Do most of you still use MS Office?

Do most of you still use MS Office?

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My company is considering moving from Microsoft Office and using Google Sheets or another package. I love Excel and don't fancy having to work in another package but can appreciate the cost benefits. Has anyone else gone through this?

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By zebaa
26th Nov 2014 17:19

I am no lover of Microsoft...

...But it would be simply not possible to do the things I do without excel - at reasonable cost. The problem, for me, is that it integrates with other things. While learning how to write bespoke programming might be possible, in no way would it be cost effective.

My suggestion would be to produce your output in excel and then look to off-the-shelf programs to go from there. If it is a OS issue, consider using windows virtually.

 

 

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By Howard Marks
26th Nov 2014 18:57

Life without excel??

...nah....impossible.

 

Re the cost, Office 365 subscription is perfect.

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By cfield
26th Nov 2014 19:21

Try Word/Excel Starter 2010

If cost is such a factor, your firm could always try Word/Excel Starter 2010. You can download this for free without a product key or you can buy a new computer with it pre-loaded.

It lacks all the latest whizzbangs as well as things like pivot tables that you might need for large databases, but it still has almost all the original features and is perfectly suitable for most users.

The most annoying omission is the ability to fix rows and columns when scrolling but it keeps this for existing files. You can't enter new cell comments either but it keeps the old ones and you can copy them onto a new cell and edit the text.

It does contain ads in the right hand margin but you hardly notice them, and you can always upgrade to Office 365 whenever you want. 

Might be a good compromise solution.

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Replying to The Accountant:
Red Leader
By Red Leader
26th Nov 2014 19:41

I use

Libre Office.

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By jndavs
26th Nov 2014 20:20

I agree - Libre Office

MS Office compatible and it's free.

https://www.libreoffice.org/

 

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Replying to dmmarler:
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By emanresu
28th Nov 2014 17:34

Compatible - Oh Yeah?

jndavs wrote:

MS Office compatible and it's free.

https://www.libreoffice.org/

 

 

Give Libre Office ANY of our Excel presentation graphics and it looks like my Four-year-old's doodlings.

Like it or not, the only Excel is MS Excel.

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Replying to sammerchant:
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By jndavs
28th Nov 2014 23:49

Compatible - mostly!

emanresu wrote:

jndavs wrote:

MS Office compatible and it's free.

https://www.libreoffice.org/

Give Libre Office ANY of our Excel presentation graphics and it looks like my Four-year-old's doodlings.

Like it or not, the only Excel is MS Excel.

 

I have both office suites installed and Libre generally opens MS documents without any problems.

Macros are implemented differently and so are not directly compatible.

I have even had occasions when Libre has opened Excel spreadsheets when Excel could not.

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By DMGbus
26th Nov 2014 20:41

Alternatives - incompatible formatting

I did try a so called compatible free alternative, but it was useless in that formatting (which is extremely important in my use of spreadsheets and word docs) was certainly NOT compatible.

Nicely formatted .xls and .doc documents were no longer nicely formatted when opened in the alternative software.   Furthermore there were deficiencies in the formatting abilities within the alternative so the alternative was quickly ditched.   Unfortunately I can't remember the name of the alternative product - it was about 4 or 5 years ago and just maybe the formatting issues have now been addressed by the alternative software house. 

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By cparker87
26th Nov 2014 21:41

Cannot compete
I have used google docs, excel for mac, excel 2007, 2010 and 2013... Quite simply nobody can touch microsoft excel. Particularly using new BI and PowerPivot tools... Why would you consider anything else?!

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By merlyn
27th Nov 2014 09:33

Office 365

As Howard said Office 365 is probably you best option and to be honest for £84 per user per year for their entire office suite including local copies it's very cost effective and means you never have a big cost to upgrade as you always have the latest version.

If you go for the £94 option you also get hosted exchange which is useful if you need it.

When you take into consideration your time having to learn a new package, the issues it may cause etc,  Then £84 seems like a much better deal.

 

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By Maslins
27th Nov 2014 11:21

We had a big debate about this a year ago.  I think the only thing we felt we _need_ Office for, was Excel for VT purposes.  The rest we could comfortably do with Google Docs/similar at much lower cost.

We don't spend a huge amount on Office 365, but when you've got a few users and need the downloaded ones, it's a fairly hefty monthly bill when reality is all you use is Excel.

After umming and aahing for a while we decided VT was worth it.  We are keeping our eyes open for alternatives though.  I'm aware Taxcalc (who we use for CT/SA returns) do accounts production, but I don't really fancy that (can't particularly say why...just don't).

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By nogammonsinanundoubledgame
27th Nov 2014 11:51

I have ...

... too many useful spreadsheets that are rich in VBA macros to want to go changing.

I have long since sold my soul to MicroSoft, and my privacy to Google.

With kind regards

Clint Westood

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By MrAccounting
28th Nov 2014 11:40

No competition

Excel has no competition - it's such a powerful tool

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By Andrew Nield
28th Nov 2014 11:49

Keep the 'Old' version ?

I use Google Docs for simple work, which is useful but a bit slow and not as easy to navigate as Excel.  I still use Excel for larger more complex tasks.  Google is catching up but i find the  formatting and formulae are still better in Excel.

Many older versions of Excel are still in use and are backwards / forwards compatible, so do you really need to replace what you already have and is presumably paid for?

It might also be worth considering that you may have difficulty sending and receiving files sent by customers etc, which will probably still be an MS Office file.  It is possible to import or view them in other packages but I have always found it laborious.

  

 

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By qad999
28th Nov 2014 11:59

Nicely formatted .xls and .doc documents were no longer nicely formatted when opened .............................  sound's like Sage's appalling export facility to excel

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Replying to StanleyW:
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By DMGbus
28th Nov 2014 13:16

Formatting

qad999 wrote:

Nicely formatted .xls and .doc documents were no longer nicely formatted when opened .............................  sound's like Sage's appalling export facility to excel

Yes, I have the misfortune to regular see data in Excel exported from Sage - not good.

However I have seen much worse - data exported from a solicitors accounts (non Sage) package.

But, on the other hand, I regularly extract very well formatted data in Excel form from Xero.

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By Cantona1
28th Nov 2014 12:21

No-match


Over the years, many dooms have been trying to write-off excel and no-one has succeeded so far. Al the glooms and dooms have failed to come-up with alternative application. Even the once mighty Lotus-123 has quietly disappeared.

But I will not write-off Google. It has been trying to mimic excel, but no match so far. They have the financial clout to steal M's  source code  and can re-write their application. They can pretend that they have come up with own original code, not cheated.

It will be interesting court battle between the two giants.

 

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By Charlie Carne
28th Nov 2014 13:21

Office 365

I agree with others here in recommending Office 365. I couldn't do without Excel and Outlook (though I could probably get away with another brand of word processing s/ware). Office 365 has two distinct strands to its offering, and you can buy either or both: an online package OR desktop licenses for MS Office OR both.

At £3.10 per user per month for the online package, this is a fantastic deal for managing your complete email, calendar and contacts solution (i.e. the things typically run via Outlook) through a hosted system that effectively replicates what big businesses run via MS Exchange. It provides Outlook Web Access (OWA), which is browser-based version of Outlook. The package also includes 1TB of file storage (equivalent to DropBox) that allows you to back-up (or run from the cloud) all of your files and to share individual files or folders with clients via a password-protected web page. At that price, anyone still using POP email should give this serious consideration, as you gain huge efficiencies when running email via Exchange instead of POP. All your devices will now synchronise their email, calendar and contacts; an email, once read (or deleted or moved) on one device will show as read (or deleted or moved) on every other device. This package also allows you to run Word, Excel, Outlook etc via a web browser (no install required). That may well be enough for anyone with limited Excel needs, but you couldn't run (eg) VT like this, as you need an installed version of Excel to run VT.

If you don't already have a desktop license for MS Office, or wish to upgrade to the latest version of Office (2013), an extra £4.70 pm (£7.80 - £3.10) gives you a license to install Office on up to five PCs or Macs, as well as on tablets (including iPad) and smartphones, as well as all of the online functions of the £3.10 package. If you don't want Exchange and the online functions, you can buy just the desktop licenses for £7 pm, but that is a false economy when an extra £0.80 pm gets you all of the online capabilities.

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By paulwakefield1
28th Nov 2014 13:29

Good tips above

but do be sure that the package you get delivers the version of Excel you want - not all versions are the same particularly if you want the Power suite (Power Query, Power Pivot, etc and also Inquire) which are only able to run in a limited number of the options.

Re Sage - export as a csv file and let Excel do the hard work.

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By David Winch
28th Nov 2014 14:30

Interesting ...

Interesting that no-one has mentioned Access, another part of the Microsoft Office suite.

Almost all of the data manipulation functions in Excel are available in Access and, structured sensibly, a relational database removes the need to keep extending ranges on functions like SUM() when the number of entries exceeds your initial estimate.

And the ability to create and save complex reports - plus equally powerful ad hoc reporting - makes it my tool of choice for my accounts system.

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By Cantona1
28th Nov 2014 17:10

All Ms products

David,

Yes, you can use access for storing data and excel for manipulating and analysing data. Both can be integrated with each other and use the same language(VBA). This will enforce the point of keeping excel.

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By Nigel Hughes
28th Nov 2014 17:15

What has Microsoft ever done for us?

I remember how Lotus 123 eliminated Multiplan, Supercalc and others, only to be wiped out itself by Excel in the 1980s. Nothing seems to have worked the same trick on Excel yet, and the alternatives have, in my experience been found wanting when you try to do the things which you really need to do - the same seems to apply to Word and Powerpoint - I flirted with open office on a Linux based netbook and Pages, Numbers and Keynote when I went over to the Apple dark side, but came back to Office pretty quickly - Office for Mac is great and relatively cheap for a one man band like me.

David's point about Access is interesting, i found it simplified my life from the old days of Datamaster and Dataease, but I then found that an Excel spreadsheet combined with Word Mailmerge, could do most of the relatively simple tasks I needed doing

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By Stuart.thomson
28th Nov 2014 22:52

I suppose it depends on what the users are using spread sheets for. If it is typing lists then pretty much anything will do. However if it is manipulating large data then I would go for excel (although I accept there is an argument to say not a spreadsheet but a formal database). If it is projections then I would too excel.

I think there is too much human capital invested in excel that changing brings unforeseen costs. Everyone can use excel, knows how to play with it and check things, etc. Would you spot an error just as quickly with google docs?

There is no doubt excel has its weaknesses but in my view it is a weakness more of spreadsheets than excel. Excel is just the bees-knees!

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By ugdiv
30th Nov 2014 22:40

Office Free 2014 is quite good

Office Free 2014 is free and is MS compatible to a large degree.

Some bits don't quite work as they should, but I only use it to downgrade client's spreadsheets to Office 2000 and then use all my fave macros.

As a bonus Office Free 2014 also works on Android devices.

Office Free 2014 - you can get it here. And it is only a 61MB download !!!!

One nice feature is the spreadsheet is to temporarily highlight both row and column of the current cell - ideal for very wide sheets.

 

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By Cube
03rd Dec 2014 20:27

Softmaker Office

A step up from - OpenOffice, LibreOffice, AbiWord, GNUmeric - with "superior compatability with MS-Office formats". Apparently the spreadsheet is particularly good.

 

Softmaker Office from Germany at £65 for 3-PC's

http://www.softmaker.com/english/ofw_en.htm

 

It's on my Christmas list (otherwise I have no connection with it).

 

Edit:

There is a free version. It will read .docx and .xlsx, but not save to those formats and is missing some other bells and whistles - but is FOC.

http://www.freeoffice.com/

 

and a good forum discussion on merits of SMO / LO / OO.

 

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