Anyone use the free...
 

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[Closed] Anyone use the free web-only Office 365?

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 IHN
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I'm winding my Ltd Co up, which had/has a 'proper' Office365 account and subscription that I need to cancel.

I also have a personal Microsoft account, and I realise I can get a personal Office 365 subscription, but to be honest I think the web versions of Word, Excel etc will be perfectly fine, assuming that a) I can print from them and b) a free personal account comes with a OneDrive storage allocation (doesn't need to be massive).

Anyone do anything similar?


 
Posted : 18/11/2020 9:44 am
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Not 100% sure about Office 365 but [maybe obviously] Google Docs will do all you require


 
Posted : 18/11/2020 10:01 am
 IHN
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Yeah, I realise that, but all the stuff I've got and will continue to use are Office docs (i.e. .docx and .xlsx), and occasionally I'll do stuff using my work laptop and send it 'home' and IME when you edit docs in Office and then in Google Docs (or the free Office clones) and vice-versa they seem to get a bit screwed up.


 
Posted : 18/11/2020 10:04 am
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I used to use it but then realised that being able to back all my photos and documents from my computers to OneDrive was so useful it was worth it.  If you have a family it is even more worth it

But otherwise I can't see why you wouldn't be ok and agree with the usability.  There is no real reason to use Google Docs over the free office version

Note that some documents don't always look quite right.  So, for example, in Word documents some of the image positioning might move around.  I don't think the online version quite does the flowing text either side of an image correctly. Also, if you have any Excel files with VBA macros in them then they won't run

But it's free.  Why not just upload your stuff and try and if it doesn't work then just buy a licence

Or just buy a licence anyway and shove all your files there


 
Posted : 18/11/2020 10:10 am
 IHN
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Cheers leffeboy.

I've just had a bit of a furtle around and can see that it comes with 5Gb in OneDrive, which is plenty as it's only about 1.5gb of docs, all my photos are in Google anyway.

There's no local OneDrive folder, which might be a bit of a pain, but not exactly terrible. I think I'll persevere and see how I go.


 
Posted : 18/11/2020 11:01 am
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Just make sure that when it says that it's saving your documents - that it actually is, because it seems that is not always the case (as my daughter found out on Sunday and lost 6 hours of essay writing).
She's now gone back to Google Docs as she doesn't trust the online Word.


 
Posted : 18/11/2020 11:26 am
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She’s now gone back to Google Docs as she doesn’t trust the online Word.

Slightly irrational.

As for the clones. I'd recommend using what ever your native format is. If it's word at work use word at home. Done projects at home in open office/libre office and then opened then in word despite being saved in a .doc format they were all funked up. (Which is a documented thing.....seems akin to pattern car parts....it's almost the same but not quite)

Not worth the hassle.


 
Posted : 18/11/2020 11:29 am
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I just bought a cheap office pro on eBay and it works fine. Can use macros and complex formulas. I don’t get the updates subscribers get but that’s not been noticeable.


 
Posted : 18/11/2020 11:35 am
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As @trail_rat says, stick with the program/format that is in use in your system/workflow.

Simple documents tend to transfer fine between Office/OpenOffice/etc. but as soon as anything complicated is involved then it's mainly down to luck. Once VBA or similar is involved then forget interoperability. I'd also avoid the latest document format versions for best compatibility as there's no guarantee that everyone has Word 2020 or whatever.

@sharkbait - 6hrs? Pah! I lost three weeks of work on my final year project when Word decided it didn't like its own document. Turned out to be an embedded formula and my four backups (in different locations) were also screwed. It took about four hours to move things over, paragraph by paragraph, to a new document until I found the error. Actually I do feel for her.


 
Posted : 18/11/2020 11:53 am
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There’s no local OneDrive folder, which might be a bit of a pain, but not exactly terrible. I think I’ll persevere and see how I go

Do you mean no OneDrive folder on your local machine?  Normally all you have to do is log in to the OneDrive app on your computer with your account and it will put the folder there.  However if you don't have the Word/Excel programs on your computer there isn't much point other than making it a little easier to move.  I would do it though and, as others have mentioned, make sure that things are syncing.  Watch out for a little error icon on the onedrive cloud symbol in your task bar.


 
Posted : 18/11/2020 12:19 pm
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My Office 365 subscription was cancelled in May when I was made redundant.

However, all my apps still work, I get a dialogue box asking for a new product key, which I close and then everything works just fine. That is on Word, Excel, PP, Outlook everything.

One Drive doesn't work anymore.


 
Posted : 18/11/2020 12:23 pm
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If you have kids at school they can get free licences for Microsoft Office for educational purposes.

Just sayin'


 
Posted : 18/11/2020 12:26 pm
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Not specifically answering the OP's question I buy McAfee subsidised 1yr family edition from Argos when it's on special (£39.99) usually around once a quarter, which reminds me I recently activated it so I need to get another in the cupboard. I get my moneys worth from the OneDrive bit alone (6 x 1TB).

Setup an alert on HUKD.


 
Posted : 18/11/2020 3:45 pm

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