seriously, yes it is a pain when the file you need is unreachable in the cloud somewhere.

That's happened to me twice. I didn't realise that with this new 365 program, you have to be sure to download the file to your laptop. If you forget, the doc won't appear in your folders.

I tend to only access OneDrive documents remotely on a phone or tablet, so expect that the document will need to be downloaded; although sometimes it has automatically been stored from a previous use.

Unless at work, I tend to use Libre Office and either send to myself or store on Hotmail's OneDrive, and open with Microsoft if necessary. All the excels and docs seem to be perfectly inter-changeable.

Steve

I didn’t find Libre Office incompatible, just different - buttons in different places, etc. Just enough to be annoying to have switch from using MS Office at work then something slightly different at home.

Then work offered the standalone version of Office 2019 to its employees through the Microsoft Home Use Program for (iirc) about £16 so that solved the issue for me. I believe now that offer has ended to be replaced with discounted annual subscriptions to 365, similar to the free subscriptions school children, those in college, and teachers get.

[vrdiver]

I don't have any experience with MS Office 365, but I wonder if browser-accessed apps can handle macros?

I just opened my HYPTUS spreadsheet in the Excel 365 browser version, and was presented with:

Excel for the web does not support running or interacting with ActiveX Controls. To use ActiveX Controls, open this file with the desktop app.

Your warning appears both true and relevant, sadly.

Since every machine I use has Office installed (albeit older versions than 365) there doesn't seem much point in the online version (for me).

Back to sleep...

VRD

[BobbyD]

I had a Microsoft Edge update today. One of the new features it highlighted was the ability to access all the MS Office 365 apps, for free, via the browser.

I saw this too. But presumably you need a MS account? This is either a disincentive or not, depending on attitude.

Having a Microsoft Account is gradually becoming a requirement of running a modern MS OS.

[XFool]

I had a Microsoft Edge update today. One of the new features it highlighted was the ability to access all the MS Office 365 apps, for free, via the browser.

I saw this too. But presumably you need a MS account? This is either a disincentive or not, depending on attitude.

Having a Microsoft Account is gradually becoming a requirement of running a modern MS OS.

That's why I run Windows 8.

[Bouleversee]

Yes, I had that update too. Didn't have time to read it and would probably not have understood it anyway so just carried on with what I had switched on to do, which was to reply to various emails inter alia. However, I find that when I click on reply and type the message and try to send it, the send box doesn't show and I can't cursor down any lower. I tried copying and pasting my message text on a new message rather than replying and that doesn't make any difference. What is going on here? Is this Microsoft getting cross with me for ignoring its updates or Yahoo punishing me for not removing my adblock? Very annoying when I am so short of time.

Esther Rantzen is right: elderly people are discriminated against by modern technology. I don't have or want a smart phone (can get the few I want on my tablet) so would not be able to pay a car park charge that way.

[GrahamPlatt]

Esther Rantzen is right: elderly people are discriminated against by modern technology. I don't have or want a smart phone (can get the few I want on my tablet) so would not be able to pay a car park charge that way.

I would certainly never use an “app” to do something as simple as pay for parking. SMS OK, and even a ‘dumb” phone can do that.

Edit: Sorry, gone off topic there.

[Infrasonic]

What's the difference between this and the free MS Office Online that I've been been using for years?

If you want a local/online option for Libre Office - Collabora Office has both + iOS/Android apps.
Online demo here...https://www.collaboraoffice.com/collabora-online/

[Itsallaguess]

I'll admit that the days where I can get away with saying I'm only running Office 2007 for HYPTUSS error-checking are well behind me now...

:O)

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[UncleEbenezer]

For what it's worth ...

My relationship with "office" software is that I'll use it (muddle through) when I have to, but without enthusiasm. And so it was that at the end of a working day in about 1999 I was cursing something in Star Office - the product that later became OpenOffice and LibreOffice - when a friend who was there to meet up for something that evening told me where (what sequence of menu options) to find what I needed.

She had never used Star Office, but routinely used MS Office at work, and was very familiar with it. She knew exactly where to find what I needed in Star Office, because it was exactly the same as MS office!

[stewamax]

Esther Rantzen is right: elderly people are discriminated against by modern technology. I don't have or want a smart phone (can get the few I want on my tablet) so would not be able to pay a car park charge that way.

Hmm.... it usually isn't modern technology that discriminates against elderly people: it is the discontinuance of (or surcharging for the use of) older familiar technology. It is a lot cheaper and quicker to send an email than to write and post a letter; one can still write letters but postage cost vitiates their regular use. The initial cost of a smartphone or PC plus internet access charge may be prohibitive for those on limited income or may be just too formidable to learn to use - especially for those with age-related disabilities, so Long Live the Letter. But not at the expense of constraining technological progress.

Back to the OP's subject: Libre Office and Open Office have the disadvantage that the reporting side of their database management system Base is totally different from (and incompatible with) that of MSFT Access - unless the former has been redeveloped recently.

[Clariman]

Don't discount the paid for subscription model to have access to ALL MS Office apps and One Drive. I was always very against moving to the subs offering, because I had previously got Word and Excel on perpetual licenses. Before that I had been a user of Lotus products.

However I needed a copy of MS Access database for a project and the license cost was prohibitive. However it comes with MS 365 so I thought I would subscribe for a year. The project came to an end but I have kept the subs. My other half and I have the full up to date MS suite with OneDrives for £79 per year. I think that is good value.

C