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Dull, dull, Dull - Buying MS Office for home use.

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Our Microsoft 365 subscription ends this week and I can't face spending out for it again. It's just me and Mrs C, it's only for one laptop and I've completely sold my soul to Google and never use it. Mrs C however can't get her head around browser based email and insists on Excel and Word over Docs and Sheets. We don't use One Drive but rather google drive. We're also both on Android phones - does my head in - but what can you do.

Both of our cheapskate employers don't have it available for home use as part of their package.

So a cheap one time copy of MS Office 2021 seems way more sensible than an annual sub. But where to buy? I'm not 100% convinced I care terribly about it being 100% legit, but it'd be quite nice if it actually worked and was not carrying some dodgy extras.

The first random ebay/amazon search result for Office 2021 or is there something more reliable?

ta


 
Posted : 19/10/2023 12:43 pm
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Both of our cheapskate employers have it available for home use as part of their package.

That's usually the cheapest and safest.


 
Posted : 19/10/2023 12:47 pm
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Both of our cheapskate employers have it available for home use as part of their package.

Sorry, but if this is true why are you talking about paying for it?


 
Posted : 19/10/2023 12:47 pm
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I have got Office keys from Gamers Outlet previously.

They have worked fine.

They claim to be legit, not sure how it works, they might be for OEM use only?


 
Posted : 19/10/2023 12:49 pm
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It's free via your employers, just get it, That's what we do over a number of machines at home.


 
Posted : 19/10/2023 12:50 pm
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I just bought key and installed for a friend from CJS who have been going a while Office 2021 you need to follow their instructions and download retail install from Microsoft 4.7gb.


 
Posted : 19/10/2023 12:54 pm
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Sorry,employer don't have it....


 
Posted : 19/10/2023 12:57 pm
 5lab
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might be worth giving open office a go, or if you have someone close in education etc you might be able to get a copy cheap via that..


 
Posted : 19/10/2023 1:12 pm
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How about Open Office / Libre Office? And there are lots of free email clients available - eM Client, for example.


 
Posted : 19/10/2023 1:12 pm
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does my head in – but what can you do.

Tell her to pay for it or suck it up?

Excel and Word are available online for free. I haven't used a 'fat client' email solution in decades outside of a work environment. Libre Office is one of several valid alternatives.

Very few people "need" full MS Office in a home environment. Those who WFH should have it provided by work. "Both of our cheapskate employers don’t have it available for home use as part of their package." - well, you can't use it then, sucks to be them.


 
Posted : 19/10/2023 1:23 pm
Wiksey, prettygreenparrot, Wiksey and 1 people reacted
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Tell her to pay for it or suck it up?

Excel and Word are available online for free. I haven’t used a ‘fat client’ email solution in decades outside of a work environment. Libre Office is one of several valid alternatives.

Very few people “need” full MS Office in a home environment. Those who WFH should have it provided by work. “Both of our cheapskate employers don’t have it available for home use as part of their package.” – well, you can’t use it then, sucks to be them.

What's mine is hers etc - I'll be paying whatever!

Yes libre office, open office could all be options.......or even the Google suite we already have.......if we were talking about a sane and savvy IT fluid human. This is not Mrs C (despite having a work MacBook and getting used to that OS......which she won't use for home stuff, because it's a work MacBook - see what I mean?!)

And no, this is exclusively for home stuff - her work give her the aforementioned Mac and I do my work stuff in the Google suite. It's just previous employers had microsoft licences that also gave employees licence to use office 365 on their oen computers for their personal use.


 
Posted : 19/10/2023 2:03 pm
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I used to be in the 'just use LibreOffice' camp until it destroyed one of Leffegirl's Word docs.  The formatting just went to pieces and would have taken forever to repair.  I wouldn't go down that road again if I could at all avoid it, that and not being able to find things in the menu just weren't worth the cash saved.  It's fine for folks who just naturally know which menu something will be under but it isn't second nature to everyone

In your case I would just buy one of the Office 2021 keys suggested above.

I'm a firm believer in moving to the full Office365 suite and saving your docs in OneDrive.  If ever your laptop dies, and it will, it is super easy to get up and running again and until then you can just access everything using your phone.  But just buying Office 2021 will work for you so that's what to go for


 
Posted : 19/10/2023 2:22 pm
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if we were talking about a sane and savvy IT fluid human.

I can relate here, my other half scares technophobes.

Rephrase the question: what does she need it for for home use?

it destroyed one of Leffegirl’s Word docs. The formatting just went to pieces and would have taken forever to repair. I wouldn’t go down that road again

Her failure to make backups is not the fault of a word processor application. 😁

I take your point, I don't use Libre Office for a similar reason, it is almost-but-not-quite MS Office compatible. But again, what's the use case here?


 
Posted : 19/10/2023 3:03 pm
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Word can happily destroy it's own documents - especially when transferring between PC and Mac! 🤣


 
Posted : 19/10/2023 3:04 pm
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Gamers Outlet - Used it a few times and makes it very cheap.  


 
Posted : 19/10/2023 3:20 pm
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Got a license key from CJS (as above) in Jul 20, for my better half, it's till working fine..

There just some arguments that are not worth having with your partner IME.


 
Posted : 19/10/2023 3:25 pm
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